CRJU Exam 3 Ch 8 10 CHAPTER 8 The History and Organization of the Courts The professional orientation of those who practice law affects the image and the functioning of the court o 1 The US criminal court system is an adversarial process using defense attorneys and prosecutors to represent the positions of two opposing parties placing burden on the prosecutor This can result in defense attorneys and prosecutors advocating for one side at the expense of the truth o 2 Outsiders have difficulty understanding what is happening in the court bc the legal system has evolved over a long time the process and language of the court seem foreign to outside observers especially to defendants Complaints about the courts o Offenders are treated too lenient o There s no room for inmates within corrections o There is no justice criminals get off on technicalities o Legislatures cannot provide the resources to spread the workload o Offenders defendants and victims don t believe the courts are dispensing justice in an even handed fair manner Courts in History o The Blood Feud Disagreement whose settlement is based on personal vengeance and physical violence If an individual is killed then it is the right of members of the family to exact justice by killing the murderer or a blood member of the murderer s family Or a price can be paid wergeld manprice o Courts in England The payment to the victims family was called a bot An additional payment called a wite was also assessed against the perpetrator as compensation for the king or the noble holding court and as a penalty for breaking the king s peace The medieval courts acted as both a court and a congress where a multitude of activities were accomplished Lines between civil and criminal law were not established o Trial by Compurgation Compurgation In medieval German and English law a practice by which a defendant could establish innocence by taking an oath and having a required number of people swear that they believed the oath Only men could swear oaths Character witnesses and not witnesses to the crime or offense The value of the oath was tied to the value of the oath takers life the rich could buy witnesses o Trial by Ordeal Trial by ordeal ancient custom found in many cultures in which the accused was required to perform a test to prove guilt 3 types of trial by ordeal demonstrate the innocence of the accused these depended on the divine intervention to Trial by cold water Development of the Jury Trial by hot water accused was supposed to put their hand in a cauldron of boiling water and pick a large stone off the bottom Trial by hot iron trial by fire o Trial by Battle was originally used by knights to settle disputes litigants could select someone else to fight for them the rich could buy better fighters to win for them o Inquest in archaic usage considered the first type of jury that determined the ownership of land currently a type of investigation o Grand Jury were developed whereby the crown would convene a court and suspect individuals would be charged with breaking the law Assize of Claredon 12th century English law that established judicial procedure and the grand jury system Primary check on the prosecutor s power The prosecution was simply an individual matter the accuser would often fail to follow through on the complaint The assize of Claredon was a series of ordinances that established the beginnings of the grand jury system Determines whether the evidence is strong enough to charge the accused Offenses started their journey to being regarded as public problems rather than as private wrongs o The jury trial was created to fill a vacuum in the criminal justice process The church stopped supporting trial by ordeal Originally the grand jury and the jury compromised to save the members Evolved into a check on the state s power to prosecute citizens The concept of an independent jury became firmly established in the English system and provides for us today a key check against the state s power to prosecute citizens o The Magna Carta Signed by King John in 1215 This limited the king s power and recognized the rights of nobles Placed the king under the rule of law Set a precedent of encoding in the law limitation s on the state s power Did not recognize working class people o Court of the Star Chamber established to deal with riots unlawful assembly perjury criminal libel and conspiracy Comprised of the king s councilors that was separate from common law Notable for offenses interrogation of the suspects in secret the use of torture as a fact finding tool no right to a trial by jury accusation brought without violence the accused not informed of the identity of people making accusations Had the effect of reaffirming the protections of the common law and caused citizens to become more wary of the power of the criminal justice system Abolished in 1641 Changing the Nature of the Court o Courts in Colonial America courts developed in response to the local economic political and social concerns of each colony Complaints about the courts were frequent and individuals often appealed to England to send trained judges to administer the law Slavery and the law early adoptions of slavery caused problems for the justice system An alternative system of laws was created to control slaves One of primary social forces that led to the American Revolution of 1776 was the colonists belief that the English crown was treating them unfairly The Bill of Rights was created the first 10 amendments to the US constitution which guarantees fundamental rights and privileges to citizens o Marbury v Madison 1803 established the judiciary as equal to the excessive and legislative branches of the government Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review whereby the Supreme Court scrutinizes state and federal legislation and the acts of the state and federal executive officers and courts determine whether they conflict with the constitution Initiated the practice of collective written decision statements o McCulloch v Maryland 1819 established that the court could find that the Constitution included implied powers that could be deduced from it s nature and language Basis for the expansion of the power of the federal government into areas such as banking and social programs aimed at the welfare of the people o Supremacy Clause the US supreme court established its power as the final word on all cases and became the court of last resort federal law