Courtroom Visit Essay

The judicatorys role is to give everyone fair access to the courts to solve level-headed problems fairly and efficiently, decide justly the guilt or innocence of anyone super charged with a hatred, and interpret the laws and protect the reforms and liberties guaranteed by the Constitutions of California and the United States. venomous court is where you go when the state believes you have committed a aversion and it files charges against you. The Criminal move has jurisdiction over infraction, misdemeanor and felony possibilitys. The Criminal Court conducts trials, motions, arraignments, preliminary hearings, probation hearings, mental health proceedings, and other types of culpable proceedings. In this canvas I will be discussing my visit to the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana on March 26, 2014 and my observations of the criminal proceedings in Department C58.In the courtyard were the public defenders, the district attorneys, private attorneys, court clerks, a cour t reporter, a bailiff, a resident probation officer, the jurist, in custody suspects, out of custody suspects, spectators in the audience and when needed an interpreter. The suspects were charged with a variety of divergent crimes including picayune theft, drunk in public, under the influence of a controlled substance, possession of geared wheel and more than serious crimes including possession of a controlled substance for sales, possession of a fire section, commercial burglary, forgery, fraud and counterfeiting as well as probation violations.The suppose took the bench at around 930 am and started with the defendants that were charged with misdemeanor offenses. The judge called separately defendants name each defendant would step up to the podium, the judge wherefore gave notice of the charges the defendant was currently being accused of. On several occasions the judge called the name of a defendant that was not bring out, she then issued an arrest physiognomy for the defendant, revoking their current bail, in some typesetters cases a new bail was banding but the majority of the warrants had no bail amount. For the defendants that were present out of custody the judge would offer the defendant a objurgate for the charges and postulateed for the defendants plea to the charges.If the defendant wished to plead not criminal to the charges, which commonly occurred, the judge then appointed the public defenders office to represent the defendant for the matter. In several cases the defendants were charged with a misdemeanor including under the influence of a controlled substance (HS 11550 a), possession of power train (HS 11364), petty theft (PC 484 a) and drunk in public (PC 647), these defendants provided the county with a warning of their DNA, they were required to pay a $75 collection fee and then charges against them were dismissed.After the judge completed the misdemeanor cases she moved on to the felony cases, which were more complex. Just like with the misdemeanor cases, the judge would call the name of the defendant and have them step up to the podium, she would then give them notice of the charges against them and ask if they were able to afford an attorney if they were not able to do so she then would appoint the public defenders to represent the defendant.The cases that I observed were in a variety of different stages of the criminal case proceedings. Theses stages include arraignments, pre trials, preliminary hearing and sentencing. In most of the cases the judge would schedule the case for a further date. In these cases the defendant is notified of their constitutional right to a speedy trial and in order to set the case for a continuance the defendant had to agree to waive this right.The defendants that decided to plead guilty to their charges were notified of their constitutional rights that they would be giving up by pleading guilty to the charges these rights included the right to a venire trial, the ir right to a speedy trial and their right to confrontation. The judge sentenced the defendants to a variety of sentences including fines, restitution, diversion programs, classes, county jail time, probation and state prison. The defendants that were in custody and were sentenced to jail time the judge would advise the defendant of his actual credits and his good time and give the defendant how many credits he/she had towards their sentence.If the defendants sentence included probation, the defendant had to agree to the terms and conditions of their probation and the judge reviewed the rights that they were giving up to be placed on probation, including the right to own a fire arm and the defendants search and seizure rights. In conclusion, I tack together my courtroom visit to be great learning experience. More specifically after visiting the courthouse and seeing our criminal justice system firsthand, I feel that I have a greater understanding of the different topics we have been learning about in class including the different stages of the criminal court proceedings, the constitutional rights each person has when charged with committing a crime and the different people involved with the criminal courts.