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Instructor’s Manual
to accompany
Courts and Criminal Justice
In America
Third Edition
Larry J. Siegel
Frank Schmalleger
John L. Worrall
Prepared By
Elvira M. White-Lewis
Bridgette Aicher
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Chapter 1
Legal Foundations
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter introduces the court system and its importance to our system of governance
and the reasons that we have government courts. The legal basis for the American court
system results from early legal codes, common law, modern criminal codes,
administrative regulations, and constitutions (federal and local). Protecting individuals
who come before the courts is essential to our system of justice. Defining and
distinguishing criminal and civil law are concepts discussed in depth in this chapter.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Explain the purpose and functions of courts and the dual court system.
2. Outline the history and development of law and the courts.
3. Summarize the guiding legal principles underlying the U.S. court system.
4. Explain the nature of disputes.
LECTURE OUTLINE
COURTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE
Teaching Note: Begin your class with a discussion regarding how much background
information that the students have about the courts. This can be an ice-breaker in a new
course and thus put students at ease. Give each student an index card and have them write
the five (5) most important functions of the court system. Keep the cards during the
semester. Return them to students and discuss with them at the end of the course. They
will be surprised at how much they have learned.
What Is a Court?
• Proper legal authority as spelled out in constitutions or statutes.
• Generally found in the judicial branch, as opposed to legislative and
executive branches of government.
• Empowered to make binding decisions-adjudications.
• Dual system of federal and states:
o At each level there is district court hierarchy.
o States have limited jurisdiction courts.
o Federal and state systems have appellate courts.
Courts in American Government
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Why government courts?
o Growth of larger societies shifted law enforcement from a private
affair to a public or governmental one.
• Dual court systems separates federal and state courts:
o Ours acting as a system of cooperative federalism.
o Can promote complications and confusion.
• Functions of the court system in a hierarchical jurisdictional way.
Functions of the Court System
• Upholding the law.
• Protecting individuals.
• Resolving disputes.
• Reinforcing social norms.
LEGAL BASIS FOR THE COURTS
• Religious Judeo-Christian values had a key role in the evolution of American
government.
• Criminal justice began with the Declaration of Independence.
Early Legal Codes
•
•
•
Code of Hammurabi.
Twelve Tables.
Signaled the emergence of formalized “law”.
Common Law and Precedent
• Emphasizes the importance of judicial decisions.
• Uniformity of judicial decisions came to be known as common law.
• Common law is in contrast of special law enforced in specific villages.
• Precedent refers to some prior action that guides current action.
o Judges decisions were “guided” by earlier decisions
• Precedent ensured continuity and predictability. Stare decisis, which is
Latin for “to stand by things decided,” is the formal practice of adhering to
precedent.
• Precedents change as the times change.
Modern Legal Codes
• Differ from early legal codes.
• Exist at different levels of government.
• Several different forms.
• Do not exist just to prohibit criminal conduct.
Administrative Regulations
• Rules promulgated by government agencies.
• Authority given by executive and legislative branch.
• Eases the burden on executive and legislative branch.
• Can be found in specific statutes.
• At federal level can be found in Code of Federal Regulations.
Constitutions
• Most significant source of law.
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o Tend to steer clear of specifics and generally place limits on
government authorities.
Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments.
Each state has its own constitution, which often mirrors the federal
constitution and can be more restrictive, but cannot relax protections
spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
Teaching Note: Before moving forward, review the sources of law to make certain that
students understand where the laws come from. It is equally important that they are
familiar with regulatory and administrative law as it is with the other sources.
Role of the Courts
Adjudication
• Primary focus of the courts is dispute resolution and the adjudication of
complaints.
• In the context of criminal justice, this most often means that courts decide
who is going to answer for an alleged criminal act.
• Without this adjudication role, courts perform the vital function of
determining who is and is not guilty.
• Certain courts (namely, the appellate courts) ensure that lower courts
applied the law correctly.
• Set of checks ensures that judges who make a serious legal error and
mistakes in applying the law incorrectly are held accountable for their
mistakes.
