Sunday, February 9, 2020

Parties and Pretrial Procedures Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Parties and Pretrial Procedures - Assignment Example On receiving complaints regarding a criminal act the investing authorities can initiate the investigation, and collect information. The next step involves the assessment of evidences, and analyzing the situation. For this purpose grand juries are called. The protocol of using grand jury for deciding criminal charges was abolished in 1948 in the United Kingdom; however, it is still in practice in the United States of America (Campbell, 1973). The function of a grand jury is to decide whether the act under question is chargeable as a crime or not. Cases that ask for the involvement of grand jury use it as a preliminary step for initiating the criminal proceeding. Grand jury is composed of sixteen to twenty three individuals. Prosecutors summon grand jury for testing their case. They collect all the evidences from the investigating authorities, and then present their case in front of the jury. Trials involving grand jury does not have any lawyer, except the prosecutor, the indictment of charges does not require unanimous decision; rather a super majority of 2/3 or 3/4 is enough to charge indictment. Decisions made by the grand jury are of basic nature, they solve the question of law, and they decide whether the defendant is eligible fo r being charged with conviction or not. During the trial the role of the prosecutor is to present all the available information to the jury, and explaining the injunctions of law. After viewing the available information, and the cited act, the jury decides, whether to call for a court proceeding or not. In all this process there is no involvement from the defendant’s side. The grand jury deals with the case keeping the prevalent culture and customs of their society (Antell, 1965). If the indictment has been approved warrants are released for the arrest of the convicted. After the arrest of the convict, the case is reviewed by the district attorney, who has the authority to discard the case on unavailability of

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