Components of Criminal justice system

Components of Criminal justice system

Introduction

The criminal justice system is the agency implemented to a government mainly for the jurisdiction of crimes. The method involves swaying sanctions or penalties to individuals violating laws. The criminal justice system operation is dependable on the court employed in a specific state. Thus, there are differences in the kind of administrations imposed and crime management practiced in various agencies. However, primarily, crime systems take inform of two ways, such as federal systems and state systems. State criminal systems mainly focus on crimes occurring at the boundaries of the state (Raghavan & Mishra, 2017). On the other hand, federal criminal justices deal with federal property crimes, usually informing various countries. In each case, the criminal justice system is typically set to practice truth to every civilian. Thus, the systems aim at convicting, punishing, and helping the guilty to stop violating laws. Therefore, the criminal justice systems seek to limit the offending rate in society and protect innocent individuals.

The criminal justice system involves various components that ensure proper justice administration to all. The three major elements include courts, law enforcement, and corrections. The courts are led by judges whose role is to ensure proper sticking and follow laws. Thus, they primarily serve as overseer of all court proceedings. Besides that, judges have other tasks, such as making decisions upon release of offenders (Mastrocinque & McDowall, 2016). They also must oversee trials in the court and decide whether to accept or reject any pleas from offenders. Last, judges are responsible for sentencing the offenders and determine the appropriate sanctions for offenders. Law enforcement, as an element in criminal justice, is ruled by law enforcers. The police have the power to investigate and report any crimes occurring at their locations (Epikhin et al., 2018). Thus, they play a role of collecting information and ensure evidence is safe by protecting it. Also, law enforcers are responsible for arresting law offenders and may give testimony concerning offenders during court proceedings.

Corrections are the other component in the criminal justice system and usually run by correctional officers. The role correctional officers are generally to oversee the convicted offenders. Correctional officers supervise offenders at various levels, whether the offenders are under parole, probation, jail, or at their prisons. The officers in charge of corrections may sometimes engage in the preparation of reports concerning pre-sentencing (Prendergast et al., 2017). The announcements usually contain the offender’s background information and thus help the court in making sentences decisions. Besides that, correctional officers have a role in overseeing the daily activities of inmates at their custody and ensure they are safe. Also, they engage in the processes of releasing inmates by providing offender status to the court.

Real criminal case scenario

The Grim Sleeper case is an example representing the actual criminal justice system that employs the law enforcement, court, and corrections as elements for the criminal justice system.”Grim Sleeper” is a murder case for eleven deaths that occurred with a period of two decades. Lonnie Franklin Jr was the suspect accused of committing the crimes as per DNA results. (Patterson, 2018). The name Grim Sleeper given to Lonnie Franklin Jr, resulted from his fourteen-year break from criminal cases. The suspect was arrested and convicted to have committed the murders of eleven individuals upon trial in court. The jury overseeing the case ruled that the suspect was responsible for the verdict of the killings of the eleven individuals.

The investigative process of eleven murderers started after the LAPD recognized several deaths in south Los Angeles. According to the LAPD, the bodies had a caption  “NHI,” which meant “no human involved.”Following the murders, a coalition was formed that identified the acts as serial killing and made the task to respond to the slaughter. The investigations were made practical by launching a media campaign and set an award for capturing the killer (Raghavan & Mishra, 2017). According to studies conducted by Los Angeles Sheriffs, the killings of the ten persons involved one person. The arrest of the Grim Sleeper was aided by DNA technologies that were used to examine the DNA of the suspected, thus uncovering various murder cases. The DNA was found to match with the detectives in the Lonnie Franklin.

The Los Angeles police used the interview to gather information about the suspect, and thus it helped to have enough evidence concerning the case. The familial searching employed in the interviewing process of Lonnie Franklin helped establish the connection between the suspect and the so-called Grim Sleeper scenes. Basing the DNA results, the law enforcers conducted an investigation based on the victim’s age and race (Clark, Mays & Cochran, 2017). The investigations of Grim Sleeper have conducted the approach of cold case investigation that deals with DNA typing. The investigations were led by Rock Harmon, who was in charge of the interviewing process. Through, the cold investigations by Rock police retrieved the suspect’s DNA that presented the evidence linking the suspect with the murder cases.

Court

After the collection of evidence and the arrest of the suspect, the court started to hear the case. The judge dismissed the DNA expert who wanted to testify the Grim Sleeper case and held that the defendant was not qualified. Another defendant, Lawrence Sowers, was set to testify about DNA results that match to the offender. The defendant was aiming to protect the suspect under the fact that the DNA samples belonged to Chester Turner, a serial killer (van der Watt & van der Westhuizen, 2017). However, the jury held the DNA did not meet the scientific methods for analysis. Sowers’s testimony faced a challenge from Deputy District Attorney, who questioned the educations and findings based on the DNA results. Thus, Sower was forced to change his conclusion on DNA results that led to the postponing of the case.

The murder case trial for Lonnie Franklin Jr s set after five years and accused of having committed the killings of eleven persons. Family members fueled the team for Grim Sleeper case scene victims who demanded faster trial. The fact that the law held that the victims could require trials of the offender, victims’ family members were able to query for more rapid tests (Prendergast et al., 2017). Some individuals claimed that Franklin’s attorney was responsible for the delays experienced in the justice system. Furthermore, there were blames in the prosecution where defense was blamed for those delays in the trial

During the trial, there were more developments concerning the evidence. Judge Kathleen ruled that the DNA match results could apply to the court as evidence since they were obtained legally. The prosecutors thought of death penalty for the serial killer was better due to the murder cases. Additionally, the investigators of the case also linked Lonnie Franklin to be responsible for other killings in Los Angeles (Raghavan & Mishra, 2017). After the accusations of ten murder cases, the offender placed a no criminal penalty. However, the circumstance charges against him rendered him to the point of the death penalty, according to the California court. Following the trial, the superior court in the supreme, Lonnie Franklin, was sentenced to death for every victim.

Corrections

After the arrest of Lonnie Franklin and presents to court, he was convicted as a serious murderer. The judge in charge of the case proposed of the same compassion of the offender towards the victims be awarded to him. His defendant argued for a life sentence to prison to ensure the victims would heal without hastening. The correctional officers involved in Lonnie Franklin’s arrest continued interviewing him on the murder cases. Through the interviews, they were able to access the DNA of the suspect and had evidence to present the courts.

If given the opportunity as a judge in the case of Grim Sleeper, one would impose death sanction for the offender. The offender had committed many crimes in Los Angeles and hid from the area to avoid his arrest (Counsil,2017). Death sentence for the offender was appropriate because if allowed to live, he would threaten society. Furthermore, the death sentence was a form of compensation to the victims.