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Criminal Case Analysis

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Throughout the 20th century, the importance of criminal cases increased. From sentencing the death penalty to creating a model code that almost all of the states use, the decisions on criminal cases have changed constantly. Criminal cases are defined as a person committing a public wrong which is considered an offense against the state. A criminal case can be settled with a plea bargain or through a trial, which is decided by certain jurisdictions. There are many factors that go into deciding a criminal case, those being the crime that was committed, the evidence that is brought into the case, the state the trial is being held in and whether the Judge dismisses the case or not. Many of the crucial criminal cases have shined a light on the important …show more content…

The first case is Furman v. Georgia in 1972. In this case, “Georgia jury convicted three men for murder and all three juries that had worked to give them a penalty chose the death penalty without any specific guidelines to aid or limit their discretion.” (FVG) This case halted all executions in the 39 states that sanctioned executions; Approximately 600 inmates were waiting on death row at the time of this case. The second case is Gregg v. Georgia in 1976. In this case, “the defendant was convicted of two counts of armed robbery and two counts of murder.” (GVG) The defendant was sentenced to death under new Georgia death penalty statute that replaced the statute from the Furman v. Georgia …show more content…

The MPC was used in courts, and judges rely on it when handling substantive criminal law decisions. Some states even used MPC’s model of organization as a starting point. MPC remains an influence in the criminal laws for more than 2/3 of the states even if it’s received a lot of criticism.
Another way that decisions on criminal cases have developed is with the Hearsay Rule. The Hearsay rule is defined as “a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at a trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter at hand.” (HR) The hearsay rule is not allowed in several courts because it is questionable and could violate the 6th and 14th amendment. The only exceptions for allowing the hearsay rule is in some cases if the declarant can testify, if the declarant can’t testify or if the case involves child

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