The Appeals Process Stage of a Criminal Case

The Appeals Process Stage of a Criminal Case Anyone convicted of a crime has the right to appeal that conviction if they believe a legal error has occurred. If you have been convicted of a crime and plan to appeal, you are no longer known as the defendant, you are now the appellant in the case. In criminal cases, an appeal asks a higher court to look at the record of the trial proceedings to determine if a legal error occurred that may have affected the outcome of the trial or the sentence imposed by the judge. Appealing Legal Errors An appeal rarely challenges the decision of the jury, but rather challenges any legal errors that the judge or the prosecution may have made during the trial. Any ruling that the judge made during the preliminary hearing, during pre-trial motions and during the trial itself can be appealed if the appellant believes the ruling was in error. For example, if your lawyer made a pre-trial motion challenging the legality of the search of your car and the judge ruled that the police did not need a search warrant, that ruling can be appealed because it allowed evidence to be seen by the jury that would not have otherwise seen. Notice of Appeal Your attorney will have plenty of time to prepare your formal appeal, but in most states, you have a limited time to announce your intention to appeal your conviction or sentence. In some states, you have only 10 days to decide if there are issues that can be appealed. Your notice of appeal will need to include the exact issue or issues upon which you are basing your appeal. Many appeals have been rejected by higher courts simply because the appellant waited too long to raise the issue. Records and Writs When you appeal your case, the appellate court will receive the record of the criminal trial and all rulings leading up to the trial. Your attorney will file a written brief outlining why you believe your conviction was affected by legal error. The prosecution likewise will file a written brief telling the appellate court why it believes the ruling was legal and appropriate. Usually, after the prosecution files its brief, the appellant can file a follow-up brief in rebuttal. The Next Highest Court Although it does happen, the attorney who handled your criminal trial will probably not handle your appeal. Appeals are usually handled by lawyers who have experience with the appeals process and working with higher courts. Although the appeals process varies from state to state, the process generally starts with the next highest court in the system - state or federal - in which the trial was held. In most cases, this is the state appellate. The party that loses at the appeals court  can apply to the next highest court, usually the state supreme court. If the issues involved in the appeal are constitutional, the case can then be appealed to the federal district appeals court and eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. Direct Appeals/Automatic Appeals Anyone who is sentenced to death is automatically given a direct appeal. Depending on the state, the appeal may be mandatory or dependent on the defendants choice. Direct appeals always go to the highest court in the state. In federal cases, the direct appeal goes to the federal courts.A panel of judges decides on the outcome of direct appeals. The judges then can either affirm the conviction and sentence, reverse the conviction, or reverse the death sentence.  The losing side can then  petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.   Appeals Rarely Successful Very few criminal trial appeals are successful. Thats why when a criminal appeal is granted, it makes headlines in the media because it is rare. In order for a conviction or a sentence to be overturned, the appeals court not only must find that an error occurred, but also that the error was clear and serious enough to affect the outcome of the trial. A criminal conviction can be appealed on the basis that the strength of the evidence presented a trial did not support the verdict. This type of appeal is significantly more expensive and much more lengthy than a legal error appeal and even more rarely successful.

