The Texas Criminal Justice System

Today our world is filled with crime. The people committing these crimes must have a consequence for their illegal actions. The system in place to keeping everything fair and safe is called the criminal justice system. This was put in place to ensure there is fairness and justice served to people who break the laws set up by the government.

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.

Courts are established social, political, and judicial institutions necessary for the manifestation of justice and the maintenance of law and order. The courts are part of the judicial branch of government, as outlined in Article III of the United States Constitution. Courts are the arenas in which the law is tried and applied. Judges are the presiding officers of the court. The United States Supreme Court is the most fundamental court because has "the authority to decide the constitutionality of federal laws and resolve other disputes over them," (United States Courts, 2012). This is true even though even though the court does not expressly enforce that law; enforcement is the province of the executive branch.

Today our Justice system is not perfect, but nothing is. Everything has its pros and cons, its ups and downs and its strengths and flaws. There are things that we can appreciate from how our Justice system is ran and of course there is some that we would like to change. I believe that our Justice system works but that there are things we could change or fix to make it even better.

Laws in general are thought up in order to maintain order in our society. Over time, it has

Although the Texas Criminal Justice System gives punishments that are deemed fit to the gravity of the crime, the death penalty is still too harsh of a crime. Prisoners are stripped off their Eighth Amendment rights when they go through the execution, which is an inhumane, cruel and unusual punishment. This can be examined through the methods that the criminal and justice systems and the method of execution.

The criminal justice system of Texas and Norway may seem quite similar at glance, but are actually extremely different from one another. Although both systems consist of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, they have many distinctions between them two. To begin with, the Texas criminal justice system is an entire system broken down into different positions handling different responsibilities. The attorney general, also known as AG, is an elected executive who has major responsibility within the judicial system. The AG represents the state entirely when it becomes involved in the federal courts.

The structure of the state and local Texas court system is responsible for securing liberty and equality under the law, very similar to the goals of the federal courts. In Texas judges are elected to go into office. The highest level of court in Texas is known as the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme court “is the highest civil court in Texas; consists of nine justices and has final state appellate authority over civil cases” (pg.249) The requirements for being a Texas supreme court justice is; must be a citizen of the United States and a resident of Texas, be at least 35 years of age, and have been practicing lawyer or judge for at least 10 years. It is very often that before cases make it to the Supreme Court or the Court of criminal

Back in February, Texas State Senator Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio), was found guilty of 11 federal counts of fraud and bribery. Although countless voters and politicians from both parties promptly called on him to step down from office after learning about the guilty verdict, the democratic state senator basically slapped voters in the face and, quite arrogantly, refused to resign.

The first process would be an arrest, Miranda rights and booking. All perpetrators are considered suspects. The suspect is arrested by warrant when probable cause is present. When the suspect is placed under arrest they are read their Miranda rights. After the accused is taken into custody they are booked into jail. The defendant must appear before a judge within 48 hours of arrest unless it transpired on a weekend. (“Arrest, Jail,

The main objectives of the United States criminal justice system are to provide justice to

The Criminal Justice system of Texas, while functional and stable, has had flaws that have cost some individuals years of their lives by serving a sentence in jail or being charged with the death penalty. Errors in the justice system are to be expected as the legal system is not perfect, and cases can be treated in a variety of ways depending on how an investigation is run and what a judge and jury decide in a trial. As Texas has the highest amount of exonerations in the country, there is high reason to believe that some reform must be made to the system. With an emphasis on more effective and credible manners of investigation for evidence, cases can be reviewed with forensic evidence and witness testimonies. With the use of both types of

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

The aim of the criminal justice system is to balance the numerous rights and values of society and individuals and to ensure that the application of the law is effective and results in just outcomes. The concept of justice is difficult to define and naturally there are areas where there is conflict between rights of individuals and society. The areas of conflict include police powers and the use of tasers, bail and mandatory sentencing.

The criminal justice system was put into place for several reasons. There are four main goals of the criminal justice system that all work together to improve and maintain justice in society. The criminal justice system aims to protect society by preventing future crimes from happening and by keeping criminals from committing more crimes. Another goal of this system is to appropriately punish those who commit a crime after it’s been determined that a crime was committed. In addition to punishment, they aim to rehabilitate criminals so that they can be returned to society in a safe manner. Finally, the criminal justice system’s goal is also to support victims of crime so that they can return to the way they were before they were affected by