Oversight
• Nation’s appellate courts decide matters of law. Oversight is not direct like
it is in a supervisor–subordinate relationship. Courts only get involved
once a particular matter comes to the attention of an appellate court.
• Not all decisions are published, particularly in the lower courts, which
limits the oversight function.
Guiding Legal Principles
Presumptions
• A presumption is a fact assumed to be true under the law.
• Protects the accused, as does the adversarial system.
• Presumption of innocence is both presumption of law and a rebuttable
presumption.
• Examples of presumption include: sanity, death, against suicide, guilty
mind following possession of the fruits of a crime, knowledge of law,
regularity of official acts, that young children cannot commit crimes, and
that people intend the results of their voluntary actions.
• Presumptions serve basically as substitutes for evidence.
Constitutional Rights
• Help ensure that people accused of criminal activity are not rushed to
judgment and treated unfairly.
• Exist at state and federal level.
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Protect everyone in this country, not just suspected and accused criminals.
Even noncitizens (except perhaps terror suspects, which is an area of
ongoing dispute) enjoy the same protections as U.S. citizens.
• A close examination of the Constitution confirms that there is no mention
of criminals versus law-abiding persons or citizens versus noncitizens.
• Fourteenth Amendment and incorporation.
Bill of Rights
• Contains a total of ten constitutional amendments.
• Only four of the amendments are most relevant in the criminal justice
context—Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments.
• An exception is the Second Amendment, which deals with the right to
keep and bear arms, but it has little in the way of implications for court
and criminal justice procedures.
Due Process
• For criminal justice purposes, and particularly for a study of courts, the
constitutional rights of interest are those that can be found in the U.S.
Constitution’s Bill of Rights and in the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Substantive due process is concerned with protecting people’s life, liberty,
and property.
o No constitutional right to privacy.
• Procedural due process is concerned with ensuring fairness.
Teaching Note: Prior to a discussion of content for the next section, have students
discuss their perception of the word adversary. Make should that you emphasize that in
the legal system this does not mean enemy and give examples.
Adversarial System
• Pits two parties against each other in pursuit of the truth.
• An element incorporated into the American judicial system to promote
argument, debate, and openness as a defense against oppressive
government.
Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys: Mortal Enemies?
• Most work in collaboration with a hard-line approach not beneficial for
accused.
Opposite of Adversarialism: Inquisitorial Justice
• When thinking about the courts, ours is an adversarial justice system.
• It is adversarial because it pits two parties against each other in pursuit of
the truth.
• Adversarialism owes to the many protections afforded to people by our
Constitution and laws.
• Inquisitorial systems do not provide the same protections to the accused,
decisions are in the hands of a few individuals, and are more passive.
TYPES OF DISPUTES
Civil Law and Procedure
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Civil law is concerned mainly with disputes between private parties and to
the duties private parties owe one another.
• Private parties can include individual people as well as organizations.
• The government occasionally gets involved as a party to a civil case as
well, often in actions related to administrative law.
Nature and Substance of Civil Law
• Civil cases far outnumber criminal cases.
• Remedies include monetary damages and injunctive relief.
Categories of Civil Law
• Torts are civil wrongs recognized by law to be grounds for a lawsuit.
o Popular due to large jury awards and the shifting standards of
proof.
• Strict liability means that a party will be held liable regardless of
culpability.
• Contract law is when people enter into voluntary agreements by signing
contracts, such as to purchase a home; this creates important legal
obligations between both parties.
• Property law is significantly concerned with the acceptable uses of
property, such as those uses spelled out in zoning laws. Some property is
zoned commercial. Some is zoned industrial. Some is zoned residential.
• Property law also governs property ownership, not just ownership of real
property.
• Law of succession is concerned with how property is passed from one
generation to the next.
o The law of succession can thus be understood as the law of wills.
A will is a legal document wherein a person spells out the rights of
others over his or her property following the person’s death.
o If a person leaves behind no will (and dies intestate), the state will
dispose of that person’s property pursuant to applicable statutes.
o Most often, state laws require that intestate property go to the
deceased person’s heirs or closest relatives.
• Family law is concerned with matters of marriage, divorce, child custody,
and children’s rights.
