final Flashcards
What are some types of prosecutors?
U.S. Attorneys, AUSA, District Attorneys, and City Attorneys
What alternatives to prosecution?
Diverson, Deferred prosecution, and deferred sentencing.
True or False: Prosecutors have absolute immunity?
True; when then act as advocates meaning when they are charging a defendant.
When do you prosecutors have qualifed immunity?
When they act as administrators or investigators and when they make reasonable mistakes.
How did the job of a prosecutor evolve?
Throughout history it moved from private to public, centralized to decentralized, and appointed to elected.
What type of attorney is found in the Federal Level?
Attorney General, U.S. Attorney and AUSA and Solicitor General.
Who is the head of the Department of Justice?
Attorney General
Who is in charge in representing the governement in suits and appeals in the Supreme Court?
Solicitor General
Where is most of the criminal work conducted?
At the county level.
What type of attorney does work in the county level?
District Attorneys
In 1920 how did the face of the prosecution world look like?
The have reached a pinnacle of power in the criminal justice system.
What factors motivate the prosecutor to change the charge from a legal stand point?
Strenght of the evidence. relationship between the defendant and the victim, defendat’s prior history, and facts of the case.
Define the no-drop prosecution.
The practice of not dropping charges against domestic-violence victims that emerged as a response to the high rate of dismissals in domestic- violence case.
Define Diversion.
An informal or programmatic method of steering an offender out of the criminal justice system.
What is deferred prosecution?
putting off tor delaying criminal charges against a suspect.
Define absolute immunity.
the total immunity of a prosecutor from a suit.
True or False: Prosecutors have to obey ethical standards?
True
True of False: There is a safety issue when is comes to prosecutors?
True
What is the perecentage of prosecutors that recieved threats or had assaults against them?
40 %
What type of structure is followed in prosecution offices?
Bureaucratice Structure
Define defense attorney.
The lawyer who advises, represents and acts for the defendant.
How back in histroy can the act of defense attorney be traced?
Ancient Rome, most early Roman were adovactes.
When did we see the increase in lawyers?
After the American Revolution
Which court case requires that all defendants should have counsel not just the wealthy?
Gideon v. Wainwright
True or False: Getting an attorney for a criminal defense case is cheap.
False; legal fees in a typical felony case may cost up to $25,000
When comparing the represntation and conclusion of the trial the wealthy and the less fortunate are equally balanced
False; wealthier people tend to have a better outcome with an attorney and a better conclusion of trial.
Define what a ad hoc assigned counsel?
A method for appointing legal assistance in which the judge chooses a defense attorney on case by case basis
Where was the first public defender program found?
Los Angeles in 1913
Which court case involved the Guantanamo Bay detainees
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
What are some ethicial deliemmas for a defense attorney?
Confidential confession, client perjury, defense receipt of physical evidence and problems wirh defendants prior record.
What are types of defense counsel?
Attorneys who are privately retained and attorneys who represent indigent defendants ( public defenders)
What is death row volunteering?
a phenomenon involving a death row inmate making a decision to stop appealing and let the sentence be carried out.
What percentage of criminal convictions are settled through a plea bargain
90 %
What is a plea bargain?
The process whereby thr accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a mutally satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval.
what is a charge bargaining?
The prosector’s ability to negotiate with the defendant in terms of the charges that could be filed.
What is a sentence bargaining?
A defendant agreement to plead guily in exchange for a less serious sentence.
Who benefits from a plea bargain?
All parties of the courtroom benefit; the defendant, the prosecutor, the judge and the public defender.
Which amendment deals with speedy and public trial?
6th amendment
What court case was an example of the pressure for innocent defendants to plead guilty?
North Carolina v. Alford
Which state have experimented restricting the practice of plea bargaining?
Alaska
What happened in the court case Brady v. United States
it stated that we cannot hold that it is unconsitutional for the state to extend a benefit to a defendant who in turn extends a substantial benefit to the state.
What are the two types of pleas?
Plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere
Can the plea of nolo contendere be used as a plea of guilt?
No in a civil case
Are the rights to the plea bargaing the same during the bargaining and during the trial?
No
what is a ad hoc plea bargaining?
A term coined by one legal schlar that refers to some strange concessions defendants agree to make as part of the prosecutors decision to secure a guilty plea.
What are the five forms ad hoc bargin exist
- the court may impose an extraordinary condition of probation following a guilty plea 2. the defedant may be required to perdomr some act as a quid pro quo for a dismissal 3. court my impose an form of punishment 4. the state might offer a benefit for the plea 5. the defendant might be permitted to plea guilt to an unauthorized charge.