...Criminal Procedure Probable Cause Article Summary Brandy A University of Phoenix Criminal Procedure CJA/353 Professor Joseph Wade April 11, 2012 Criminal Procedure Probable Cause Article Summary The article I choose is Cell phone Tracking Power on Request by Ellen Nakashima from the Washington Post in November of 2007, the reason why I pick this article is because of the way the federal government is violating or has been violating individual Fourth Amendment right by tracking the cell phone of individual that police feel might be suspicious of drug trafficking, criminal suspect, and fugitives with no probable cause and being allowed to do this by some judges. Federal Official are regularly going to judges in order to retrieve cell phone data from cell phone companies on suspected fugitives, drug traffickers, and suspected criminals and in some case the judge has allowed them to without showing the courts any probable causes thinking a crime may be in play or they can find specific evidence to a crime. This proceeding goes on in secretive as order by the government and the information is sealed making it hard to prove injustices. Federal official was granted this data in October 2006 in helping with the capture of a Florida serial killer that linked in four states to six other murders, including the murder of a University of Virginia student at Blue Ridge Parkway, killer kills themselves in shooting with police in Florida. Law enforcement...
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...My Cousin Vinny The movie “My Cousin Vinny” is a comedy film of 1992, which is an amusing interpretation of the processes of the criminal justice system. The film depicts the procedures and processes of the court and criminal justice system. There are many things that have been depicted in the movie wrongly, but some are the correct depictions of the court proceedings and the criminal justice system. Many professionals have criticized the movie for its incorrect depiction of some of the procedures and processes. The movie taps different elements of the criminal justice system as a whole. There are countless individuals who do not realize the formalities, which go into actually being convicted for a crime. My cousin Vinny explore different aspects of these pretrial stages, criminal trials and the major actors in the process of the court hearing (Crede, 2012). There are a number of similarities as well as differences amongst what the movie has portrayed and the actual process of the criminal justice procedure which will be explored in this paper. The movie revolves around two New Yorker friends, Stan and Bill, who are traveling through Rural Alabama. These two friends make a stop on their way to buy some necessities from a shop. Immediately after they leave, another car, similar to theirs, pulls over. Two men get out of the car and kill the attendant of the store and runs away. Meanwhile, the two friends, Stan, and Bill, soon realize that they have accidently taken a tuna...
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...learning the requirements for obtaining a search warrant, defining probable cause, describing when search and seizure does not require a warrant. We will also explain the rationale for allowing warrantless searches, examine the persuasiveness of these reasons, and determine if probable cause is always necessary to conduct a search. Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure The Fourth Amendment guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches or seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” (Schmalleger,F., 2012). This means the police cannot just barge into your home without proper authority and reason for the purpose of a search as this would be unreasonable. The law enforcement agent therefore must seek a warrant. A search warrant is ordered by a judge, magistrate, or the Supreme Court. A judge may issue a search warrant if the agency requesting the warrant has showed by an affidavit that probable cause exists that criminal activity has taken place. The affidavit must list all information and evidence the officer is knowledgeable of at the time the warrant is requested. A search warrant may be issued if the judge feels there is sufficient evidence to constitute probable cause enough...
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...Criminal Procedure Policy Sesanee Lewis CJA/364 January 20, 2014 Walsh, Timothy Criminal Procedure Policy Due process and crime control model shapes the procedures of polices regarding criminals and law enforcement. Due process gives citizens the right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty which is the opposite to the crime control model; you are guilty until proven innocent. Two different approaches, one is a process in which citizens is ensured law enforcement conduct themselves within legal procedures during arrest and the collection of evidence; the other process relying on the integrity of law enforcement by not questioning probable cause nor the collection of evidence to show the guilt of an offender. Due Process gives citizens of America the right to not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without law enforcement going obtaining a warrant by a judge. The rights of citizens by way of due process guarantee a fair process within the criminal justice system. The due process model system of values revolves around the concept of primarily of the individual rights and the complementary concept of limitation of official power of the government. Power is always subject to abuse (Griffiths, 1970). Due process limits this power by give law enforcement rules and regulations as to what they can and cannot do to arrest a citizen and obtain evidence for an arrest. The criminal procedure of due process begins at law enforcement legally arresting...
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...Police and Law Enforcement In the United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for an arrest, when criminal charges are being considered. It is also refers to the standards which a grand jury believes that a crime has been committed. The term comes from the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In the criminal arena probable cause is important in two respects. First, police must possess probable cause before they may search a person or a person’s property, and they must possess it before they may arrest a person. Second, in most criminal cases the court must find that probable cause exists to believe that the defendant committed the crime before the defendant may be prosecuted. There are some exceptions to these general rules. Police may briefly detain and conduct a limited search of a person in a public place if they have a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed a crime. Reasonable suspicion is a level of belief that is less than probable cause. The requirement of probable cause for a search and seizure can be found in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Probable cause can exist even when there is some doubt as to the person’s guilt. Courts take care to review the actions of police in the context of everyday life, balancing the interests of law enforcement against the...
