Assess the extent to which the current criminal trial process ensures that the guilty are convicted while providing sufficient protection for innocent accused. In light of your answer, evaluate the government's proposals for reform"

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SABIA HUSSAIN 2235713                LAW FOUNDATION 1500

“The government has said that it aims to put the victim at the centre of the criminal justice process

Assess the extent to which the current criminal trial process ensures that the guilty are convicted while providing sufficient protection for innocent accused. In light of your answer, evaluate the government’s proposals for reform”

Within this essay attempts will be made to explore preliminary procedures before an accused can be bought to justice, this implicates certain police procedures. From the point of arrest right across to the potential sentence, a number of procedures are in placed. I will be examining in some detail the trial process and will be commenting throughout the attempts the current criminal justice system has made to ensure the guilty are convicted and have provided sufficient consideration for the protection of innocent accused.  Prospective government reforms will be evaluated, drawing attention to potential merits and downfalls.

        In order to bring a suspect to justice they must first be arrested. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, regulates differing aspects of police powers. There are five codes of practice within the Act. Code A relates to stop and search procedures; Code B to the search of premises; Code C relates to interviews and conditions of detention; Code D regulates identification procedures; and Code E regulates the tape recordings of interviews. It is reasonable assume that an innocent party as a consequence of such police procedures will be eliminated from lines of inquiry as each code has been premeditated to ensure lines of enquiry are only dealing with people whom they have a firm affirmation are in indeed guilty.

        Britain has a judicial system with an ethos which runs on the conception that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. Here the interests of the suspect are prioritised, clear evidence that there is consideration that the arrested person may actually be the victim in the trial, it is the job of the prosecution to prove otherwise. When an arrest has been made depending upon its seriousness it will dealt with in the appropriate court setting. Ways in which this is classified varies from whether they are offences committed against people or property or according to the mens rea required for the offence for example ‘intention’ or ‘recklessness’. However more significantly is whether the offence is triable summarily in a magistrate’s court set aside for relatively trivial offences like traffic offences, or is an indictable offence, the more serious offences like rape or murder triable in front of a judge and jury in a Crown Court.

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There are instances when a class of offences can be triable ‘either way’. For example theft is a relatively serious offence, but been committed in a minor such as the theft of a loaf of bread, cases like these now account for about 80% of those tried in Crown Courts. In all offences triable either way, the defendant has the right of trial by jury. If the defendant elects for summary trial, the prosecution still has the right to remit the case for trial at the Crown Court if they think the trial would be more suitable. Summary offences are ...

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