Term Paper on "Criminal Justice Aggravated Assault, Which Is Occasionally"

Term Paper 6 pages (2111 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Criminal Justice

Aggravated assault, which is occasionally known as felonious assault, is defined as the illegal intent or attempt to harm or cause serious bodily injury to another with or without the utilization of a weapon. Aggravated assault does not have to produce a serious injury. If the threat was made and it was rational to believe that serious injury could have taken place, aggravated assault can be charged, with or without the existence of a weapon (Aggravated Assault, 2010). In the case at hand Victor Violent was involved in a serious altercation. He was cut with a knife by an assailant and a .380 automatic pistol was discharged three times striking the assailant Harry Helpless twice seriously wounding him. As a result of this altercation he Victor Violent has been charged with Aggravated Assault.

The best defense in this case would be that of self-defense. Use of force can be defensible when a person rationally thinks that it is required for the protection of oneself or another person against the eminent use of illegal strength. On the other hand, a person has to use no more power than emerges practically essential in the conditions. Force probable to result in death or vast bodily injury is acceptable in self-defense only if an individual rationally thinks that such power is essential to avoid fatality or great bodily harm. In order to be found not guilty of any type of physical injury related crime such as assault and battery and homicide utilizing the self-defense validation, one must demonstrate legal aggravation, meaning that one must establish that they were in a situation where not using self-defense would most likely end up in death, serious injuries and property damage (Defense, Self-Defense, 2010). In this case Victor stated to the police that he had to shoot Harry Helpless because he was going to kill him.

In this case the evidence that would be introduced on Victor Violent's behalf would be done in order to try and prove his self-defense contention. The evidence would have to abide by certain rules that have been set down in regards to criminal cases in order to be admissible. The rules of evidence control how a person goes about the job of attempting to figure out at trial what took place in the past, frequently under circumstances that are in doubt. In the common law system, confirmation usually comes in the form of witness testimony or testimonial proof. Evidence may also be made up of documentary evidence (Evidence, 2010).

Testimonial evidence is the most fundamental type of evidence and the only kind that does not typically necessitate an additional type of evidence as a requirement for its permissibility. It is made up of what is alleged in the court at the happening in issue by a capable eyewitness (Dicarlo, 2010). There are two policies that are used that only relate to lay witnesses as opposed to expert witnesses. The first is the firsthand knowledge rule and the second is the opinion rule. Rule 602 necessitates that a witness contain personal information of the subject matter about which the witness bears witness to. A witness's appearance of doubt, such as I suppose, I think, or I'm not sure, is not grounds for prohibiting as long as the person had the occasion to view. Regularly, the opinion rule is hard to comprehend, since the expressions judgment, deduction, and termination can be utilized in dissimilar behaviors in ordinary dialect. As a policy matter, it is expected that people's most important sensory thoughts instead of beliefs, terminations, or deductions drawn from those beliefs (Evidence, 2010). In this case there would be testimonial evidence that would be provided by the witnesses at the scene that told the police that Victor left the scene carrying a gun and jumped in a red Honda and drove about one and half blocks away parking the car. The key would be to determine if this evidence was hearsay or not. If it is determined that it is not hearsay then it would be admissible evidence.

Real evidence must be recognized as a precondition to permissibility. The expression real evidence is utilized to explain concrete confirmation that is traditionally associated with a case, as renowned from proof, such as a replica, which is purely descriptive. This is often referred to as demonstrative evidence, even though there is no settled upon language in this part (Evidence, 2010). In order to be admissible, real evidence, like all proof, must be relevant, substantive, and proficient. Setting up these essential fundamentals and making sure that they are relevant, along with any other unusual elements that may be relevant, is known as putting down a base. The significance and materiality of real proof are regularly clear. Its proficiency is instituted by demonstrating that it in fact is what it is thought to be. Establishing that real or other evidence is what it contends to be is known as verification (Dicarlo, 2010). The real evidence in this case would be the gun that Victor Violent took away from the scene and the bloody knife that was found at the scene next to Harry.

Documentary evidence is frequently a kind of real evidence. When a document is untied this way it is legitimized in a similar manner as any supplementary real evidence, by a person who recognizes it or, less regularly, by a person who ascertains a sequence of supervision for it. On the other hand, since they include human language, and for the reason that of the past expansion of the common law, establishes present particular troubles not offered by other types of real evidence, for example when they contain hearsay (Dicarlo, 2010). Hearsay evidence is proof of a declaration that was made other than by a person while giving evidence and that is available to confirm the accuracy of the matter declared. A declaration can be in expressions or behavior that is proposed by the witness as a replacement for expressions. The first stride in any examination of probable hearsay is the resolve of whether the declaration being presented is in reality hearsay. If the declaration is not hearsay, the examination ends. If the declaration is hearsay, step two is to figure out whether the hearsay declaration fits into one of the exclusions to the hearsay rule. Since proof of an out of court declaration that is utilized to establish something other than the fact of its substance is not hearsay, whether a statement is hearsay may rely on why it is being presented. If a declaration has a potential use as hearsay and another non- hearsay function, it is usually allowable subject to a restrictive teaching if demanded, and subject to the court's judgment to keep it out if the judge thinks that its harmful effect overshadows its probative worth (Dicarlo, 2010). In this case the documentary evidence would be the witness testimony that would place the gun that Victor carried away from the scene being the gun used in the crime.

Evidence that is gathered and offered to the court in a criminal trial is governed by three different constitutional amendments. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides the right of a person to be protected in their persons, houses, papers, and possessions, against unjust searches and seizures, and no warrants shall be issues unless there is probable cause, sustained by assurance or affirmation, and primarily describing the location to be searched, and the people or belongings to be seized (Fourth amendment, n.d.).

A seizure refers to the intrusion with a person's possessory concern in belongings. To gather the description of an unreasonable seizure, the property's owner must have had a rational anticipation of privacy in the items detained. An individual is detained when law enforcement workers use bodily force to restrain the person if a sensible person in the same or a similar situation would not feel as if they could leave the condition. The preceding possessor of discarded property cannot claim an unreasonable seizure of that discarded belongings. Discarded property is belongings that have been left behind by its possessor in a way in which the possessor throws-out the possessory attention in the property and no longer maintains a practical anticipation of seclusion with regard to the search. The prevention on unfair searches and seizures predominantly affects the work of law enforcement workers by limiting the measures that they might undertake in carrying out criminal investigations. The veto also prohibits difficult searches and seizures in the civil proceedings framework. Law enforcement may just carry out a search if individualized thought inspires the search. The Fourth Amendment also forbids sweeping searches, but for unusual conditions put the general public in peril (Fourth amendment, n.d.). In order for the real evidence to be admissible in this case it would have to be determined that it was obtained under a legal search and seizure.

The clauses included within the Fifth Amendment define fundamental constitutional limitations on police procedure. The constitutional framers derived the… READ MORE

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