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Defense Attorney Discussion Paper

362 Words2 Pages

David, I agree with many points in your discussion board. Prosecutors and Defendants both take an oath that anything they present to the court is proven to be true. The integrity of the attorneys is a key role in the law aspect of criminal justice. When a prosecutor brings false evidence is brought to the court room then individuals have the chance of receiving a sentence they are not guilty for. While if an officer violates a convicted individuals rights and the defense does not present the violation in the trial, then this individual was misrepresented and both the defense attorney and officer should be punished. In 1963, Brady v. Maryland was established by the Supreme Court, which required the prosecutor to hand over to the defense exculpatory evidence. This allowed for the defense to gain evidence which pointed towards the innocence of the defendant. According to Brady v. Maryland 373 U.S. 83 the primary holding stated that, “withholding of evidence that is …show more content…

You mentioned in your post that whether the defendant is guilty or not, if they are violated by an officer then the violation needs to be put to light. What are some consequences for the defense attorney if he is caught not bringing evidence (that could alter a trial) to court? What are the defendants’ rights that are being violated by the officer? One of duties that is to be performed by a defense attorney according to America’s Courts and the Criminal Justice System is to, “zealously represent the client’s interests within the bounds of the law.” If the defense attorney fails to recognize the violation of his defendants’ rights does that corrupt the duty that is supposed to be performed? Proverbs 19:1 says, “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.” When attorneys distorts evidence in any way, it gives the court system a bad reputation with its relationship to the

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In today’s world a structured society cannot stand without the clear establishment of rules and laws that all citizens are forced to follow if there is to be any hope of peace. In these societies police fill the role of enforcer to these rules and have an obligation and duty to follow these rules to a much stricter degree because if they fail to comply with the law it leaves little hope anyone else will. Cases fill our nation’s criminal justice history with examples of law enforcement and other agencies working against the law and even breaking it in order to obtain the “greater good” and that can be seen in Imbler v. Pachtman (Samaha page 437). In this case a District attorney by the name of Richard Pachtman basically lied threw out the case and decided to pick and choose which evidence best suited his trial needs (Samaha page 437). When the truth finally came out he was protected by immunity and could only be sued in civil court (Samaha page 437).

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That is what most people say. However, not all juries follow this. Some jury just convict if he/she thinks that the evidence is reliable or logical. What should happen, in my opinion, is that the jury should take a look at the evidence and try to rematch it. What happened in the story was that the jury just accepted what the police said and didn’t want to take a look deeper.

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In the Terry v Ohio case, “The officer stopped and frisked the three men, and found weapons on two of them. Terry was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon...” (Oyez-Terry) the two victims of the unlawful behavior by the officer were obviously guilty of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. Yet, because of the policeman illegally searched and seized the weapons from the three men on that street corner, the evidence had to be thrown away according to the Supreme Court, even though the evidence conclusively proved guilt in the

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In the 1963 ruling in Brady v. Maryland, the United States Supreme Court ruled that any government state or federal has the duty to disclose to a defendant and his counsel any exculpatory information or evidence in its possession. If the

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The Constitution states “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” ( US Constitution) As you can see, the Bill of Rights 6th Amendment allows the accused to understand the charges against them: the accused is told what he/ she is being accused of, who is accusing them, and is allowed to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Moreover, it allows for the movement of rightful convictions.

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People should not believe everything online when only officers are doing their job. None of them like to be judged on how they are doing their work, officers are doing their job how they are shown. Most officers cannot show any kind of weakness, if they do many will take advantage of them and it will not be right for people to be getting away with many things. The body cameras, officers have will always speak the truth and show no police brutality is given towards others. Officers do not have them on at all times, which is a little of a crutch that people can get out of.

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Now there is two possible outcomes, there was police misconduct and abuse of power, or the police officer did everything correctly and by the book. Either way there needs to be something that can protect the public from police misconduct and also protect law enforcement from dealing with false accusations that can tarnish their reputation. That is why body worn cameras need to be mandatory for all police officers to wear because it protects the public and the police officers that are wearing them. A couple positive outcomes police officers wearing body cameras is how they can lower police officers misuse of authority and also lower false complaints against officers as well. These are two

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Many people, like myself, believe that police officers do not always get in trouble when situations like police racism or brutality happen. They do not think about getting in trouble because most of them literally don 't at all. When cops get caught for illegal actions they are just going to get in trouble by there own friends on the force, just to be put on paid leave. Not being caught is a big issue and is mainly why cops think that they can do whatever they want and completely get away with it. In many

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Many of these cases don’t have enough evidence to overturn or put away an officer who abuses his privileges of power. If the video from the body camera can be uploaded and displayed to a jury and judge it will benefit defenses. Lenience Williams of the Philadelphia coalition for racial, economic and legal justice said, “Opportunity to view the video on their own, says, ' they are left with the police version of what happened, and as we’ve seen recently their version isn’t always what happened (New York Times). " Cases are always brought up in the shootings but no evidence is sufficient enough like a body cameras would show. It goes based off the words from the officers, and what he writes in his reports.

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