Trash Islands - the Ocean Garbage Patch

Trash Islands - the Ocean Garbage Patch As our global population expands, so does the amount of trash we produce, and a large portion of that trash then ends up in the worlds oceans. Due to oceanic currents, much of the trash is carried to areas where the currents meet. These collections of trash have recently been referred to as marine trash islands. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch The Great Pacific Garbage Patchsometimes called the Eastern Garbage Patchis an area with an intense concentration of marine trash located between Hawaii and California. The exact size of the patch is unknown, however, because it is constantly growing. The patch developed in this area because of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre- one of many oceanic gyres caused by a convergence of ocean currents and wind. As the currents meet, the earth’s Coriolis Effect (the deflection of moving objects caused by the Earth’s rotation) causes the water to slowly rotate, creating a funnel for anything in the water. Because this is a subtropical gyre in the northern hemisphere it rotates clockwise. It’s also a high-pressure zone with hot equatorial air and comprises much of the area known as the horse latitudes. Due to the tendency of items to collect in oceanic gyres, the existence of a garbage patch was predicted in 1988 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) after years of monitoring the amount of trash being dumped into the worlds oceans. The patch was not officially discovered until 1997, though, because of its remote location and harsh conditions for navigation. That year, Captain Charles Moore passed through the area after competing in a sailing race and discovered debris floating over the entire area he was crossing. Atlantic and Other Oceanic Trash Islands Though the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the most widely publicized of the so-called trash islands, the Atlantic Ocean has one as well in the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso Sea is located in the North Atlantic Ocean between 70 and 40 degrees west longitude and 25 and 35 degrees north latitude. It is bounded by the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, the Canary Current, and the North Atlantic Equatorial current. Like the currents carrying trash into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, these four currents carry a portion of the worlds trash to the middle of the Sargasso Sea where it becomes trapped. In addition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Sargasso Sea, there are five other major tropical oceanic gyres in the worldall with conditions similar to those found in these first two. Components of Trash Islands After studying the trash found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Moore learned that 90% of the trash found there was plastic. His research groupas well as NOAAhas studied the Sargasso Sea and other patches around the world and their studies in those locations have had the same findings. It is estimated that 80% of the plastic in the ocean comes from land sources while 20% comes from ships at sea. The plastics in the patches consist of items like water bottles, cups, bottle caps, plastic bags, and fish netting. It’s not just  large plastic items that make up the trash islands, however. In his studies, Moore found that the majority of the plastic in the worlds oceans is made up of billions of pounds of raw plastic pellets called nurdles. These pellets are a byproduct of plastics manufacturing. It is significant that most of the trash is plastic because it does not break down easilyespecially in water. When plastic is on land, it is more easily heated and breaks down faster. In the ocean, the plastic is cooled by the water and becomes coated with algae which shield it from sunlight. Because of these factors, the plastic in the world’s oceans will last well into the future. Garbage Islands Impacts on Wildlife The presence of the plastic in these patches is having a significant impact on wildlife in a number of ways. Whales, seabirds, and other animals can easily be snared in the nylon  nets and six-pack rings prevalent in the garbage patches. They are also in danger of choking on things like balloons, straws, and sandwich wrap. Additionally, fish, seabirds, jellyfish, and oceanic filter feeders easily mistake brightly colored plastic pellets for fish eggs and krill. Research has shown that over time, the plastic pellets can concentrate toxins which are passed on to sea animals when they eat them. This could poison them or cause genetic problems. Once the toxins are concentrated in the tissue of one animal, they can magnify across the food chain similar to the pesticide DDT. Finally, the floating trash can also aid in the spread of species to new habitats. Take, for instance, a type of barnacle. It can attach to a floating plastic bottle, grow, and move to an area where it is not naturally found. The arrival of the new barnacle could then possibly cause problems for the areas native species. The Future for the Trash Islands Research conducted by Moore, NOAA, and other agencies show that  trash islands are continuing to grow. Attempts have been made to clean them up but there is simply too much material over too large of an area to make any significant impact. Some of the best ways to aid in the cleanup of these islands are to suppress their growth by enacting stronger recycling and disposal policies, cleaning up the worlds beaches, and reducing the amount of trash going into the worlds oceans.

