The differences in State and Federal Courts are that Sate facilities are less likely to try a suspect with harsh penalties where as the Federal Courts are able to enforce harsher penalties, the fact that you are not located in your local vicinity makes it more difficult for suspects to actually have a fair jury of peers. If you are tried at a Local Court venue the Jury most likely will be located from the same area that the suspect lives in, this makes it easier for the Defense to represent the Defendant because the Jury members are located from the same area and may have something in common with the suspect. When dealing with the Federal Court system the Prosecutors will most likely be better qualified and equipped with newer tactics to prove you guilty in trial. When appealing to the Federal level of the court system you must have knowledgeable Defense attorneys that know how to work with the Federal Court system and appease the Judge. Some problems with the Local Court system is if you are being prosecuted for a hyenas crime your legal counsel and representation would be hard to obtain, it is to your advantage to appeal and hold your trail at the Federal level of the court system. When dealing with the State if you maintain a job and have a family then most likely the Judge and Jury will make the court process as easy for you as possible especially if you are being prosecuted for a first time offense. In most cases when a suspect appeals to the Federal Court system the Prosecution ops for max penalties unless, there is no certainty of evidence against you, or the Prosecution cannot prove you guilty beyond reasonable doubt. When dealing with State or Local courts you can be placed in rehab or make, other arrangements that may shorten you time in prison.
Detective and Their Ethics
Detective and Their Ethics
Detectives and their unethical actions make for corruption of the police force and an uncertainty of the evidence that is collected. Ethics is the practice of moral principles. Corrupting evidence is a nationwide offense which is prosecutable by law. Changing crime scenes to meet descriptive values and tampering with objects to mark a person guilty that is innocent devours the law enforcements credibility. There are several types of ethical issues that may be reviewed when a detective is evaluated “bribery, falsifying, unlawful arrest, threatening possible witnesses or suspects, Illegal search and seizure and fraud”. Bribery is defined as money or other objects and favors presented to influence conduct. Exchanging goods with possible witnesses and or suspects without a written consent by higher ups is against Police policy. Swapping of goods and cataloging the wrong items to lessen the viscosity of a crime scene allowing the suspect a chance for a mistrial by being paid is bribery. Mishandling evidence on purpose after being offered an exchange for your services is another type of bribery. Confiscating items and returning them for money or stealing items from a crime scene and selling them to the suspect or outside sources are also types of bribery.
Falsify is the misrepresentation of data or to state a lie, being untruthful. Stating a lie for your own benefit discredits your ability as a detective. Intentionally changing placement of object to meet your conclusion of the crime scene is falsifying. The corruption of evidence such as putting a clean weapon in the blood that is found on the crime scene for DNA testing or sticking the weapon in the hand of a victim to immediately solve the case are two other types of falsifying evidence. Unlawful arrest is the false arrest without any probable cause or reasonable basis. Holding a person incarcerated without reasonable evidence or probable cause is a violation of citizen rights. Questioning a person without first rendering them their Marinade rights is unethical and against the constitution. If a person decides not to speak without a lawyer present then that is their right.
Threatening a possible witness or suspect is illegal. The threat of bodily harm or death is not permissible in the court of law. Making threats to extract information from a witness or suspect is illegal. Forcing a suspect to confess to a crime they did not commit is an unethical way to contain a suspect. While they are in jailed the actual criminal is still on lose and could possibly endanger others.
Illegal Search and seizure are searches preformed without probable cause most often without a search warrant. Illegal search and seizure could allow the suspect the ability to have a mistrial. Search and seizure laws exist under the 4th amendment of the constitution. In order to search a vehicle or other property an investigator must have probable cause and a search warrant granted by an on call Judge without following proper procedure the officer or detective is in violation of the persons 4th amendment rights to privacy.
Fraud is described as a scheme or scam, deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. Many different frauds exist; one example of fraud would be confiscating credit cards, ID’s and, other items and selling them on the street for money. Stealing cash check books, jewelry, credit cards, weapons, and drugs from the crime scene without documenting the items and holding them as evidence is fraud.
