Accused - a person or entity accused of committing a crime.
Acquitted - the term used when a Jury or Judge returns a verdict of not guilty, which means that the jury or judge didn't find that the State proved that the defendant committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Analysis - starts with whole, and then involves an effort to separate the whole into its constituent parts for individual study.
Appeal - the process by which a defendant's conviction is reviewed by a higher court.
Arraignment - the first court appearance in which the defendant is brought before a Judge to be informed of the charges, enters a plea and further court dates are set.
Arrest - the process of taking a person accused of a crime into custody (Jail) by a law enforcement officer.
Bail/Bond - the amount of money that a Judge determines is sufficient to release an accused and assure his/her attendance at later hearings. The accused must post a portion of the bond to avoid going to jail until the next court appearance or is liable for losing the total amount if the accused fails to appear for court.
Charging - the initial legal process where the prosecutor files court papers (by Criminal complaint or Indictment) accusing a person of committing specific crime(s).
Circumstantial - indirect proof from which the fact at issue may be inferred.
Classification - is systematic arrangement of objects into catagories based on shared traits or characteristics.
Competency - quality and kind of evidence being offered of person offering evidence, competent evidence is that which is admissible under rules of evidence for ppurpose of proving a relevant fact.
Corpus Delecti - each element is satisfied and someone is responsible.
Criminal Investigation - collection of information and evidence for identifying, apprehending, and convicting suspected offenders.
Crininalistics - recording, scientific examination, and interpretation of minute details found in physical evidence.
Cross-Examination - questions asked of a witness by the Attorney for the party that did not call the witness to testify.
Deduction - process of reasoning that commences with a generalization or a premise and by means of careful, systematic thinking moves to a particular fact.
Defendant - a person or entity charged with committing a crime.
Defense Attorney - an attorney employed by the defendant or the Public Defender's Office whose job is to represent the defendant's interests in criminal proceedings.
Deposition - an interview of a witness set by court order, taken under oath and recorded by a court reporter.
Direct Evidence - in itself, proves or refutes the fact.
Direct Examination - questions asked by the attorney that called the witness to testify at trial.
Discovery - the process by which the prosecutor and defense attorney learn of the evidence that the other party will present at a trial.
Disposition - the final result of a criminal case. This may be by a finding of guilty, dismissal or a plea of no contest.
Elements Of The Crime - the specific acts that taken together compose the crime.
Felony - a criminal charge which is punisable by imprisonment of more than one year in the State Department of Corrections.
Grand Jury - a group of 12 - 16 citizins who hear evidence presented by the prosecutor and determine if probable cause exists.
Guilty - plea that a defendant enters in court admitting that he/she committed the crime; a verdict returned by a jury or Judge finding that the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime.
Hypothesis - is a conjecture that provisionally accounts for a set of facts.
Induction - process of reasoning based on a set of experiences or observations from which a conclusion is drawn.
Initial Appearance - a court hearing within 24 hours of a person's arrest at which time a Judge determines if the person may be released on personal recognizance or by bond and setting a time for a preliminary hearing.
Investigation - the process of collecting evidence by law enforcement officers or the prosecutor to determine if a crime has been committed.
Judge - an attorney that is appointed or elected to preside over a court.
Jury - a group of citizens sworn to hear testimony and evidence at a trial and decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty of committing the crime.
Materiality - evidence is sufficiently important to influence the outcome of the issue.
Misdemeanor - a criminal charge which is punishable by a fine or incarceration in the county jail.
Mistrial - a trial ends when a rule of criminal procedure has been violated or if the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision.
Modus operandi - method of operation.
Motions - a written or oral request by the prosecutor or defense attorney for the judge to take a specific action.
No Contest Plea - a plea that a defendant enters in court in which he/she does not contest the facts presented by the State, but does not admit guilt. Except under extremely rare circumstances, the court will enter a finding of guilty.
Not Guilty Plea - a statement that a defendant enters at arraignment denying committing the crime.
Pasteriori - denoting reasoning from empirical facts or particulars to general principals or from effects to cause.
Personal Recognizance - a judge may allow a person accused of a crime with sufficient ties to the community to insure that he/she will return for future court dates to be released from custody without posting bond.
Plea Agreement (Plea Bargain) - an agreement between the prsecutor and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to avoid a trial.
Preliminary Hearing - a court hearing or preliminary proceeding in which probable cause is determined.
Pre-Sentence Report - a report prepared for a judge by a pre-sentence investigator describing the crime, the past behavior of the defendant, the impact of the crime on the victim and recommendation for sentence.
Pre-Trial - court appearances before the trial at which motions are heard and the judge monitors the status of the case.
Pre-Trial Interview - informal interview conducted by the prosecutor or defense attorney before the trial at which victims and witnesses are questioned about their knowledge of the crime.
Priori - from a known or assumed cause to a necessarily related effect, from a general law to a particular instance valid independently of observation.
Probable Cause - the amount of proof needed to determine that a crime occured and the defendant committed the crime in order to proceed with prosecution.
Procedural Criminal Law - how states may arrest and convict a suspected offender.
Prosecutor - an attorney whose job is to prosecute those accused of committing a crime.
Quid Pro Quo - something for nothing.
Relevancy - connection between evidence and issue to be proved.
Res Gestae - statements or acts, record of what is said or done.
Restitution - the amonut of money that the judge orders the defendant to pay the victim as a condition of the defendant's sentence for the victim's out-of-pocket losses directly related to the crime.
Rule 11 - a psychiatric evaluation to determine if the defendant can assist in his/her defense and is competent to stand trial.
Rules Of Evidence - secure a search warrant to obtain evidence, arrest only on probable cause, and administer miranda warnings.
Sentence - the determination of the judge of the punishment that the accused person is to receive.
Synthesis - is the combining or separate parts or elements.
Subpoena - a written order requiring a person to appear in court at a specific date to give testimony.
Substantive Criminal Law - The forbidden acts and punishment to be inflicted when law is broken.
Summons - a legal order requiring a defendant to appear in court for an initial appearance or arraignment.
Superior Court - a trial court presided over by a Superior Court Judge in which all felony cases are held and in which appeals are heard from Municipal or Justice Courts.
Theory - somewhat verified hypothesis, a scheme of thought with assumptions chosen to fit empirical knowledge or observations.
Trial - a court proceeding where testimony is presented to a judge or a jury to determine if the defendant is guilty or not guilty of committing the crime.
verdict - the unanimous decision of the jury or judge at the end of the trial that the defendant is guilty or not guilty of committing the crime.
Victim - a person or entity against whom a crime is committed.
Warrant - a legal order to a law enforcement agency to arrest the person named in the order.
Witness - a person who has seen or knows something about the crime.
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