Court Systems

Court System Visual

William McCoy

Introduction To Criminal Justice CJA/204

June/12/2012

Todd Larson

In today’s court system there are many moving parts that have to work together as a well-oiled machine in order to work properly. Without a functioning staff a lot of cases would be lost by the prosecution and many defendants would be misrepresented.

The Courtroom Work Group is made up of the individuals and teams who work together to successfully prosecute a Criminal Court Case. The word Prosecute means to carry a process out from its beginning to its end. The Courtroom Workgroup, then, works together from the inception of a Criminal Court Case and carries the Case through the Justice System to its logical conclusion. Every day, the same group of courthouse regulars assembles in the same courtroom, sits or stands in the same places, and performs the same tasks from day to day. The types of defendants and the nature of the crimes they are accused of committing also remain constant. Only the names of the victim, witnesses, and defendants change from time to time.

The courtroom work group seems to be a well-oiled system. Everyone involved knows the part in it and perform their tasks on a daily basis. Interrupting that process with changes in the person or the everyday habits of a courtroom work group could slow up the process of a trial and therefore should remain unchanged. The prosecutor has three main tasks: to investigate crimes, to decide whether or not to instigate legal proceedings and to appear in court. The prosecutor investigates crimes together with the police. He or she shall have contact with the person suspected of the crime, the victim and witnesses, and have close contact with the police.

When deciding which case to purse, a prosecutor must decide whether to bring criminal charges against the subject of the investigation. First, the prosecutor analyzes the case to determine if it is legally sound. The case must...