Who Said Anything About Justice? Bail Court and the Culture of Adjournment

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 127-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Marie Myers
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Courtroom Workgroup ◽  
Using Data

Abstract The criminal court is supposed to be a place of adversarial justice; however, these formal legal values do not appear to translate into practice. The courtroom workgroup, though made up of formal adversaries with widely divergent roles and objectives, is a community of workers whose shared interests include getting through the day as quickly and efficiently as possible. Using data from 142 days of bail court observation in Ontario the author argues that a “culture of adjournment” has taken over the bail process. Rather than the court being run by an efficient adversarial group of people processing criminal cases through the system, the courtroom has developed a culture that emphasizes the importance of expeditiously disposing of the daily docket over distributing justice.

Recklessness: the House of Lords and the criminal law

Legal Studies ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-286
Author(s):  
Jenny McEwan ◽  
St. John Robilliard
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Mens Rea ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
House Of Lords

‘The House of Lords has a dismal record in criminal cases. All too often their lordships’ decisions have to be reversed by legislation…the present decision could well be another'.In two recent criminal appeals of major importance on the meaning of mens rea, Caldwell and Lawrence, the House of Lords has departed so far from the academically accepted deffition of ‘recklessness’, that Professor Smith is driven to ask, ‘Can we really afford the House of Lords as an appellate criminal court?’. Such desperation surely indicates that their Lordships have got things badly wrong and it is our purpose in this article to examine whether this is indeed the case.

scholarly journals Translated Transcripts From Covert Recordings Used for Evidence in Court: Issues of Reliability

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gilbert ◽  
Georgina Heydon
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Security ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Using Data

Nation states increasingly apply electronic surveillance techniques to combat serious and organised crime after broadening and deepening their national security agendas. Covertly obtained recordings from telephone interception and listening devices of conversations related to suspected criminal activity in Languages Other Than English (LOTE) frequently contain jargon and/or code words. Community translators and interpreters are routinely called upon to transcribe intercepted conversations into English for evidentiary purposes. This paper examines the language capabilities of community translators and interpreters undertaking this work for law enforcement agencies in the Australian state of Victoria. Using data collected during the observation of public court trials, this paper presents a detailed analysis of Vietnamese-to-English translated transcripts submitted as evidence by the Prosecution in drug-related criminal cases. The data analysis reveals that translated transcripts presented for use as evidence in drug-related trials contain frequent and significant errors. However, these discrepancies are difficult to detect in the complex environment of a court trial without the expert skills of an independent discourse analyst fluent in both languages involved. As a result, trials tend to proceed without the reliability of the translated transcript being adequately tested.

9 Criminal Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dickson Brice
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Right

This chapter selects five issues within the sphere of criminal justice to exemplify how the Irish Supreme Court has made its mark in the field. It looks first at the Court’s approach to the principle that prosecutions should be ended if they are unfair to the defendant and then moves to related issues surrounding use of the Special Criminal Court. It considers whether the Supreme Court has done enough to police the Special Criminal Court and whether reforms are necessary in that domain. In examining the Supreme Court’s views on the right to bail and on the admissibility of evidence which has been obtained unconstitutionally or otherwise illegally (with particular reference to the Damache and JC cases), comparisons are made with other common law jurisdictions. A final section looks at the Supreme Court’s position regarding the retrospectivity of declarations of incompatibility in criminal cases.

Violent parasomnias and sleep forensics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel A. Cramer Bornemann ◽  
Mark R. Pressman
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Predisposition ◽  
Expert Testimony ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Deep Sleep ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science And Research

Parasomnias are complex behaviors occurring out of or during sleep. Parasomnias are increasingly presented as proof of an automatism in criminal cases involving violence. The sleep forensics expert must have an up-to-date understanding of current sleep science and research, diagnostic and clinical techniques, and the legal requirements of expert testimony and scientific evidence. Sleepwalking and related disorders typically follow sudden, partial awakenings from deep sleep. Higher-level cognition is severely limited or absent, and complex behaviors often consist of “automatic” behaviors not initiated or guided by memory or planning. Sleepwalking and related disorders are noted to occur during deep sleep and often require a genetic predisposition or priming factors. Prior cases of sleepwalking violence find that the victim of sleepwalking violence—most often a family member—seeks out the sleepwalker. The history of sleepwalking includes reports of episodes and sometimes criminal court cases of murder, assault, and rape.

