Under English law there are 3 varieties trial processes in Criminal law. The types of criminal trial are "outline" or "indictment" and also the third kind is "either means" that is an offence that can be tried in either court. Outline trials take place within the lower court, that of the Magistrates Court. Indictment trials normally begin within the Magistrates Court before they're cited the upper court, the Crown Court for trial.
Less serious offences are forbidden in the Magistrate Court, these types of offences are referred to as outline offences. Offences that fall into this group embody low level motoring offences, minor assault, some arson cases and different low level crime like criminal damage and taking while not the drivers consent. There are limits to the types of cases that a Magistrates Court can deal with.
Crown Courts accommodate the a lot of serious criminal offences. These crimes are titled indictable offences and cowl a wide selection of acts. Indictable offences embrace, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, blackmail and armed robbery. People charged with these offences have their initial court appearance in the Magistrates court before the referral to the Crown Court. At this stage the Magistrate should decide if the defendant ought to be released on bail or to keep them in custody. This stage of the process is called the primary appearance.
Either method cases are those who full between the 2 levels and can be tried by magistrates or by a Decide and Jury in a Crown Court. Magistrates will "decline jurisdiction" on cases that they believe are too serious for them to deal with. If this is the case then the case must be handled in the Crown Court. An adult defendant can ask for trial by jury in an exceedingly crown court and therefore the court system should comply with this.
Trials in the Magistrate Court happen in one of 2 ways. The most common of these is a trial that takes place before a bench of "lay magistrates". This should be created up of at least 3 folks however they're not normally lawyers or solicitors. The less common kind of Magistrates Court trial is that of a Stipendiary Magistrate. This can be a case that will be heard by a locality decide (a qualified lawyer) who will sit on their own. Stipendiary Magistrates tend to sit in busy court areas or on complex cases.
Within the Crown Court the trial is overseen by a Circuit Judge or a High Court Judge and a jury. The status of the choose depends on the seriousness of the and complicated nature of the offence. A jury is solely referred to as within the defendant enters a plea of "not guilty".
Trial by Jury has been central to English Common Law since the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215. In England and Wales juries are made of twelve folks aged between 18 and 70 years old. In the past a unanimous verdict was required, one on which all the jurors agreed. This has been amended to permit for majority verdicts of ten-2.
Criminal law in England is usually evolving and therefore the recent Heathrow theft trial was the primary trial without a jury in England for nearly four hundred years. The trial was administrated in front of a decide as a result of of fears of jury tampering.
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