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...not likely to happen. This paper will be examine the Fourth Amendment, learning the requirements for obtaining a search warrant, defining probable cause, describing when search and seizure does not require a warrant. We will also explain the rationale for allowing warrantless searches, examine the persuasiveness of these reasons, and determine if probable cause is always necessary to conduct a search. Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure: The Fourth Amendment guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches or seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” . This means the police cannot just barge into a home without proper authority and a judge, magistrate, or the Supreme Court orders reasons for the purpose of a search warrant. A judge may issue a search warrant if the agency requesting the warrant has shown by an affidavit that probable cause exists that that criminal activity has taken place. The affidavit must list all information and evidence the officer feels regarding sufficient evidence to constitute probable cause to justify a warrant being issued. The search warrant must list a specific criminal activity, detail the property, or items to be searched or seized, and name the person or place location to be searched,...
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...Criminal Procedure- Article Summary CJA 364 July 1, 2013 Garry Moore Criminal Procedure- Article Summary In this summary an article focusing on Cost v. Commonwealth is dissected (Call, 2013). The article focuses on an officer who approached a parked vehicle and noticed suspicious activity by the passenger. The search and seizure will be the focus of this case and how it relates to probable cause. The officer noticed Cost immediately reach toward his pockets as the officer approached the vehicle. The officer removed Cost from the vehicle when Cost did not respond to the officer’s questions about what was in his pocket. Cost gave the officer permission for a pat-down, but refused a search. The officer conducted the pat down and felt small capsules in Cost’s pocket. The narcotics training the officer received gave him a hunch that the capsules were heroin. Probable cause is interpreted as a belief supported by facts that a crime has been or will be committed (Taylor, 2013). The officer believed he had probable cause and proceeded with a search. His suspicions were confirmed, the capsules were indeed heroin. The officer attempted to use his experience as a justification for a probable cause and the search. However, the Virginia Supreme Court did not agree. The court stated that the passenger was not required to respond to the officer’s questions and was compliant throughout the incident (Call, 2013). The item was not in plain view, the officer could not have known if the...
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...Authentic Case Assessment on Laws Authentic Case Assessment on Laws The Fourth Amendment The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The law that governs arrests, searches and seizures, and issuance of warrants (arrest warrants and search warrants) is the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, above cited in toto. The Fourth Amendment is applicable only to government arrests as opposed to privately conducted ones, and in cases when the privacy of a person is intruded upon as when a search or arrest is conducted. The provision implicitly advances the exclusionary rule in criminal procedure which states to the effect that no evidence is admissible in court that was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment (Bacigal 2008 p.147). This rule was asserted in the landmark case of Mapp v Ohio, 367 US 643 (1961) where a woman’s house was searched by police authorities, who has acted on a tip that she was hiding certain bomb suspects, without a search warrant. Finding no bomb suspect, the police instead arrested her for the lewd pictures and books found in her basement on the strength of an Ohio law which prohibited their possession. After convicted in the lower court, a conviction that was affirmed...
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...Notes For Criminal Justice (Unit 1) Muse: What lies ahead for the criminal justice system? We cannot say for sure. Some of the coming changes are now discernible. A few of the more obvious changes include: 1. a restructuring of the juvenile justice system due to increasing violent juvenile crime and youth gang warfare; 2. the increased bankruptcy of a “war against drugs” whose promises seem increasingly hollow; 3. a growing recognition of America’s international role as both victim and purveyor of worldwide criminal activity; and 4. The rapid emergence of cyber-crimes, which both employ high technology in the commission and target the fruits of such technology. Drugs and Crime The relationship between drugs and crime rests on the concept of drug abuse. Drug abuse is illicit drug use that results in physiological, social, psychological or legal problems for the user. A drug is any chemical substance defined by social convention as bioactive or psychoactive. A psychoactive substance is a chemical substance that affects cognition, feeling, or awareness. Most drug users are recreational drug users, using drugs relatively infrequently and primarily with friends and in social contexts that define drug use as pleasurable. Most addicts begin as recreational users. Drug crimes fall into two categories: 1. the use, possession, distribution and sale of illegal drugs and the offenses committed either under the influence of drugs or surrounding the growing, making...
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...Criminal procedure policy paper CJA/364 DEC/19/2012 Susan Strick Criminal procedure policy paper Criminal procedure is broken down into two models and was designed by a professor who studied law at Stand Ford University his name was Herbert Packer. The first model is due process, this process believes in the rights of the individual this will be known as politically liberal. The second model is crime control this supports to regulate the conduct and behavior of individuals. This is considered politically conservative. These models are intended to embody the sets of different values that run the criminal justice system. In this paper both of the criminal procedure will be discussed and compared to show the similarities and differences. This will also be a way of figuring how the effects of policies in the criminal procedure this will be done by looking at the amendments made in the constitution of the United States looking at the fourth, fifth and sixth amendment and also the fourteenth. The fourteenth amendment including the bill of rights will be a critical aspect of achieving the goal of this paper. The procedure that is most used in the criminal proceedings is the due process model. As an individual a person will try to preserve the standard of holding their right to life, property, and liberty. As an individual a person will not let go of the rights without undergoing the right due process promised to them that is stated in the bill of rights. An officer even when...
