Types of Criminal Cases and Typical Criminal Trial Procedure - Assignment Example

Teacher’s 10 December Criminology Answer To summarize a typical criminal trial procedure, I am including a diagramin my paper to illustrate a clear picture of what happens in a criminal trial process such as: Now I can very easily summarize the entire process in a simple way. First of all there are two types of criminal cases. One is known as Misdemeanor and the second one is termed as Felony. We can clearly see that both types of criminal cases are different from each other. Felony is further sub divided into two more court types while Misdemeanor does not. Later section of this paper provides a detailed description of both these types of criminal cases. The Misdemeanor cases are those in which the criminal can be punished till one year at maximum and not more than that. The punishment takes place in county jail. While in Felony cases the criminal can be punished till one year or more. The punishment takes place either in state prison or reformatory. Let us take the Misdemeanors cases for this paper to explore further. As we can see in the diagram that Misdemeanor types of cases have six stages in total such as Arraignment, Pre-trial Conferences, Identification of Issues, Trial, Sentencing, and Appeal. Arraignment is the very first step of the criminal process and it is when different types of charges are stated for the defendant. All kinds of arraignments are done when the suspect is arrested. In the arraignment stage, the judge confirms whether the person in front of him is actually the same that is acknowledged in the charges. In Arraignment, following actions are performed: 1. Written charges are given to the defendant 2. Defendant is required to prove his identity 3. The defendant is permitted to precede with the council 4. The defendant replies to the written charges with either guilty, no guilty, or no contest. 5. The judge shows the defendant’s appearance plan 6. Bail is fixed 7. The investigation is started After Arraignment comes the Pre-trial Conferences. In this step, the prosecution and defense party meet with each other. Then come the Identification of Issues, in this step both the parties try to resolve any of their issues if any. In Trial part, the defendant is sometimes allowed or sometimes not allowed to select between judge and jury. It all depends on the rights defined by the Municipal Court. After the Trial stage comes the Sentencing stage. In this stage, it is the duty of a judge to regulate the length and type of the penalty. The last stage is called as Appeal. In this stage the defendant once receives the final decision and the sentence then he has a chance to appeal in a higher court. Answer 2 In order to discuss the four goals of sentencing, first of all I would like to mention what sentencing is? Basically, Sentencing in the process in which the judge regulates the time period and type of punishment. In this session, the judge allows witnesses to speak and asks for the lighter and harder sentences as required. To do all this, judge refers to the Criminal Code of Canada to avoid errors in punishment. As far as Bill C-41 and Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada are concerned, they both focus to improve the purpose of sentencing. Moreover, Bill C-41 is nothing but an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada. Now coming to the second part of the question and that is goal of sentencing behind section 718.2 (e) in the Criminal Code of Canada. The basic purpose of this section is to make better the situations of law and order in Canadian society and to take certain steps to minimize the crime in the society. Some of the key goals of the section 718.2 (e) in Criminal Code of Canada are: To condemn all types of illegal activities To discourage the criminals from committing crime in any situation To draw a line between criminals and rest of the society To provide guidance for the rehabilitation of lawbreakers To endorse sense of responsibility in criminals Answer 3 The probation is the time period in which a defendant is released under certain situations like drug treatment, fine payment, and so on. However, anyone who violates the rules is taken in the custody. Now coming to the changes that occurred after Bill C-41 in Criminal Code of Canada, there are number of positive changes that occurred after this bill. One of the major changes it brings was that it strengthens the overall military laws and justice system. We can use probation in many ways like there can be situations in which a prisoner needs any kind of treatment then the probation sanction is very useful. All such offenders are eligible to avail this sanction who somehow in need of getting medical treatment or have to pay any kind of fine and so on. If we discuss about the breaches of probation then let me state that what do we really mean by the term breaches? Breaches of probation means that conditions in which an offender is violating the rules of this sanction. For example, an offender or criminal is a drug patient as well and he is allowed to get his treatment during the probation period and he is restricted to go the place where he can find drug by any means. If during his probation time, he meets people who can supply him drugs or visit any place where he can find drugs then it is said to be the breaches of probation. Answer 4 The Parole Board of Canada states that an offender or criminal should be released and allowed to mix up in the society on conditional basis, before his sentence ends. The basic purpose behind this act is to only give another opportunity to the offender to get involved in the societal matters progressively. The school of thought behind the Conditional Release is to make sure to the offenders that they are also a part of this society and have all the rights to continue their day to day dealings again in an honorable manner. There are certain conditions on the basis of which the Parole Board of Canada allows an offender to be released. These conditions are decided by all the members of the board and only those prisoners who fulfill all the conditions are only allowed to be released on conditional basis. Answer 5 Prior to compare the due process and the conditional release concept, let us first explore what is due process actually? The due process focuses on the legal rights of every human being. It says that all of the rights of a prisoner should be respected in a fairly manner. Conditional Release emphasize on early release of an offender but under certain conditions. These conditions are set and decided by all the members of the Parole Board. Conditions may vary but when any prisoner satisfies one or all the conditions, only then the offender is allowed to be released in conditional basis. Now if we draw a detailed comparison on both the processes we can clearly conclude that both are quite different from each other. Except the only thing I can find similar regarding both the acts is that in both situations prisoner’s rights are considered and given priority. In the later part as well, it is ensured that a prisoner is released just to mix up in the society slowly and gained dignity for him. Since, honor and dignity is the biggest right of any human being. Works Cited Nikole A. Pezzullo. Nikolepezzullo. Web. 10 December 2012 Read More