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Criminal Justice
Preventive detention is some kind of imprisonment of a special form. A defendant is held behind bars pending trial without having undertaken bail. It is a form of preventing crime within the system of criminal justice. It involves having defendants that are dangerous in restriction as a way of giving them protection (Siegel and John, p. 197). It is crucial for people that have been accused of acts of violence to be put under preventive detention. As earlier stated, this is one way of ensuring they are put under safe custody where they cannot be attacked by the mob. Additionally, it gives the victim assurance that the accused is in custody awaiting trial, and that justice will be done. It is not fair to the victim to have the alleged attacker running around loose. That is why preventive detention is essential.
Criminal defendants should be allowed to bargain for a reduced sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. For defendants in criminal cases, it gives them a chance of having a sentence that is more lenient than it would be the case when the conviction is done on trial (p. 183). Besides, it gives them an opportunity of having less severe offenses or fewer of them in the list of criminal records. When necessary, victims should be included in the process of plea bargaining.
Both preliminary hearing and grand jury serve as a check on overzealous prosecution by requiring the trial to offer sufficient evidence to support a finding of probable cause that a crime was committed and that the defendant committed it (p. 177). If dropping any of the two, it should be the preliminary hearing since the grand jury is far more likely to prevent an unnecessary trial.
The rights of criminal defendants at trial are limited. They enjoy privileges that are limited since they are subject to approval by judges. People should be denied the right to serve as jurors without explanation or cause. This means the peremptory challenge should be abolished since decisions by courts deprive lawyers of their discretion that is absolute in the use of challenges. The statement “In the adversary system of criminal justice, the burden of proof in a criminal trial to show that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is on the government” means that those defending a case by the state use everything at their disposal in a public debate (p. 161).
Work Cited
Siegel, Larry J., and John L. Worrall. Essentials of criminal justice. Cengage Learning, 2018.