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JUDGE
Like in a courtroom, the next play the administrative role during the court proceeding; the judges, court clerks, attorneys, the jurors, and several others, including the witnesses on a case, though, here our focus is on the judges and prosecutors who ensure justice is served to the people (Kim, Spohn, & Hedberg, 2015). With the judges being the fundamental pillar to ensure justice is reserved for the accused, the role passed to them by the supreme court’s chief justice. The most crucial part of a judge is a referee who ensures the proper orders are maintained, and justice is served. They become the supreme speakers in cases or courts that doesn’t have to involve the jury. They are required to be keen listeners to ensure a fair judgment is given or accorded to both the prosecutor and the defenses regarding their evidence supporting the case’s arguments. They provide all of that information made is authentic and make a justified decision of the defendant’s guilt or innocence (Court, 2017).
At the beginning of a hearing, the charges are assessed and read off by the prosecution. The prosecution determines the costs depend upon the crime and criminal history (Kim, Spohn, & Hedberg, 2015). In regards to offering alternative punishments, the prosecution team looks at the person’s criminal background. They verify whether the person has a severe criminal record, committed the same crime before, their involvement in the crime saved, etc. In the courtroom, they tend to monitor the defendant’s behavior and how they react to questions and statements made within the courtroom. If pronounced guilty, alternative sentences are offered toward the end of the trial, such as probation, house arrest, community service, counseling, and other alternatives. They look at the age of the defendant as well in determining the appropriate sentence for an offender.
For example, you have a 15-year-old African-American boy who has just killed his father. He shot him while he was sleeping. When investigating the incident, it is found that the father always beat on the boy. The boy has bruises all over his body, and there are records of the boy going in and out of the hospital due to bodily injury. How would you charge this young man (Tam, Abrams, Freisthler, & Ryan, 2016)? He has no criminal record, and he doesn’t seem to be a danger to society. He could have pleaded self-defense if he hadn’t shot the father while sleeping.
One option is to be sentenced to serve time in a juvenile detention facility because he did commit murder. This, in turn, might cause him to become an offender of society once he is migrated back into the community. As an alternative, he could be asked to have a psych evaluation done to determine whether the boy is mentally stable to relocated back into society. If approved, he could be required to adhere to counseling and house arrest, besides school, while the counselor reports back to the courts to show progress. The criminal justice system, specifically corrections, must supervise offenders incarcerated and in the communities. As prison overcrowding has increased, alternative punishments have become more popular to reduce incarceration populations.
The judge’s role of disciplining an attorney can be analyzed from the judge’s court powers to sanction and judicial attitudes and approaches towards regulating an attorney’s conduct (Judith A. McMorrow, 2004), with supreme court judges being empowered to control the behaviors of the law profession. It can be said that much litigation involving attorneys occur outside the courtroom, but judges, through their powers and sanctions they can set norms for the out-court litigations through the orders that they enforce to ensure the conducts and ethics are maintained during the motions or after and before the sitting (Jackie A. Gardina, 2004).
The objective is to resist the attempt to preach the professionalism concept about the best practices and not be seen as having a regulation dimension. Still, other vehicles can help accomplish the objective like the Chief Justices’ conference for the National Action Plan on Professionalism (chief justice conference, 1999). Like in using Rules 11 and 37, for example, judges have systematic procedures and substantive rules to deal with any lawyers conduct issues in the time of litigation, or a judge can too supplement the rules with own responses in line with the court’s power the judge is exposed to (Judith A. McMorrow, 2004).
The models support the paradigm since it is contained in the professional conduct and the guidelines driving the law profession. The models are said to be grounded on the law, history, and tradition of the law profession, making them straightforward and persuasive. The law doctrine recorded in the law books like the separation of powers and inherent court power has given the judges authority to monitor and enforce the lawyers’ rules. However, as per some scholars, this authority should be looked into deeply to authenticate its necessity and advantage to the profession (Eli Wald, 2010).
Reference
Kim, B., Spohn, C., & Hedberg, E. C. (2015). Federal sentencing is a complex collaborative process: Judges, prosecutors, judge–prosecutor dyads, and disparity in sentencing. Criminology, 53(4), 597-623.
Tam, C. C., Abrams, L. S., Freisthler, B., & Ryan, J. P. (2016). Juvenile justice sentencing: Do gender and child welfare involvement matter?. Children and Youth Services Review, 64, 60-65.
Wald, E. (2010). Should judges regulate lawyers? McGeorge L. REv., 42, 149.
Judith A. McMorrow, Jackie Giardina, and Salvatore Ricciardone. “Judicial Attitudes Toward Confronting Attorney Misconduct: A View From the Reported Decisions.” Hofstra Law Review 32, (2004): 1425-1474
CONFERENCE OF CHIEF JUSTICES, NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON LAWYER CONDUCT AND PROFESSIONALISM (1999):