The Fashion Industry and the New Consumer Essay

The Fashion Industry and the New Consumer - Essay Example The paper "The Fashion Industry and the New Consumer" examines marketing concepts for the one of the United Kingdom top fashion brands Marks and Spencer. When we discuss marketing oriented organisations, it is agreeable that Marks and Spencer is one of the organisations in the United Kingdom that practices it. As a matter of fact, the fashion retailer can be described with five major characteristics of marketing oriented organisations; First of all it focuses on extensive and wide spread use of marketing research. ,T the organisation also emphasizes on the benefits of buying their products, that which are based on the attributes of the same product, it keeps on expanding its product lines in all categories and geographical regions. Tthe company makes use of various innovation schemes in order to enhance the value of the product to its target customers and lastly., Tthe company focuses its business inon adding value to customers like free delivery, warranty and credit availability. Ac cording to Armstrong, marketing and selling concepts usually focus on the selling of the products and moving out of firm’s products. This is usually looked at in a bigger perspective. Marketing concepts are meant to make a retailer product, meet the needs of its customers and also be able to make profits for the organisation. ThisIt means that a retailer will put his target on selling his goods and service, however, in order to succeed it is necessary to persuade its customers to embrace the products.

The Use of the Internet as a Social Activity and Self-expression Essay

The Use of the Internet as a Social Activity and Self-expression - Essay Example ss the statement: â€Å"the internet has presented individuals with real possibilities for self-expression, conversation and creative work.† To appreciate its relevance, a brief history of the origins of the Internet would initially be discussed. Other various uses of the Internet, aside from the focal points, would also be presented. What is exciting in this technological development is that it has not stopped evolving and there is still a vast future ahead. A lot of stakeholders have the desire to continue their quest to discover new applications and uses which would define the future of the Internet. However, the consequences of information overload and accessibility to data have tremendous effects on the traditional concepts of culture. Our way of life, due to the technology provided by the Internet, will never be the same. written by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in August 1962. According to Leiner, et.al. (2003), the history of the Internet revolves around four distinct aspects: the technological aspect, operational and management aspect, social aspect, and commercialization aspect. The emergence of new media technologies such as the cable, satellite and the Internet has a tremendous impact on the traditional forms of mass media. In a book on Media and Cultural Theory, Freedman wrote that â€Å"a combination of technological innovations (concerning digitization) and cultural shifts (towards a more individualistic consumer society) appear to have handed new media technologies a competitive advantage over their predecessors† (â€Å"Internet Transformations†, 275). With more and more people utilizing the Internet for various purposes, there had been significant declines in primetime viewing of broadcast networks and circulations in magazines and broadsheets. The Internet boasts of a variety of uses for a wide range of clientele. From among the famous users of the Internet, our teenagers of today are seen to be the primary consumers of the Internet. A study

Free Secondary Education in Kenya Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Free Secondary Education in Kenya - Case Study Example ade schooling unaffordable, and pushed many children out of school and into work. According to Damiano (2004) the current issues of transition are of great concern and it is possible to see that the large numbers of children are unable to proceed with.Obande (2007)) also states that "Just over half a million candidates sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (KCPE) at the end of 2003, yet only 46 per cent had the chance to proceed to secondary schools.Although the number of candidates enrolling for primary level examinations has steadily risen, the number of secondary schools has remained the same. Unless this issue is addressed, Kenya will be dealing with an explosion at the end of 2010, when the children who enrolled in 2003, with the abolition of school fees, will be taking their primary level examinations." Damiano (2004) states that the introduction of free primary education in 1974 indeed helped by increase in enrolment in primary schools by 40 percent. But with the advent of the cost sharing policy in education in the mid-1980s the parents had to spend more money on secondary items like textbooks, stationery, development fund, activity fees, and this led to discouraging of the enrolment in primary and subsequently secondary education. school and another reason for the eighties decline might have been the over all un affordability of education and this meant that despite golden promises by the post colonial government the primary education was not really free(Damiano 2004). However things were improving by the new millennium and in December 2002 primary and secondary education was wholly freed and this has resulted in a big enrolment increase of about 1,500,000 additional students.(Damiano 2004).The main problem which still haunts the free educational initiative is the lack of money,gender bias and poor economic conditions as described by Damiano (2004) citing , Uusitalo (1999) and Levin and Plug (1999) who have blamed the family background variables as instruments hindering free secondary education and according to Angrist and Krueger (1991) and Harmon and Walker (1995) as cited by Damiano (2004) demographic statistics are also responsible for these problems. Moses W (2006) offers a more historical perspective as he states that the post colonial independence and the end of racism in the segregated school system which suppressed the Kenyan natives ,the new democratic government has had a hard time catching uo with the challenges of the , shortage of skilled labour and rampant poverty and consequently the Government devoted a large

