The crime chosen in this case is murder. There are several requirements that the Washington State should undertake to prove that someone has committed murder. The requirements are such as the criminal act, the criminal intent, causation, concurrence, harm, and attendant situations. There State must prove that it is a criminal act, and the person acted voluntarily, and there is a way that he could have controlled the act. It must establish that the act is unlawful. The State must prove that the accused person had an intention of harming the victim and thus leading to a cause. The circumstance of this all is the death of the victim.
The criminal justice system has a role of controlling crime and also imposing penalties to individuals who go against the set laws. In the United States, there are two main criminal justice systems, and they are the State and the Federal Criminal Justice Systems. There are procedures in the criminal justice system that a defendant undergoes before he is finally prosecuted. There are various steps, but not all cases will have all the steps and follow the same sequence. There are four main stages in the criminal justice system, and they include; Entrance into the system, prosecution and pretrial, adjudication, and post-trial. In the Entry into the system, there is the reporting, investigation, and arrests or citations. Victims, witnesses, or even other interested parties report the cases to the law enforcement officers. The law enforcement agencies begin investigation and try to locate the suspects and also adequate evidence that can be used.
Arrests are made after when the officers have enough evidence or give citations to the suspects on when to appear before the courts. The case can remain open in any case the officers don’t get supporting evidence. In the prosecution and pretrial stage, there are charges, first court appearance, bail or bond, preliminary hearing or grand jury and then arraignment. The prosecutor will look into the case and decide on whether to file a case or throw it out. On the first appearance, the accused person appears before the courts when the prosecutor files formal charges. The judge will then decide to continue with the case and hold him or release the accused. An attorney or an assigned public defender is given to represent the accused in case they do not have one. The accused person will be released on bail or bond, or the judge might decide to hold him based on several factors. A grand jury will after decide if the accused has a case to answer after the prosecutor presents evidence. The defendant is then arraigned in court to be informed of the charges he has been accused of.
The trial process begins after, and this entails plea agreements and trials. Plea agreements come before trials begin and most defendants resolve their cases at this stage. Trials are conducted and based on the evidence, and the judge gives final verdicts. The last stage is the post-trial phase, where sentencing, appeals, punishment, and probation are conducted. The judge reads out the sentence to the victims and gives a decision on the matter. The defendant can after appeal the case in a bid to overturn the ruling. Punishments follow after, and such include serving jail terms, and others are put under rehabilitation process within the community. There are some cases where the judge might suspend a prison or a jail sentence.