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Precedent And How It Operates Within A Criminal Court Hierarchy

1252 Words6 Pages

1. Explain the doctrine of precedent and how it operates within a criminal court hierarchy. (3 marks)

The doctrine of precedent is a rule in which a court uses the same ruling of a previous case if the facts and situation were very similar. This system must be applied if the case in which the precedent was set came from a higher court. These judicial rulings form common law.

2. Briefly describe the following court hearings and explain their main purpose: (6 marks)

a. A jury trial
A jury trial is a trial in which twelve law-abiding citizens selected from the electoral roll, are appointed to a case and will make the decisions that the judge must follow once all of the evidence and facts have been heard in court.
The main purpose of this system …show more content…

What were the charges against the defendant in the court hearing you attended? Were these summary or indictable offences? How did you know this? (2 marks)
Theft, unlawful possession of a knife and trespassing. The charges were read out to the defendant when he was asked if he was guilty or not guilty.

8. Briefly describe what was happening in the courtroom. This will depend on the kind of hearing you attend. For example, if you are attending a trial you might be listening to the prosecution’s opening address; or evidence from a witness; or a Judge summing up for the jury. If you are attending a sentence, you might be hearing the defense’s submissions as to penalty, or the Judge’s sentence. If you attend a Magistrate arrest court, you might see a succession of summary offences dealt with. (5 marks)
The judge confirmed with both the prosecutor and defence that all of the charges were correct and then the judge’s associate read out the charges to the defendant. Once he pled guilty to all of the charges, the defence barrister introduced evidence in the form of character references to help reduce the sentence. The judge then adjourned the court to read the psychological report submitted by the defence before passing sentence. The sentence was then given to the guilty

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