Chapter 11: Trial Defense and Prosecution

This chapter basically emphasizes on the duties, rights, and roles of those involve on a trial defense and prosecution. The Six Amendment has to do with the rights of the person who is accused of a crime. It basically guarantees him the right to a speedy and public trial, impartial jury, and the right counsel. The right to counsel has expanded in many known famous cases such as Gideon v. Wainwright 1963. It wasn’t until 1970 when the Supreme Court ruled that defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel. But if you think of it really good, imagine how difficult it is to demonstrate when the outcome of a case without counsel’s errors. Cases can actually be settled without having without a trial. This all depends on the prosecutor who decides whether to drop some or all the charges. there are several problems explained in the chapter about the court system. Some examples are increasing arrests and higher caseloads, a much more litigious society, and over reliance on pleas. What these problems done was just delay the adjudication process, claims of unfairness the way cases are being handled, and increasingly backlogs of cases to be heard. Two important vocabulary terms I found important were the due process model (which treats the preservation of individual liberties as the most important function of the criminal justice system.) and the Speedy Trial Act which was past in 1974 saying that the legislators all require that all criminal cases be brought to trial within a hundred days or they will be dismissed. Again, the Speedy Trial Act falls under the Six Amendment.