Courtroom Players

Courtroom Players

Tamara Manning

CJS/200

Robert Winkler

August 3, 2012

According to Criminal Justice Today, a courtroom work group is “the professionals are the official

courtroom actors and include judges, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, public defenders, and

others who earn a living serving the court,” (Schmalleger, 2009, pg. 323). These individuals must follow

legal requirements as well as having an ethical demeanor. They must also conduct themselves in a civil

manner, recognize a need to cooperate, and have shared goals. They work together too successfully

bring a trial to an end.

The role of the prosecutor is that they present the case against the defendant. Prosecutors introduce

the evidence against the accused person. They argue in favor for conviction. The prosecutor is the main

representative for the people. They have beliefs that violation of the criminal law is affronting the

public. The prosecutor supervises their staff or assistant district attorneys who do most of their work in

the court room. The prosecutor will also make recommendations at the time of sentencing. The

prosecutor will determine which cases to pursue by the sufficient evidence they have. While doing this

they team up with the law enforcement to see if they have enough evidence. A prosecutor determines

which cases to pursue by working with other law enforcement officers that are collecting the evidence

once the evidence is collected they then will review it and make a decision to see if they have a

sufficient amount of evidence to keep going with the case.

A possible change to the work group is to add some type of professional juror. The idea is not to

replace the jury of peers but to have an additional player in the court. This individual would have a

better understanding of the juror’s role in the court and could possibly educate or advise...