In my opinion most ethical issues with Police come when they themselves feel to be above the law. The Police Forces around the world have documented when social stress of being on the job for countless hours have over whelmed the Police Officer they assume to be corrupt and take advantage of their job title, sleeping on the job, having sexual relations on the job, perjury, drinking on the job, doing drugs, and police brutality range on the top of the list. These Officers usually get in house counseling and reprimands from their given departments. Being ethical and knowing wrong from right plus having knowledge of the laws and rules help the Police Force stay away from Police deviance and gives them the ability to perform their duties without being questioned.
References
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-30183.html Understanding Search and Seizure Law
theantitrustsource _ w w w . a n t i t r u s t s o u r c e . c o m _ D e c e m b e r 20 06 Compliance and Ethics in Investigations: Getting It Right
U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
Building Trust Between the Police and the Citizens They Serve
NJC Bad Cops
Reprinted from Journal of Police Science and Administration, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1978).
POLICE ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
Milan Pagon Professor and Dean
College of Police and Security Studies
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Being Tried Once, Your Right Against Double Jeopardy
Change Of Venue
Proving Arson
Criminology vs The Criminal
The origin of crime and relationship between Criminology and the criminal dates to the beginning of time, to books written and wall drawing of ancient rulers and penalties prescribed by past law makers. Criminology the study of the causation, correction, and prevention of crime is a subdivision of sociology. One of the leading theorist of the classical view of criminology was Cesare Bonesano Beccaria (1738 –1794). Cesare Beccaria made a clear point that approved laws must be easily understood and equal to all who abide by them, punishments should be standardized keeping judicial integrity. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) theorized that people are choice makers who excise free will. During the 1900’s it was proposed that all people could not distinguish the difference between right and wrong children, elderly, and the mentally ill should be exempt from judicial punishment due to their condition. Later in the 1900th century the positivist school of criminology determined that biology and medicine could possibly affect the mental state of a victim of crime Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909).
Given the theoretical reasons of why people commit crime the Rational Choice Theory suggests that economic need, opportunity, false expectations, personal trait, and experience all help criminals make the decision to commit crimes. Jack Kratz a well known scientist argues strongly that crime can be satisfying to the criminal his definition the seductions of crime explains the fact that some people commit crimes as thrill seekers this adds another decision making process to the Rational Choice Theory is it worth the punishment if they were to be caught by officials.
Evaluating criminal activity is a major part of Criminology it helps the Police, Judicial, and Services discover the areas of the Judicial System that need improvement. Several crime information systems are reported by the Police and United States Census to improve the quality of life for Americans. The UCR (Uniform Crime Report) , NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey), and the NIBRS (Non Incident-Based Reporting System) help Police, CSI (Crime Scene Investigators), FBI (Federal Bureau Of Investigation) and CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) identify problems to improve policing by analyzing the rates of criminal activity and allowing the local Police to be aware of the possible issues.
References:
Larry J Segal: Criminology The Core
Table 1.1
Jurisdiction of State and Federal Courts | ||
State Courts
|
Federal Courts
|
State or Federal Courts
|
| Crimes under state legislation. State constitutional issues and cases involving state laws or regulations. Family law issues. Real property issues. Most private contract disputes (except those resolved under bankruptcy law). Most issues involving the regulation of trades and professions. Most professional malpractice issues. Most issues involving the internal governance of business associations such as partnerships and corporations. Most personal injury lawsuits. Most workers' injury claims. Probate and inheritance matters. Most traffic violations and registration of motor vehicles. | Crimes under statuses enacted by congress. Most cases involving federal laws or regulations (for example: tax, Social Security, broadcasting, civil rights) Matters involving interstate and international commerce, including airline and railroad regulation. Cases involving securities and commodities regulation, including takeover of publicly held corporations. Admiralty cases. International trade law matters. Patent, copyright, and other intellectual property issues. Cases involving rights under treaties, foreign states, and foreign nationals. State law disputes when "diversity of citizenship" exists. Bankruptcy matters. Disputes between states. Habeas corpus actions. Traffic violations and other misdemeanors occurring on certain federal property. | Crimes punishable under both federal and state law. Federal constitutional issues. Certain civil rights claims. "Class action" cases. Environmental regulations. Certain disputes in |
UScourts.com (2011) From source: http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/FederalCourtBasics/CourtStructure/JurisdictionOfStateAndFederalCourts.aspx
Court Case Analysis Michigan V. Tyler
A fire is reported to the fire station that a store building is burning and they respond to the fire. The Fire Department Chief is first on the scene and they put the fire out and find containers full of hazardous and flammable material located in an area of the building that centers the fire as if it was set on purpose. The Fire Chief calls in a Detective advancing investigation with no search warrant. The Detective takes pictures thus violating the building’s owners Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Then the Fire Chief and Detective remove containers again without a search and seizure warrant thus violating the building owners Fourteenth Amendment, they must have proper consent to remove items from the building even though the containers could have been deemed hazardous and removed by a special Hazardous Waste Team. The Detective and Fire Chief leave and the Detective and an Assistant return to the building to investigate further without a search warrant i.e. whatever evidence they find is not admissible in court because of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine that states any evidence derived from a violation of a defendants constitutional rights is inadmissible in court. The detective and assistant then illegally remove other circumstantial evidence. A couple of days later the State Police Arson Division is called in they take another set of photographs without the consent of the owner and inspect again violating the owners’ Constitutional rights.
