Legal Aspects of Criminal Justice

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A criminal must be dealt with by law , he must reap what he sow However , before he is put into prison , he is guaranteed protection by the Constitution through due process of law . According to our constitution , all men are innocent unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt before a court of law . Before an accused is incarcerated , he must undergo several stages at different venues . It may start from the lowest state courts and end up in the highest federal court of the land . Each and every

court that his case shall pass through has its own role and function in his prosecution or protection

For a better understanding of how the United States judicial structure works , let us envision a crime such as manslaughter committed in the state of Georgia . I made reference to Georgia because this state 's judicial structure is typical of most of the other states ' judicial structure (Rawlings

Let us take for example Billy who allegedly killed Sam . Before he is convicted of this crime , he must undergo a series of procedures guaranteed by the constitution to provide him with all the opportunity to defend his side . The first of the series is the initiation of the prosecution . In this stage , there are three ways in which Billy 's prosecution may be initiated (CrimeVictimLaw , the first is when the police responds to a call that a crime is happening or has happened and upon arriving at the scene makes their own investigation . Another mode is when the victim reports to the prosecutor 's office directly which prompts the prosecutor 's office to make their own investigation . In such instance , the prosecutor 's office may either ask the police to seek criminal charges or conduct a grand jury investigation (CrimeVictimLaw The grand jury , composed of 23 randomly-selected people , is going to hear the witnesses without a judge 's presence and examine the evidence gathered to decide on whether or not there is reason to believe that Billy actually committed the crime imputed on him (CrimeVictimLaw

If in this stage the investigation shows that Billy maybe guilty of killing Sam , the prosecution shall now formal charges against Billy , otherwise Billy will be set free . When the prosecution s its formal charges , it must identify the crime committed , in this case it may either be unlawful and dangerous manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter . The prosecution must also show that all the elements of said crime were present . The elements of involuntary manslaughter are (1 ) an unintentional killing (2 ) proximately caused by either (a ) an unlawful act not amounting to a felony and not ordinarily dangerous to human life , or (b ) culpable negligence (North Carolina v . Hudson whereas , the elements of unlawful or dangerous manslaughter are that (i the defendant 's act must cause the death (ii ) the defendant 's act must be unlawful (iii ) the defendant 's act must be dangerous (Crimnet

The next stage of prosecution is the arraignment and bail . In the arraignment...