• Spells out requirements as far as who can enter into marriage, what sort of
testing (e.g., blood testing) is necessary, what license and fee requirements
exist, what waiting periods are necessary, and so on.
Criminal Law
What Is a Crime?
• Any action that violates a statute duly enacted by the proper public
authority.
• An offense against society, as opposed to against an individual.
• Development of criminal law often lags behind societies changes.
o Example: terrorism
What Are the Categories of Crime?
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Crimes can be placed in at least three categories based on the punishments
that can (but may not, if courts decide otherwise, as they often do)
accompany them.
o Felonies are serious offenses generally punishable by more than
one year of incarceration. These are the most serious offenses, and
examples include murder, forcible rape, and armed robbery.
o Misdemeanors are less serious and are generally punished with less
than a year of incarceration. In fact, the vast majority of convicted
misdemeanants never spend time incarcerated. Public drunkenness,
social gambling (in states where it is not legally permissible), and
vagrancy are common examples.
o Infractions are less serious than misdemeanors and usually consist
of violations of state statutes or local ordinances punishable by a
fine or other penalty, but not by incarceration.
What Are the Elements of a Crime?
• Corpus delicti is Latin for “the body of crime,” and refers to the objective
proof (i.e., the reality) of a crime. A crime must be committed in order to
hold someone liable for it.
• Actus Reus is Latin for “the criminal act.” The prosecution must show first
and foremost that the person (either as a principal offender, an accessory
to the crime, or an accomplice) committed a criminal act.
• The prosecutor must also show a degree of intent on the offender’s part.
This is known as mens rea. There are various types of intent, including
general intent, specific intent, and negligence.
o General intent refers to a conscious decision on the offender’s part
to commit a crime. General intent statutes do not specify what
intent is necessary.
o Specific intent offenses, by contrast, specify the type of intent
necessary for a prosecutor to secure a guilty verdict.
• The doctrine of strict liability means that there are certain criminal
offenses for which people can be found guilty regardless of their intent.
Examples include drunk driving, statutory rape, most traffic violations,
illegal dumping, most code violations, failing to pay child support, and
selling alcohol to minors.
What Defenses Are Available to the Accused?
• Alibi defenses are available when the defendant (i.e., the person charged
with the crime) argues that he or she was somewhere else at the time of
the crime, making it impossible for him or her to have committed it.
• In justification defenses, defendants accept responsibility for the act they
are charged with, but they argue that the act was right under the
circumstances.
o Self-defense is an example of a justification defense. There are two
broad categories of justification defenses—those justified by
necessity and those justified by consent. An example of
justification by necessity is self-defense. Consent is a common
defense in rape cases. The defendant argues the victim consented.
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With excuse defenses, defendants admit what they did was wrong, but
they claim they were not responsible for the crime. Examples of excuse
defenses include insanity, diminished capacity, age, duress, intoxication,
and entrapment. The common thread running throughout excuse defenses
is an argument on the defendant’s part that he or she was not “normal” at
the time of the crime.
• Most criminal defenses are considered “affirmative”.
o Affirmative defenses are those formally raised by the defendant at
trial. That is, he or she presents evidence to support an alibi,
justification, or excuse.
o This means the burden of proof falls on the defendant instead of
the government to “prove” the defense is legitimate.
• Perfect defenses result in acquittal, that is, the defendant going free. But
not all defenses, even if they are successful, result in the defendant going
free.
• Some defenses are “imperfect,” which means that if the defense is
successful the defendant will be confined to some sort of facility (e.g., a
mental institution) or that the defendant’s conviction will be for a less
serious crime (e.g., negligent manslaughter instead of murder).
How Does the Criminal Law Affect the Courts?
• Criminal law makes work for the courts due to a need to sort through the
complexities and contradictions in statutes.
• Due to the fact that most criminal codes contain gradations of offenses,
this affords opportunities for prosecutors to charge defendants with the top
offense, which frequently leads to negotiations between the prosecutor and
defense attorney to reduce the charges.
• On the one hand, this “plea bargaining” activity saves courts time because
it is a means of avoiding trial.
