The United States Judicial System

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.

The current jury system is based on an almost millennium-old principle found in the Magna Carta (1215). As a result of changes in society since, the system must be seen as potentially outdated. In other words, it may not satisfy the needs of modern society, judged by what the major stakeholders of the criminal justice system expect. Indeed, there are substantial flaws in current jury systems in terms of effectiveness. The two major concerns with jury systems are their representativeness and their levels of competence. The representativeness of juries is essential as their reason for existing is to represent the views of society. Having twelve jurors could be understood to ensure representativeness and eliminate room for bias. However, this does not remove the possibility of juries being biased towards parties. Even if the potential jurors contacted are representative in terms of gender, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status and though jury duty is a compulsory engagement, 90% of Queenslanders opt out of it. This makes it very likely that juries will not be representative. One example is ethnic diversity. There is likely to be less ethnic diversity in courts because ethnic minorities might not have sufficient language ability or access to interpreters to be jurors. Another example is age. It is likely that retired people

In other words, courts are struggling to successfully and randomly select jury pools with a structure which reflects the racially diverse populations they serve. One reason which has been identified as a cause of this struggle is a “key factor associated with the underrepresentation of minorities is that jury questionnaires in many predominantly minority areas come back to the court as undeliverable or do not come back at all” (Joshi & Kline, n.d.). So, if the court cannot locate a potential juror or does not obtain a completed form back, this significantly cuts down on the potential jurors which Prosecutors and Defenders have to choose from. By implementing a mandated jury for each and every criminal trial, not only are the benefits of receiving an impartial and fair trial increased, but the opportunity to have the evidence heard in order to come to a verdict rather than basing it off of the defendant’s race or gender is also

The first phase of a criminal jury trial is focused on selecting specific jurors, which is accomplished through a process referred to as 'voir dire' which is a screening of potential jurors. In the criminal trial involving an offense categorized as a felony "12 jurors and up to six alternate jurors may be chosen." (3rd Judicial District, ) Voir dire of the jury involves the prosecuting and defense attorneys questioning the potential jurors and

Frank, M. (2011). Challenging Peremptories: Suggested Reforms to the Jury Selection Process Using Minnesota as a Case Study. In review.law.umm.edu. Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://review.law.umn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Frank_MLR.pdf

The judicial processes that have been adopted by the current criminal justice system of the United States of America include mandatory minimums that diminish the importance of certain factors in a case such as the context of the situation and the power of judges to decide on an appropriate sentence; furthermore, they result in more serious, yet overlooked, implications of racial bias and unfair plea bargaining. Mandatory minimums are strict sentences that a judge must abide by when determining how much prison time the accused is to receive as punishment. Although the majority of offenses to which mandatory minimums apply to are drug offenses, there are a variety of offenses including immigration, firearms, and fraud that are linked to a minimum sentence. The concept of enacting mandatory minimum sentences to particular offenses has such a great influence on court verdicts that in the fiscal year of 2010 alone, “27.2% of cases involved a conviction of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum [and] 53.4%...remained subject to the mandatory minimum penalty at sentencing” (USSC, 121). When the government first instituted mandatory minimums for drug offenses with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, it was meant to resolve the problems of drug distribution and abuse, but these sentences bring about more problems than resolutions. As the time approaches to impose a sentence for a case involving a mandatory minimum, the judge has no choice but to assign the accused at least that amount

Many years ago the federal court system was started (Siegel, Schmalleger & Worrall 2014). We should take a recorded voyage back so as to figure out how the government court system started. Numerous years prior, state courts heard legitimate issues of its natives. The United States Court framework is a covering system of various courts which can, at first look, appear to be puzzling. In any case, a more critical look uncovers a generally basic example to the way courts is organized. Each state and government court framework is partitioned into a few layers, as portrayed underneath. The state courts comprehended that as the country developed; there may be a requirement for more courts. To represent this, the Constitution gave Congress the ability

The right to a trial is one of the intrinsic elements of the American criminal justice system for more than two centuries. In its mandate to regulate government power to judge people accused of transgressing against the laws of the society, the mechanism of the jury allows the citizens themselves to determine the guilt or innocence of the person. Though juries have generally served a vital function in the criminal justice system, the reputation of the jury system has come under fire over the past several years.

