Courtroom Work Groups
| Courtroom Work Groups | Jaraka Ward | | University of Phoenix | 10/21/2012 |
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I found several responses to the question of who is included in the courtroom work group. I believe that the criminal prosecutor, defense attorney, and a judicial officer make up the most common courtroom work group. The daily interaction of this group is to make sure that rules are being followed in each individual group but also to make sure it is given in a timely manner. The courtroom work group needs to communicate in order to offer plea bargains and choose jurors. The role of the prosecutor is to protect the government or community’s best interests. This being said the prosecutor must take cases based on the facts of each case and the evidence provided. If the prosecutor did not do this and took every case under less stringent requirements it could leave many cases going to trial with a lack of evidence and lead to a waste of court room time and money for attempting a trial with no evidence to convince a jury. This could also lead to innocent people being convicted on no evidence simply because of a well-spoken lawyer. This being said, if the prosecutors were more stringent about the cases they took and the minimum amount of evidence was greater it may lead to criminals getting away with more crimes and never being brought to trial because of a lack of concrete evidence. The only way I see that the courtroom work group could be improved would be if all parties focused more on the justice and rules side rather than always focusing on the speedy aspect of getting things done. There will always be the criminals let go because of a lack of evidence to convince a jury as well as innocent people who will be convicted without proper concrete evidence, this is why I am a strong believer in the appeal system. I do however feel that these numbers could be reduced if we could slow the system down while still maintaining due process and a speedy trial.
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I found several responses to the question of who is included in the courtroom work group. I believe that the criminal prosecutor, defense attorney, and a judicial officer make up the most common courtroom work group. The daily interaction of this group is to make sure that rules are being followed in each individual group but also to make sure it is given in a timely manner. The courtroom work group needs to communicate in order to offer plea bargains and choose jurors. The role of the prosecutor is to protect the government or community’s best interests. This being said the prosecutor must take cases based on the facts of each case and the evidence provided. If the prosecutor did not do this and took every case under less stringent requirements it could leave many cases going to trial with a lack of evidence and lead to a waste of court room time and money for attempting a trial with no evidence to convince a jury. This could also lead to innocent people being convicted on no evidence simply because of a well-spoken lawyer. This being said, if the prosecutors were more stringent about the cases they took and the minimum amount of evidence was greater it may lead to criminals getting away with more crimes and never being brought to trial because of a lack of concrete evidence. The only way I see that the courtroom work group could be improved would be if all parties focused more on the justice and rules side rather than always focusing on the speedy aspect of getting things done. There will always be the criminals let go because of a lack of evidence to convince a jury as well as innocent people who will be convicted without proper concrete evidence, this is why I am a strong believer in the appeal system. I do however feel that these numbers could be reduced if we could slow the system down while still maintaining due process and a speedy trial.
References: Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century, Eleventh Edition, by Frank Schmalleger (2012, 08). Courtroom Workgroups. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 08, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Courtroom-Workgroups-1070144.html