• Judges must “sign off” on plea agreements, so plea agreements make
work for them, too.
• The typical criminal court not only adjudicates the offense, but also settles
on a proper sentence.
• Judges have been put in a difficult position due to legislative changes.
Efforts to curtail their discretion to hand down sentences have complicated
matters.
Teaching Note: Prior to completing this chapter, make certain that your students can
compare and contrast civil and criminal law including the elements of proof for each.
They should also be able to articulate the different types of defenses for criminal cases.
LIST OF CHANGES/TRANSITION GUIDE
•
A new chapter opening story features the surge in court cases involving police
shootings and excessive force, particularly in the wake of the 2014 Michael Brown
incident in Ferguson, Missouri.
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A new Courts in the News box features the Texas lawsuit against the federal
government that attempted to block the resettlement in the Lone Star State of 6
Syrian refugees following the Paris terror attacks.
The Jodi Arias Courts in the News box was updated with the latest sentencing
developments.
Two new “What Will You Do?” exercises appear at the end of the chapter.
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS AND CLASS ACTIVITIES
Mock Trial
A mock trial is a valuable learning experience in many ways. It may be used to help
students learn about:
• Specific areas of law
• Courtroom procedures
• Roles of courtroom personnel
• How courts in the United States resolve conflicts peacefully
Through participation in mock trials and analysis of the activity, students gain an
insider’s perspective on courtroom procedures.
Purpose
While learning the details of trial process and procedures, students also develop a number
of critical skills that are universally necessary:
• Critical analysis of problems
• Strategic thinking
• Questioning skills
• Listening skills
• Skills in oral presentation and extemporaneous argument
• Skills in preparing and organizing material
• Public speaking skills
• Knowledge of the rules of evidence
Of particular interest is the usefulness of this mock trial exercise in teaching the elements
of courts. It provides a high level of cooperation among students and encourages them to
remain engaged in learning the course material. This cooperative learning activity
encourages significant cognitive achievement among students from a variety of
backgrounds, and also improves student attitudes toward the course and each other.
Participation in mock trials helps students to understand better the roles the various actors
play in the justice system, as well as the difficult conflicts those persons must resolve
daily in performing their jobs. On a more complex level, mock trials also provide
students with an excellent vehicle for the study of such fundamental law-related concepts
as authority and fairness. Mock trials help students gain a basic understanding of the legal
mechanism through which society chooses to resolve many of its disputes.
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Resources and Materials
If you have access to an attorney who is willing to be a guest during your mock trial
exercise, he or she would be able to get the various forms that you can then reproduce. If
you do not have access to an attorney throughout the course, sample forms may be
located online with little difficulty.
Activities and Procedures
The mock trial project should involve every student in the class. Students not assigned a
specific active role will quickly lose interest.
In addition to attorneys and witnesses the mock trial will require the following roles:
• Judges or juries
• Clerk or bailiff
• Members of the jury
• Medical experts
• Law enforcement personnel
• Court artist
• Camera operator to film the entire case for constructive review
1. Randomly assign students into groups. Each group should consist of no more than
10 students for group dynamics and the possibilities of student attribution.
2. Devote a class period to introduce the concept of mock trials to the class. Inform
students that they will be expected to work on this project outside of class. The
importance of students using their own time for a majority of the project gives
them more ownership for their work.
3. Encourage students to go into their community to locate an attorney who will
serve as the trial judge during the presentation. Attorneys frequently volunteer to
assist students, and if you are in a military community, the Judge Advocate Corps
can serve in this capacity. Prosecutors, private attorneys, public defenders, and
appointed counsel are excellent resources.
4. Inform students that the actual mock trial (crime) will be introduced to them in a
subsequent chapter because it is important to first understand the foundations of
the legal process.
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER ASSIGNMENTS
Review Questions
Objective 1: Explain the purpose and functions of courts and the dual court system.
1.What is the function of courts in American society?
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The functions of the court are to uphold the laws as created and defined by
legislature, protect individuals, resolve disputes, and reinforce social norms.
Courts have legal authority to make binding decisions.