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...Discuss the procedures leading up to a criminal trial and the importance of this particular procedure. -We all know that the criminal justice system is a process in itself. There are multiple steps from arrest to the release of the convicted offender from correctional supervision. Sources of rules in criminal justice include the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, state constitutions, the U.S. Code, state codes, court decisions, federal rules of criminal procedure, state rules of criminal procedure, and department and agency rules and regulations (“The process of,” 2012). Law enforcements need to do more than learn the rules, they need to be more discrete. This means choices have to be made when there is an alternative course of action. Being discrete is often common in the criminal justice system. Discretion comes into play whenever police make choices about whether to arrest, investigate, search, question, or use force. Similarly, prosecutors exercise individual judgment in deciding whether to charge a person with a crime and whether to plea-bargain (“The process of,” 2012). Law enforcements are not the only people that are discrete in the criminal justice system. Judges have to make decision whether to set a bail for an offender, agree or disagree to a plea bargain, and on what sentence to apply to an offender’s crime. The major steps in processing a criminal case are as follows: 1. When a crime occur, law enforcement has to perform an investigation. During an investigation...
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...The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure Erek Anderson, Rachel Coen, Lawana Garfias, Malerie Gomez, Nicholas Tellez & Sara Ungerer CJA/364 February 16, 2015 Instructor: Bobby Kemp Search and Seizure Search and seizures are highly debated topics in the United States. Stop and frisk, automobile searches and border searches all fall within the guidelines of the Fourth Amendment. Discussed in this paper will be what reasonable searches, seizures and arrests are and how they are applied. Also to be discussed is whether probable cause is needed during warrantless searches and how the right to privacy is weighed. Finally, this paper will discuss how America’s borders are being protected by the Fourth Amendment, and what exceptions to the rule are necessary to protect America’s security interests. Stop-and-Frisk The definition of a “stop and frisk” is when the police temporarily detain a person and “pat down” their outer clothing if a law enforcement officer believes a suspect is armed and dangerous (Center for Public Education, 2015). For example, if a person is observed walking back and forth in front of jewelry store, meets another person around the corner from the store, and an officer observes one person handing the other person something which they put into their jacket. The officer can stop and frisk that suspect because they will have a reasonable suspicion that the suspects could be armed, and are possibly going to commit a crime. A frisk, by definition, is a...
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...policing I feel that crime would lesson in community areas. Because of the movement of community policing, many police departments have implemented hundreds of diverse programs. Community policing can be distinguished along four basic dimensions: philosophical, strategic, tactical, and organizational. Probable cause is a level of reasonable belief, based on facts that can be required to sue a person in civil court or to arrest and prosecute a person in criminal court. Probable cause standards are more important in Criminal Law than in Civil Law. It is used in criminal law as a basis for searching and arresting persons and depriving them of their liberty. In civil court a plaintiff must possess probable cause to levy a claim against a defendant. If the plaintiff does not have probable cause for the claim, she may later face a Malicious Prosecution suit brought by the defendant. The lack of probable cause to support a claim means that the plaintiff does not have sufficient evidence to support the claim, and the court will likely dismiss it. This can easily be approved if more leeway way allotted to authorities to search on a basis with less restrictions. Source: Police Procedures Expert Michael D. Lyman, Ph.D. 30 years experience...
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...The Criminal Justice Process Katelyn Farlow CRJ 306 Criminal Law & Procedure Instructor: Robert Schneider June 2, 2014 The criminal justice process is made up of many steps and procedures; however they are made up of many stages. These stages break up the process in order to make sure no steps are missed before the final decision has been reached. It all starts with an arrest, then bail must be determined, pleas entered, hearings scheduled, and motions heard. “In addition to the law enforcement officers who investigate and arrest, several other parties participate in this process. They include prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses, judges, and juries” (Wright, 2013). Let’s take a look from beginning to end. First and foremost there is an investigation by law enforcement officers. The purpose of a criminal investigation is to gather evidence to identify a suspect and support an arrest. An officer tried to gain enough evidence to get a probable cause. A probable cause is the standard of proof required for a search. “Probable cause is sufficient proof that would lead a reasonable person to believe a person has committed a crime” (Wright, 2013). Probably cause deals with crimes that have already been committed and that there is evidence pointing to a certain person. Probable cause allows for search warrants to be issued and suspects to be detained. If there is no probable cause or a crime that has already occurred an officer may act on reasonable suspicion. When...
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...that the person or persons have committed the crime. Direct evidence would include a witness who saw the crime happen, video/audio tape of the crime, and statements done by witnesses, of the crime. Circumstantial evidence may come from someone who did not see the crime first-hand; it includes someone's feelings on multiple indicators in the theory of the crime, even though that person did not see the crime take place (Journalists Guide, 2011). 1.2 Decision to Charge: Prosecutors study all information provided by the investigators, and at that time Prosecutors decide whether there is enough evidence to charge/indict the case. Once the prosecutor believes that they have a lock tight case, he or she may request a warrant bases off probable cause. The federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government will bring the affidavit or...
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