Essay On Misdemeanors Crimes

The criminal process begins when a law is first broken and extends through the arrest, indictment, trial, and appeal (U.S Legal System, 2001). The most serious crimes in United States are called felonies. In a majority of the states a felony is any offense for which the penalty may be death (in states that allow it) or imprisonment in the penitentiary (a federal or state prison) (U.S Legal System, 2001).There is also infractions and misdemeanors known for offenses. According to Iowa Judicial Branch, misdemeanors are separated into three categories: simple, serious, and more serious and is classified form the most to the least serious crimes (2008). Sometimes the misdemeanors crimes are consider being petty in most state. The punishment for
In a criminal trail the participant are the judge, prosecutor, defense counsel, baliff, court administrator, county clerk and the jury. A judge has the power and decides questions of the law and it’s elected by the voters. Baliff control the order in the courtroom. The clerk swears in jurors and control records of the court proceedings. A prosecutor is a person that prosecutes. A jury a group that is selected who are sworn in and determine the facts. If the trial will be held before a jury a group of citizens will be selected. The group of jury usually has 16 to 23 citizens. At the federal level 12 persons must render a unanimous verdict (U.S Legal system, 2001).In many states a jury may consists of fewer than 12 persons and render verdicts by other than unanimous decisions(U.S Legal system, 2001). The citizens are selected from the voter registration list. A group of possible jurors is summoned to be come to court. Once the potential jurors are selected the lawyer and judges questioned each one of them. The reason for the questioning is to see if the person can be fair and unbiased. Once that is done and the required numbers of jurors has been chosen, the jury panel has to be sworn in by the clerk