SHOULD STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BE TESTED FOR DRUG USE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Research Paper

SHOULD STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BE TESTED FOR DRUG USE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS - Research Paper Example The issue of drugs has been identified as one of the major issue affecting education in both private and public schools (Muscat, 2007). However, the public schools are more affected than the private schools. According to Samaha (2011), an assistant vice principal in a public school in the state of New Jersey found a student with marijuana and rolling papers used to smoke it. This is an indication that the student was using drugs that could affect her health and the social health of other students. This case can suggest that the use of drugs might be prevalent among students in all the public schools in the United States. There are also teachers who have been identified by the school administrators of public schools to be using drugs while teaching or before teaching. The use of drugs by both students and teacher is greatly affecting education in the public schools. Therefore, any teacher of all public educational establishments, regardless of whether it is high school, elementary or kindergarten, should be tested for drug use. Moreover, all the students in the public schools, especially the adolescent and young adults, should be tested for drugs. The testing of teachers and students for drug use would help to identify whom drugs affect most. This can help both the school administration and the government to decide the measure that are required to be taken to safeguard the social life of other students, as well as the quality of education. According to Alexander & Alexander (2011), the educational profession is heavily regulated in terms of the expected codes of conduct of the professions, as well as their responsibilities towards one another and towards students. The regulations imposed on this profession are mainly aimed at improving the safety of both the teachers and the students. The regulations are also aimed at improving the quality of education and to promote learning

American Presidents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American Presidents - Essay Example There is no doubt that the contrast between the two is stark, and that Bill Clinton was a far superior leader and far more worthy of the respect, admiration and gratitude of Americans. The reputation of the United States is the first area in which the difference between Bush and Clinton is stark. Under Clinton, the United States respected multilateral agreements, sought consensus among the international community on matters of great import, projected the power of the United States in a non-arrogant manner, and respected human rights. For example, Clinton pursued and successfully achieved treaties that grew and strengthened international trade, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). He also helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol against global warming. In addition, he utilized U.S. military power when necessary and within the context of NATO, as was the case in Kosovo. Because of his active solicitation of and respect for the opinions and influence of other nations, the United States enjoyed a high degree of respect and admiration throughout the world. On the contrary, Bush has led ... backpedaled on security assurances that had been made to North Korea, effectively provoking that country to resume nuclear weapons development and causing them to return to caustic anti-American propaganda and posturing. In addition, he pulled out of the Kyoto accord on global warming, effectively leaving much of the rest of the world high and dry when it comes to efforts to fight against the growing environmental calamity. Most importantly, he thumbed his nose at the world when deciding to unilaterally invade Iraq on a false pretext, and then arrogantly recast the Iraq war as the front line in the "war on terror" when it became apparent that his WMD pretext for the invasion was bogus. In short, the Bush presidency has personified the "ugly American" stereotype of the loose cannon cowboy blindly shooting first and asking questions later. As such, America's reputation in the world has never been lower. A second issue that illustrates a wide gulf between the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton is that of the economy and the federal budget. Under Clinton, America's economy sustained the longest and strongest economic expansion in history, adding jobs at an unprecedented clip, growing people's investment portfolios astronomically, and prompting an improvement in the quality of life of Americans at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum. Clinton got elected largely based on a groundswell of popular discontent with the state of the economy under his predecessor, George H.W. Bush. He did not disappoint, as few would argue that the economy did not grow at an amazing clip that benefited nearly all Americans. By contrast, George W. Bush has led America into a period of economic stagnation, essentially returning the country to the state it was in when Clinton