2. Why does the United States maintain a dual court system?
A dual court system allows for separate courts for the federal government and
federal issues from a state court system that addresses state legal issues. A dual
court system is desirable because it parallels federalism, wherein the only powers
of the federal government are those explicitly listed and the rest of the binding
legal powers are left to the individual states.
Objective 2: Outline the history and development of law and the courts.
1. What is the legal basis for today’s courts?
The modern legal courts developed from English common law and precedents.
These led to the development of early legal codes, administrative regulations, and
constitutions.
Modern legal codes exist at different levels of government and come in several
different forms. These legal codes prohibit conduct that is considered criminal and
provide important rights.
Administrative regulations are rules promulgated by government agencies that
have been given authority by the executive or legislative branch of government.
Constitutions are the most significant sources of law. The Bill of Rights consists
of the first ten amendments, which place important limitations on government
authority with respect to the investigation of crime.
2. How did courts develop in Western societies?
The Code of Hammurabi and the Twelve Tables were some of the earliest known
written legal codes. As societies began to grow, judges issued decisions and began
to write them down so that other judges could use the decisions. This aided in
uniformity. These decisions became known as common law. English common
laws were brought over with the early colonists.
These common laws were eventually written into our modern legal code through
our legislative branch of government and regulated by the limits placed on the
government through constitutions.
Objective 3: Summarize the guiding legal principles underlying the U.S. court system.
1. What purposes do presumptions serve?
Presumptions are substitutes for evidence. Presumption of evidence is the most
common, but not the only presumption. People are protected by presumptions.
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2. What is the difference between our adversarial system of justice and the
inquisitorial systems of justice that have sometimes been used in the past?
The adversarial system of justice features two competing sets of interests (the
defendant’s and the government’s through the prosecutor) working against each
other in pursuit of the truth, from which stems the many protections our
Constitution and laws afford people. Adversarialism promotes argument, debate,
openness, and a winner/loser.
The inquisitorial system is opposite of the adversarial system. The inquisitorial
system does not provide the same protections to the accused, the decision-making
is in the hands of one or very few individuals, juries are often the exception, and
the attorneys are more passive while the judge takes a more prominent role.
Objective 4: Explain the nature of disputes.
1. How does civil law differ from criminal law?
Criminal cases involve charges against an individual brought by a government
official because a violation of a criminal law has occurred and the victim is the
public at large. Civil cases involve disputes between private parties, shifts the
burden of proof from the prosecutor to the claimant, and remedies often include
monetary settlements. While criminal requires proof beyond reasonable doubt
secured by the prosecutor and the remedies may include incarceration.
2. What are the main categories of civil law?
Torts are civil wrongs recognized by law to be grounds for a lawsuit and are
popular due to large jury awards and the shifting standards of proof. Contract law
is when people enter into voluntary agreements by signing contracts, such as to
purchase a home; this creates important legal obligations between both parties.
Property law is significantly concerned with the acceptable uses of property, such
as those uses spelled out in zoning laws. Some property is zoned commercial.
Some is zoned industrial. Some is zoned residential. Property law also governs
property ownership, not just ownership of real property. Law of succession is
concerned with how property is passed from one generation to the next. Family
law is concerned with matters of marriage, divorce, child custody, and children’s
rights.
3. Explain the defenses to criminal liability.
There are several types of defenses to a criminal charge.
An alibi is when the defendant argues that he or she was somewhere else at the
time of the crime, thus making it impossible for him or her to commit the crime.
11
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The justification defense is when the defendant accepts responsibility for the act
they are charged with, but argues that the act was right under the circumstances
(self-defense).
The excuse defense is when the defendant admits that what they did was wrong
but claims that they were not responsible for the crime because of some condition
that precluded them from forming criminal intent (insanity, diminished capacity,
age, duress, intoxication, and entrapment).
What Will You Do?
Modern Legal Codes
Answer: Answers will vary, but should address that as an appellate court judge the
responsibility is to review the original case information and the law to determine a
decision. Appellate courts do now re-try a case or determine sentences. They only review
original evidence and determine if violation have occurred.
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