All evidence leads to foul play by the owners of the shop. They had circum to get enough proof to prove that the shop owner committed arson to collect monies from his insurance claim. His insurance fraud was proven by the way the fire was lit and other evidence found at the crime scene.
During the court trial evidence detained by the State Police Arson Division was presented and the defendant’s lawyer complained about their rights being violated. The building owners were convicted and sentenced of arson. The defendants appealed to the State Supreme Court where they were found not guilty and a retrial be admitted excluding all inadmissible evidence.
This case presented an issue with the policy and procedure of the Police and Fire Departments to which they had no right to investigate without a search and seizure warrant thus the Police Department violated the building owners Constitutional rights allowing the defendants who may be guilty to avoid being prosecuted.
References:
Criminal Evidence Fifth edition Norman M. Garland Copy rights reserved by McGraw Hill
Being Tried Once, Your Right Against Double Jeopardy
You should only be tried once for any one crime. With no doubt a Federal crime constitutes of a person that commits many acts of crime in different states that leave no option but to try them as Federal prisoners. Internet crime that has jurisdiction to Homeland Security and Federal web sites would be prosecuted as a Federal crime. Some crimes such as drug sales across the border that deal specifically with the DEA and such crimes as counterfeiting, having been investigated by the FBI or CIA makes them Federal crimes, a speeding tick or serial rapist would be prosecuted by the state or local court system. Depending on the type of crime that is committed the person will be tried by the authority that ultimately is involved in catching the suspect , the severity of the crime, and the location of the crime that has taken place all determine which level of the court system they are to be tried at. An appeal can motivate the courts to look into a specific cases closer to determine whether the suspect is guilty or is tried fairly but that is a choice made by the suspect and their lawyers. Ultimately, the Supreme Court is the highest court that a person can appeal to; if the defense is unable to pass an appeal to the Supreme Court then the defense does not have the evidence to overturn the original ruling. The fact that Civil trails can be conducted even though a jury has formally prosecuted or has pardoned a suspect of a crime as not being guilty the effect on the social matter of the family, their emotional state, and personal damages can be tried in the court of law after the initial trail has been conducted. This is not considered double jeopardy because it is determined by peers that the suspect’s actions towards the victim were personally damaging to the family or friends.
Corporate Liability
From the companies prospective, being reliable for others actions can make your company loose lots of money. I know that I had friend who was fired for working as a plumber without a plumber’s license. This meant that if he made a mistake the liability fell on the corporation and not on his personal plumbers insurance they fired him because it. I really do not think it is fair if big corporations use the plumber’s one million dollar coverage for a mistakes that have to be prosecuted through the corporation. This is how his corporation was doing their business, it seemed as though the plumbers owned their own businesses and the corporation just found jobs for them. My friend found that in his field being a plumber when you receive multiple calls from the same house with the same problem any damages after the first call made him responsible for all cosmetic damages to the house. I think the corporation should be at fault and they should insure each employee under their own insurance. It takes six months to become an intern and up to four years to become a plumber in my state. How can you become a plumber when no one will hire you for internship? They do not hire people without plumber’s licenses. The following is a case that holds the plumber reliable for his work, Harold Glenn (2011).
