Court Reporting. Write up two court reports, from the given material Essay

Court Reporting. Write up two court reports, from the given material each with a commentary - Essay Example While presenting the case, the prosecution reiterated that the girl had been found murdered in a field near Seaburn Metro Station over the weekend. She had five stubs in the stomach and medical reports presented in the court showed that she died from shock and internal bleeding. Before the body was discovered, the 14 year old girl had gone missing since Friday when she failed to return from school. A dog walker discovered the body of the girl lifeless in the field the following morning as police was already conducting a search. According to witnesses, the accused boy had squabbles with the dead girlfriend days before the incident. Detectives are still awaiting the test results of DNA samples collected from a knife used in the murder. The defendant’s lawyer, Doug Richardson asked the court to bail him out, citing the defendant had no previous criminal records. The court denied request for the bail given the weight of a murder charge. The defendant remains in police custody awai ting the next court hearing as the victim awaits burial next month. Commentary Whereas journalists have the responsibility to provide the community with accurate information of the happenings going on around them, there are legal responsibilities they have to consider when reporting events (Banks 2012, 02). Court proceedings are sensitive. While reporting the murder case involving the teenager, Paul Ross, the law requires that the name of the defendant be withheld. Whereas there is never any problem mentioning the name of the victim unless in a sexual assault or rape case, I chose to withhold the name of Monica Smith to protect identity of the accused. Additionally, the report does not detail the names of the parents of the accused and the victim for the same reason of protection of identity. This is particularly imperative given the fact that a defendant remains innocent until proved guilty in a legal procedure. In addition, the report fails to mention remarks reported in the court as having transpired before and after the incident. Before the murder, the defendant is reported to have states, â€Å"If I can’t have her, no one can.† Additionally, Ross is recorded to have broken down and confessed killing his girlfriend during police interrogation. He said, â€Å"I didn’t mean to kill her, just frighten her with the knife.† This report dodges these comments primarily to prevent a scenario that may show prejudice and bias. The journalist report fails to mention these statements as that would seem as though the journalist already has a formed opinion that Ross is guilty. It leaves the legal responsibility of determining innocence or guilt to the judiciary. Second Court Case The Newcastle Magistrates Court on Monday bailed out a revered Newcastle barrister after an awry â€Å"blind date† led to a lawsuit. The 33-year-old resident was charged with attempted rape of 19 year old Sunderland University Law student. The two were strang ers to each other until Friday night when they met at a popular nightclub in town. The young woman claimed that they did not know each other until that evening when the defendant bought her drinks and asked her out to smoke cigarette. She says it was at that moment that the defendant tries raping her, raised an alarm and escaped before calling the police. In his defense, the 33-year old Newcastle resident reiterated that they had mutual consent to spend the night in a hotel room next to the

Sentencing of People with Mental Disorders Essay

Sentencing of People with Mental Disorders - Essay Example It can also be defined as the authoritative decree of the punishment of a convicted person (Birmingham, 2002). Under this context, criminals or people who are found guilty of committing some crime have to face the consequences of their actions and the decision making is in the hands of an authoritative power which decides the penalties for the offenders. These decisions are made on the basis of a set of rules which are operating in the area where the crime has been committed. The rules and punishments are same for everyone irrespective of their color, caste or creed, but there are some special circumstances where these rules have to be tweaked. Same is the case with the people who are not mentally fit; their sentencing differs from criminals of normal medical conditions. Mental Disorders: A disorder can be termed as functional abnormality. Mental disorders comprise of a wide range of derangements in behavioral or psychological functions. These are mainly a combination of abnormal tho ughts, emotions, and relationships with others. This psychological instability and disruption in the equilibrium of motions is often reflected in the behavior of the affected individual. The set of laws and the law enforcement agencies work in different ways all over the world; the decision and punishment of mentally disabled criminals basically depends on the local area where they have been convicted. The Effect of the Selected Sentencing Policy on All Involved Stakeholders: No matter what laws regarding mentally disordered convicts is operational in certain areas, the decisions taken and the results of the sentence always affect the stakeholders one way or the other. Stakeholders: A stakeholder can be an individual or a group of people as well. A stakeholder is a party that is affected by or can affect the actions of the project at hand. In law enforcement, the stakeholders can be: Judiciary Probation and parole services Social service organizations Mental hospitals and treatment facilities Community etc. Even though according to The Task Force, created by the American Bar Association a person should not be sentenced to death or executed if at the time of the offense he/she was suffering from a mental disorder or was mentally challenged in a such a serious way that reflects in his/her behavioral and social adaptive skills. Even after these rules have been set, they are not applicable to all circumstances and some counties and their legal systems do not implement upon them. Furthermore the second rule of The Task Force states that offenders should not be executed or sentenced to death of at the time of the offense they had no awareness of the nature of the crime and the consequences associated with it. If they are mentally impaired and cannot exercise rational judgment or do not have any idea about the lawful actions that might be taken as a result of the crime, then in all these cases the guilty person should not be executed or sentenced to death as s/he is mentally challenged (Tabak, 2006). Criminals with mental disorders are released after a small period of incarceration. The period of incarceration depends upon the severity of the mental disorder and the nature of the crime. After that period, such people are often shifted to community centers, mental hospitals, or other treatment facilit