Victims and Offenders

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-150
Author(s):  
George P. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Private Life ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

This chapter assesses the role of victims and offenders in criminal cases. The victim is invisible in the definition of crime but omnipresent in the prosecution and sentencing of offenders. In the international legal order, in particular, the victim is front and center, both in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in lawsuits under the Alien Torts Claim Act. Crime is typically defined by the actions of the offender, and the victim is an incidental consequence. There are many victimless crimes, such as those in the sexual and reproductive arena, which in the United States at least are no longer subject to prosecution on constitutional grounds. The argument for decriminalization is the privacy of the offender, but privacy of the victim can, paradoxically, become an argument for criminalization under the right to a private life codified in the European Convention on Human Rights. The chapter also looks at the duality of victimhood.

Neither Conflict Nor Labeling Nor Paternalism Will Suffice: Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Family in Criminal Court Decisions

1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Daly
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Statistical Study ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Pretrial Release ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Hispanic Men ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Black Defendants ◽  
Using Data

This statistical study examines sentencing and pretrial release decisions for black, white, and Hispanic men and women, using data from New York City and Seattle criminal courts. Hypotheses are tested on the interactive influences of gender and family, and the mitigating effects of family for men and women of different race and ethnic groups. The results show that gender differences in court outcomes can be explained by defendants' familial circumstances, and that such differences are greatest for black defendants. Arguing that neither the male-centered conflict or labeling perspectives, nor the paternalism thesis capture the logic of court decision making, I call for more research on how familial-based justice practices are classed, raced, and gendered.

The Right to a Good Defense: Investigating the Influence of Attorney Type Across Urban Counties for Juveniles in Criminal Court

2020 ◽  
pp. 088740342090337
Author(s):  
Steven N. Zane ◽  
Simon I. Singer ◽  
Brandon C. Welsh
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
Public Defenders ◽  
The Government ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sentencing Outcomes

Juvenile defendants in criminal court represent an especially vulnerable group for whom quality legal representation is critical. While some juvenile defendants are able to obtain private counsel, indigent defendants are provided an attorney by the government. One long-standing concern is that these court-appointed attorneys are less effective. Using data on juveniles in criminal court across 37 large, urban counties, the present study examines conviction and sentencing outcomes by comparing private counsel, public defenders, and assigned counsel. Results indicate that defendants with public defenders were less likely to be convicted, less likely to be incarcerated in prison, and served shorter prison sentences compared to defendants with assigned counsel. Contrary to hypotheses, however, the effect of attorney type was not conditioned by court urbanism. The findings suggest that public defenders provide effective legal representation for juveniles in criminal court. Research is needed to determine whether this holds across different contexts (e.g., rural).

Empirical Study of Insider Witnesses’ Assessments at the International Criminal Court

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Chlevickaite ◽  
Barbora Hola
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Potential Bias ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Linkage Evidence ◽  
Probative Value ◽  
Reliability Assessments

Insider witnesses play an indispensable role in many international criminal cases. Despite often being essential for linkage evidence, the use of insider witnesses comes with a set of special concerns regarding their credibility, in turn casting doubt on the reliability of their evidence. This explorative empirical study aims to fill the gap in the scholarship and presents an analysis of credibility and reliability assessments of insider witnesses at the International Criminal Court (icc). It critically evaluates the use of such testimony to see if, how, and which factors relating to credibility and reliability affect the probative value of the evidence provided. The findings indicate that the icc judges put a lot of emphasis on factors such as consistency or detail of testimonies, while factors such as potential bias or questionable motivation of the witness surprisingly do not figure as prominently in ascribing probative value to evidence.

scholarly journals The Price of Medical Negligence – Should it Be Judged by the Criminal Court in the Context of the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-152
Author(s):  
Darius Pranka
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Medical Negligence ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
European Court ◽  
Legal Consequence

Abstract The article deals with a recently relevant issue – whether a doctor who has made an error or was negligent during his or her professional activity that has resulted in injury or death should be prosecuted, whether this type of liability is not too strict, and whether it is proportionate and adequate to the specificities of the medical profession. From the point of view of criminal justice in Lithuania, this topic has not been investigated at all. The courts hear such criminal cases without any exceptions for doctors. However, in an international level, the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights or investigations in other states suggest that criminal liability is not always a binding legal consequence in such cases. After having analysed and summarised the case-law of the said court, by taking into account the insights of foreign authors, the danger of medical error and ultima ratio principle, the author raises the idea that the current practice in civil medical negligence when doctors are prosecuted for simple negligence should be changed.

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