References:
Harold Glenn(2011) Plumber Sued for Memorial Office Flood, from source: http://www.ultimatememorial.com/stories/236071-plumber-sued-over-memorial-office-flood
Job training .com (2011), from source: http://www.jobtrainingplace.com/education-and-training/construction-training/how-to-become-plumber/
Venue refers to the geographical area or the location that a trial may take place in. Jurisdiction is the controller who has authority over the ruling. Legal council has to have a good reason to present a change in venue. TV and Media might lead to an unfair impartial approach to the case. They may prejudge the suspect before trial, giving the illusion that the suspect is guilty before they have been tried and all evidence has been presented. Such trails as the OJ Simpson trial were immediately brought to the media and they gained publicity by placing court proceeding on T.V., internet, newspapers, tabloids and other media such as sales products.
Changes in venue may be asked for when the area that the suspect is located in becomes out raged taking the case personally. They may threaten the suspect with bodily harm or other inflictions that could possibly hurt the suspect. Trying to avoid the media is a very hard thing to do simply because media is everywhere.
An example of Change of Venue is the case of Bart McInerney a high school coach in NJ that was accused of sexual misconduct against his baseball club. His attorney Charles Uliano requested a change of venue after allegations of threats were suggested to his client. That the trail be moved out of Monmouth County calling it a circus like dangerous atmosphere during his client Bart McInerney’s arraignment last year. He said a Google search of Bart McInerney yielded 4050 hits of his name according to Mark Mueller /Star ledger (Jan 31, 2009).
This type of dangerous atmosphere for the suspect of a crime can cause a legal council to need a change of venue due to provide safety for their client. I do think it is hard to keep media away from large cases that many people feel adamant about what the suspect is guilty of and want to exploit the suspect as much as possible, as of a way of getting back at the lawbreakers or people that think they are capable of getting away with breaking the law.
Just like the DC Sniper case they in acted to try to change the venue outside of the Washington / Richmond corridor because of tainting of the case. The defense argued that the residence of the Washington area considered themselves victims of the murdering spree according to Komo Staff news Services (2002) change of Venue Ordered in DC sniper Case, from source: http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4097666.html
I think that media is a leading cause of the change of venue. The fact that media does not allow a fair trial because of the publicity and the social power of the journalist to depict a person as being bad for society makes it hard for a suspect of a major case to have a fair trial. The courts can make gag orders to stop media coverage but the media is going to take precedence over the trial whether they are regulated or not. Photographs and video footage become more exclusive producing more publicity. News channels and other media organizations spend lots of money to obtain information from the public making the media worst than before the courts tried to regulate it.
References:
Komo Staff news Services (2002) change of Venue Ordered in DC sniper Case, from source: http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4097666.html
Mark Mueller /Star ledger (Jan 31, 2009) NJ .com from source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/change_of_venue_sought_in_case.html
Arson Cases
Possibly, there are many challenges as a Prosecutor preparing a case for trial where arson has been preformed. First, you must identify the person responsible for the fire. If you have witnesses, it will make your job easier as a Prosecutor but with no witnesses and only scientific facts arson is hard to prove. Second is the reason why the defendant would want to light a place on fire. Third is the time frame, do you have evidence that proves the Defendant was in the vicinity of the building when the fire took place. Such evidence as fingerprints, DNA, hair samples, and other trace evidence may prove that the Defendant was at the scene of the crime. Fourth, you have to prove that the Defendant intentionally lit the place on fire. Combining all of the evidence may still prove the Defendant not guilty because in most arson the items that were used to light the initial fire are beyond recognition or are not present at the scene of the crime.
Proving Arson
It is very hard to prove arson because of the fact of what you all have said the fact of piecing together contaminated evidence that may or may not have any weight in trial. This lack of evidence could lead a Prosecutor not to proceed with arson trials because the Prosecutor has no way of knowing who actually committed the crime but could possibly have substantial suspects that seem to be note worthy of such a crime. Catch 22 is don’t waist courts with evidence that proves nothing this may give you a bad reputation as a lawyer.
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