Due Process
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL COURT SYSTEMS
CJA/224
Julia Mosley
Week III
May 16, 2011
REBECCA ROSENSTEIN

Adversarial system when two parties develop and present their arguments, gather and submit evidence, call and question witness within the laws, rules and procedures. In such system, the judge acts as an independent magistrate rather than prosecutor; distinguished from inquisitorial system.
When a person is accused of a crime the burden of proof is on the state to prove its case, the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Once there is an arrest made by a law enforcement a preliminary hearing is set for the accused and he/she has a right to appear before a judge to determine whether he/she is being held-illegally. Writ Habeas Corpus: basically means that it is not to determine if the defendant is innocent or guilty; it represents whether the prisoner is restrained of his liberty by due process. It gives the prisoner to challenge a state conviction on constitutional grounds that related to the jurisdiction of the state court.
If a defendant is denied a defense to criminal liability that had prior enactment of the law, which it is call ‘ex post facto law’ it makes it unconstitutional. A law can pass on a fact or commission of an act, ‘ex post facto law’ defines as a law which provides for the infliction of punishment upon a person for an act done which aggravates a crime or makes it greater than when it was committed, a law that changes the rules of evidence and receives less or different testimony than was required at the time of the commission of the offense in order to convict the offender. (Cited Black Law Dictionary sixth edition)
Criminal process is when a person has to answer for a crime or misdemeanor that may led to an arrest. Law enforcement will investigate the crime such as if a person calls “911” and stated that a child