Legal Terms
Last week on Tuesday, my cousin was assaulted by a
drunken man at a bar while having a drink. The two harbored differing political
opinions that led to the conflict. An assault is defined as a violent verbal or
physical attack against a person provided they occur in any of these two forms,
including Aggravated or Simple assault (Jones 102). My cousin, Tom, was very
distressed by the issue such that he decided to lodge an Aggravated Assault
complaint at the police station. An Aggravated Assault includes one that receives a more
severe criminal punishment as a result of its high degree of seriousness (Jones
113). When the hearing began, the jury was given 12 to 24 hours to make their deliberations
based on the evidence provided by Tom’s lawyer. The jury is a body that is
tasked with giving a verdict based on the majority vote in legal cases that
involve examining the evidence that is presented in court (Jones 114). When Tom
launched the indictment
or a formal accusation against the accused, the judge ordered the defense team
to present their case before the jury.
The defense lawyer could not object to the fact that
the accused, Mr. Moses, attacked Tom, but their argument was that the court
should not pay attention to the crime as if it is an act of felony. In some
jurisdictions, the most serious offense is a felony or an indictable offense. The
Defense Attorney made this
request because the prosecutor was considering First Degree Felony. A defense
attorney is a legal practitioner who specializes in defending individuals and
companies that are charged with criminal activities (Jones 118). A Second Degree Felony means that
the individual has committed a more serious crime than the First Degree Felony.
If the prosecutor would have satisfied the conditions of a First Degree Felony,
the accused would have been ordered by the judge to pay a fine of $25, 000 or a
jail term amounting to 10 years imprisonment. When a person is indicted for a Second Degree Felony, they tend to
receive a more severe punishment than in the case of a First Degree Felony. (Jones140).
Tom was particularly amazed by the judicial nature of
the prosecutor
in convincing the judge to punish Moses. A prosecutor is a legal officer who takes over the
responsibility of instituting legal proceedings against the person that has
been accused. He is normally identified as the lawyer who conducts the case
against the defendant in court (Jones 142). It
happened that the judge was not fully persuaded to indict the accused, so he
ordered for a grand
jury to further investigate the matter. When the court is not fully
satisfied with the evidence provided, it tasks a grand jury to conduct further
investigations by subpoena witnesses and documents. A grand jury refers to a
specialized body that has the capacity to initiate formal proceedings with the
aim of examining latent criminal conduct so that they could determine
additional evidence to support a potential criminal charge (Jones 336). They have to
gather as much information
as they can in a case. The idea is to avoid pushing innocent people to prison
facilities as a way of controlling the problem of over-population and budget
constraint. The rapid growth of inmate populations has prompted the Department
of Justice to come up with a five-year
plan in the Department of Corrections to manage this growth
whilst addressing the disturbing problem of limited resources (Jones 150).
After two days, the grand jury brought a comprehensive report to the court and Mr. Moses was ordered to pay a fine
of $500.
Tom was impressed by the decision of the court and he
immediately made his way home. When he arrived, he started watching one the famous
children’s television show known as the Sesame Street. Some of the elements that
were dominant in the show included voracious eating appetite, something that
reminded him of Cookie Monster as well
as Kermit the Frog.
Before he could even complete watching the show, the behavior of his children, which resembled those of Miss Piggy disrupted
him.
Tom’s children wear diapers at night and are fond of playing with plastic spoons. Tom
was shocked to see one of his child using a plastic spoon to taste beer from
the can of Miller Lite.
Before Tom could settle, he heard police officers in the adjacent building
indulging in a brawl with some teenagers who were found at a Marijuana Joint. The teenager had
been having fun since the previous night, drinking Miller Lite beers and
enjoying music from Justin
Bieber CD. The officers managed to place them in handcuffs as they were led into the waiting
cars. I must say that the teenagers were wearing clothes that resembled the
color of a cockroach.
Work Cited
Jones, Stephen. Criminology.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Print.
