Cases that involve a plaintiff suing another person for damages and money
Plaintiff - the person filing the lawsuit
Defendant - the person being sued
Misdemeanors
Less serious crimes that are punishable with less than 1 year in prison
Examples
Larceny (shoplifting)
Felonies
Examples
Robbery
Murder or Homicide
Burglary (Breaking and Entering)
Kidnapping
Rape
Steps of a Criminal Case:
A crime is committed
Police investigate
Arrest a suspect
Booking. Fingerprints are taken and their mug shot.
Preliminary Hearing (1st time before a judge)
Arraignment. Suspect is innocent or guilty.
If suspect pleads guilty, a trial date is set.
Trial
Verdict
Constitutional Law
Administrative Law
the body of law that governs the activities of administrative
agencies of government.
Cases over constitutional issues
Gideon vs Wainwright
Established right to a lawyer
Sixth Amendment
Guarantees right to lawyer, trial by jury, and a speedy and public trial
US Supreme Court
Furman vs. Georgia (1972): suspended the use of the death
penalty. The Supreme Court ruled the way the death penalty was
being used was "arbitrarily". "freakish". The ban on the death
penalty would last years.
Miranda v. Arizona: "Mirandizing" someone came from this case;
Ernesto Miranda was arrested, by the Phoenix Police Department,
based on circumstantial evidence linking him to the kidnapping
and rape of an eighteen-year-old woman ten days earlier
Mapp v. Ohio (1961): criminal procedure, in which the United
States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation
of the Fourth Amendment may not be used in state law criminal
prosecutions in state courts.
Gregg v. Georgia (1976): reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's
acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States,
upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon Gregg