POLS 3600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bail, Excessive Bail Clause, Endangerment

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3600
• Professor: Ethan Boldt

Document Summary

Differences among local legal culture help explain why court decisions may differ even though the formal rules of criminal procedure are basically the same. Decision making in criminal cases is influenced by the fact that participants are organized in work groups. A collection of indivs who interact in workplace regarding how activities should carry out. At the time of arraignment, prosecutors begin to evaluate the evidence. This screening process greatly affects the lives of accused persons, whose fate rests largely on the prosecutor"s discretion. If the prosecutor believe the case against the defendant is weak, the charges may be dropped. A prosecutor may also drop charges if the alleged crime is minor, if the defendant is a first offender, or if the prosecutor believes that the few days spent in jail before arraignment has been enough punishment. Defense attorneys use pretrial proceedings to challenge the prosecution"s evidence.