Criminal Procedure Flashcards
What are the three major systems of Criminal Procedure?
Adversarial System
Inquisitorial System
Popular (mixed) system
Adversarial System was inspired by what?
Enlightenment Period
Adversarial system in used in what type of countries?
Common Law
What are key characteristics of the adversarial system?
Plea Bargaining
Like a baseball game
Wealth effect
states there is an enormous advantage to those who can afford to hire skilled attorneys and pay for investigators
-adversarial system
Combat effect
allows for truth-impairing procedures to suppress and distort the truth with the goal being to “win” the courtroom struggle
-adversarial system
Inquisitorial system
- civil law system but touched all others
- developed to protect defendants from being wrongly convicted
- extensive pretrial investigation
- use to involve torture
- use to only be guilty with confession or 2 eye witnesses
Critics of Inquisitorial system
- focused on the extreme power of the judge at investigative and trial levels
- During trial the judge must balance previous knowledge gained by investigation with the need to retain impartiality
Popular or mixed system
- calls for popular participation of citizens who are not necessarily CJ professionals
- oldest of procedural systems of Justice
- Civil law, but also socialist and common law
- Lay Judges
Lay judges
typical citizens, Not professional legal personnel
-help professional judge come to decision
-elected or chosen by gov agency
-replace jury system
~provides balance between the state acting against the accused and the peers of the accused in considering the interests of justice and community at large
Where do you find lay judges in each country?
Germany= Schoffen China= lay assessors US= Justice of the Peace Engalnd= lower magistrates' courts
What is a myth of the Inquisitional System?
You are Presumed guilty until proven innocent
Dossier
The complete record of the pretrial proceedings and informs the judges and others about the testimony of key witnesses and the evidence being presented
-France
Who relies on Confessions
China and Japan
Why is the Supreme court in Japan not important?
you can ignore it
