Constitutional Law And The Criminal Justice System Essay

There are three significant issues concerning law enforcement, namely enacting the law, police discretion, and assessment of criminal behavior. Different entities create and enact laws that are specific for the societies those laws represent.

“Innocent until proven guilty.” The entire basis of the criminal justice system is to prosecute those who commit crimes and to validate every piece of evidence before prosecuting a suspect. It can be difficult for law enforcement to be precise and procedural in their quest for arresting and convicting a criminal as public outrage and pressure can affect the process of arrest and conviction. However, in other instances, the errors of law enforcement officials are not always due to outside forces or natural human errors. Bias and corruption can affect the outcome of an investigation, case, trial, verdict, and life, of a possible guilty or innocent person. In short, the criminal justice/legal system is not a perfect system, and those that serve both systems are imperfect as well. In the case of Sean K. Ellis, who was 19 years old at the time, was arrested for the murder of a Boston police officer. However, even though Ellis was arrested, tried, and convicted for this crime, he did not commit said crime. The circumstances leading to his conviction were riddled with inconsistencies and the actions taken by the police were ethically questionable as well. Police corruption, racial bias, witness credibility, and the tampering/tainting of evidence, have led to an unfair trial of an innocent man; as a result, Ellis was freed and he will receive a new trial in the coming months.

The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.

In order to keep a safe society, it is important to establish a nation with

In the case of Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that a law may not punish a status; i.e., one may not be punished to being an alcoholic or for being addicted to drugs. However, of course, one may be punished for actions such as abusing drugs. The question becomes; What if the status “forces” the action? What if a person, because of his/her addiction to drugs, is “forced” by the addiction to purchase and abuse the illegal drugs? Would punishing that person be unfairly punishing a status?

With having many different keywords and phrases in our society this can also show how each state takes the second amendment into their own hands. The states I found had the most interesting gun laws are New York, New Mexico, and Texas. These three states have very different gun laws. New York residents do not have to have a permit to purchase any rifles or shotguns but handguns do need a permit. The permit application has great depth when applying. “The applicant must have good moral character, at least 21 years of age, clean criminal record, and no history or evidence of mental illness or addiction to drugs and or alcohol. Although these are the laws in New York, the urban areas in New York are allowed to adopt their own policies and laws if their population exceeds 100,000 people (Laws 3).” New Mexico has very weak gun laws with very few regulations on concealed weapons. There is no permit required to purchase rifles, shotguns, handguns, or pistols. The residents of New Mexico are not required to have registration on rifles, shotguns, handguns, or pistols. The residents do not have to have a license. There are no permits required under the concealed carry law to carry a rifle or shotgun. On the other hand, concealed handguns or pistols must have a permit to carry. The resident must be

The Criminal Justice System has made many changes since it first started in the 17th Century. The Criminal Justice System first began in the United States during the colonial times, when the colonist had to follow the rules of the British. During the Colonial times, the Criminal Justices System was not as fair as our current system is today, which meant a lot of people did not have liberties and were ultimately treated unfairly. Times have definitely changed for the Criminal Justice System and for the United States. We now have several documents giving citizens’ rights to be protected from the Criminal Justice System, a few of those right are in the constitution and also the 27 amendments. In the United States there are also a few other things that a person can do other than go to jail or prison. One alternative to prison or jail is house arrest where the offender serves out their sentence at their home. Another one is probation, Probation, in criminal law, is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by a court instead of serving time in prison. In the United States, we have several documents and alternatives for being placed in jail or prison, yet people still find a way to get themselves incarcerated. Since there are so many prisoners in these correctional facilities, they are beginning to face several problems such as mental health issues, staff morale, negative media attention, inmate behavior, and overcrowding. I believe overcrowding is the most

Gun control has become an increasingly controversial topic in the nation due to the continuous debates relating to gun control and whether or not laws should be passed to make it harder for guns to be obtained. Guns serve for a variety of purposes that range from good to bad. Guns are not for everyone. Some individuals cannot handle guns properly, and some choose to use guns inappropriately. Lately, guns have become more of a problem in our society. There has been an increasing amount of shootings that have taken many lives and have wounded people emotionally, not just physically. Although guns are used for protection, firearms are reportedly used more in crimes. More and more shootings are breaking out across the nation. As a result, the

“13th” is a documentary directed by Ava DuVernay. It is named after the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution which outlawed slavery unless you are being punished for a crime. The film focuses on racism in the United States’ criminal justice system. According to DuVernay, the part of the 13th Amendment that says “unless you are being punished for a crime” is a loophole that has been used to allow slavery to continue in the early days during reconstruction and even now. This loophole coupled with the criminalization of the black man has led to mass incarceration of minorities. The United States which has only five percent of the world’s population but has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. The prison population of the United States has exploded from 300, 000 in 1972 to 2.3 million now. Each component of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, the courts and corrections, has contributed to the perpetuation of slavery through its contribution to mass incarceration.

It is no secret that the criminal justice system, as a whole, has some major problems that could be fixed. Some of us may not agree with some laws, but one thing is for sure, no one is above law, or are they? Three areas of the system that could use some revision include police discretion, plea bargain and jury nullification.

The government has the authority to arrest, indict, try, and sentence individuals that have been accused of committing a crime. In an attempt to balance this authority the United States Constitution guarantees a number of inalienable rights to protect its citizens against tyrannical government power. These rights create the framework of the adversarial criminal justice system that relies heavily on the advocacy of each party and a relatively passive and impartial judge acting as a neutral arbiter. The objective of this structure is to encourage the advocates to develop relevant facts, evidence, and legal interpretations that determine guilt or innocence. This is distinct from inquisitorial systems of justice where the court plays an active

The United States considers itself to be the best country in the world. This sense of nationalism is present because of the country’s history of opportunities and their emphasis on the power of their people. Safety is a crucial aspect that peopleconsider when choosing where to live. The United States provides their citizenswith national safety throughthe enforcement of their criminal justice system.As a result of their intentions of maintaining a secure living environment, the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world by far. While the United States strives to bring safety to others, their system has many concerning issues such as over-sentencing, racial discrimination and recidivism that need to be solved.

The United States is the number one country with the most gun ownerships. “It has 88.8 guns per 100 people, or about 270,000,000 guns, which is the highest total and per capita number in the world” (ProCon, 2017). The United States has the Second Amendment that states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Which states that all Americans have the right to own and carry a gun. This Amendment was written back when military people were taking civilians properties and they felt that they needed to protect themselves. But now times have changed and most Americans don’t own a gun for self-defense. “In 2010 there were 230 “justifiable

Prior to the over a thousand days spent on Rikers Island, including brutal nights in solitary confinement, Kalief Browder could remember his walk down East 186th Street that was suddenly interrupted by the NYPD who accused him of robbing the person who sat in their cop car, a person who Kalief claimed to have never seen in his life. Unable to make bail, Kalief suddenly found himself on his way to Rikers Island. In 2010, he soon became one of the 5,695 victims of the Bronx criminal court system even though the only evidence that was had was the memory of the alleged victim (Gonnermen 1). As discussed in class, the Criminal Justice System can be looked at as a contract within itself that contains two parts of its social contract, part one as crimes with the punishments to those crimes and part two as the due process to how the legal system handles the suspect of a crime. Even though the Criminal Justice System has been studied and training has been implemented to government officials on how to follow it properly, up to present day the Criminal Justice’s contract with society still causes trauma within society.

"All wrong." That is how the nation's top drug official sums up the way America has