The United States court system is the institution were all the legal disputes in the american society are carryed out and resolved. However, one single court is not enough to resolve every single dispute in society and that is why the court system is made up of two different courts, the federal courts and the state courts. Moreover, the federal and state courts are made up of several divisions made to handle legal disputes differently depending on its seriousness. For example, the state court is made up of trial courts of limited jurisdiction and probate courts were cases and disputes originate and then move up to trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate apellate courts, and courts of last resort respectively depending on the case.In contrast, the federal court consists of district courts, territorial coutrs, tax court, court of international trade, claims court, court of veterans appeals, an courts of military review which then move on to courts of appeals respectively and may ultimately end up in the United States supreme court. In addition, cases from state court may also appeal into the federal court system but not the other way around.

The United States justice system has been around since the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787. It was created to protect its citizens and provide justice throughout the nation. The U.S. Justice system is broken down to three branches. These branches are Policing, Courts, and Corrections that create the justice system. Policing is the branch that enforces the law in the public. Courts is the decision to whether you are guilt, not guilty, or fined for the actions from the enforcements point of view. Corrections is the branch that carries out the sentence that are created by the courts and makes corrections to be able to be release back to society. The three branches provide equality, justice, and uphold the law from illegal

Having a diverse bench is critical to having a successful criminal justice system. The United States court system follows a presumption of innocence, meaning those who enter a courtroom are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This presumption of innocence is not always found in the courtroom. Every courtroom actor, whether consciously or unconsciously, has a bias towards the defendant and may even presume guilt before the case begins. This is especially true when there is a white judge acting on cases involving a defendant who is a part of the minority. Judges who represent the minority are not only unbiased towards defendants of their own race, but they also bring new perspectives to the bench (Haire & Moyer, 2015). They present ideas, understandings, and

Within our police system in America, there are gaps and loopholes that give leeway to police officials who either abuse the authority given to them or do not represent the ethical standards that they are expected to live up to by society. Because of the nature of police work, there is a potential for deterioration of these ethical and moral standards through deviance, misconduct, corruption, and favoritism. Although these standards are set in place, many police are not held accountable for their actions and can easily get by with the mistreatment of others because of their career title. While not every police abuses his or her power, the increasingly large percentage that do present a problem that must be recognized by the public as well as those in charge of police departments throughout our country. Police officials are abusing their power and authority through three types of misconduct known as malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and these types are being overlooked by management personnel who rarely intervene even though they know what is happening. Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and cause people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educating on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being

Around the world, courts make life changing decisions every day involving individuals’ embroiled in various disputes and situations. These courts operate under either a common or civil law framework. In the United States, the federal judicial system governs the nation and each individual state, and each state has authority over concerns that arise in its borders. The federal and state judicial systems use different processes to select court judges, and the judicial system hears cases based on varying criteria.

​In Germany anyone who gets involved within the legal system should first know there is numerous amounts of ways and different types of courts in which their case may be heard every individual case is heard in a different court depending on the nature and seriousness of the case. Like the U.S there is also a number of different higher courts to which appeals can be made. The number of judges that hear each level of cases weather it is a minor or a major case rulings may also vary depending on the type of issue involved. Unlike the U.S in Germany there is no such thing as a jury trial and the judges are able to take on a more active roles within the court proceedings. Though Germany does not have jury trials their court procedures are

In today’s society, the United States court system has a very strict order due to the fact that rules and regulations used to not be as exclusive as they are now. One of the various steps in the court system is that of the preliminary hearing and the grand jury. There are three main issues that are incorporated in the preliminary hearings which include, when it is required, the appropriate standard to determine if the prosecution has a case, and the procedural rights included at the hearing (Whitebread and Slobogin, 2008, p. 623). The court system is made up of various aspects of different regulations but one of the key components is that of the grand jury. The grand jury continuously changes, but as of now relies more on the prosecutor than it has in the past.