courtroom observation 2

By now, you should have observed a court proceeding for a criminal case.

In this module, you will submit a paper summarizing the court proceeding you observed and other relevant information. Your Module 03 Course Project should include the following information:

• Date, time, city, state, name of courthouse, of court proceeding
• What kind of court proceeding did you observe?
  • Trial, hearing, plea bargain, sentencing hearing?
  • If you watched recorded content, you must be sure to explain the source (You Tube, etc.)
• What was the defendant’s name?
• Name of all participants (judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, any witnesses)
• What is the crime/specific criminal law that the defendant allegedly violated? (This will be important for the next part of the assignment.)
• What individuals did you observe in the court proceeding? (prosecutor, judge, etc.)
• What was the role of each individual you observed?
• How were the defendant’s constitutional rights protected during the proceeding?
  • Examples:
    • Defendant’s right to notice of charges
    • Right to counsel (Sixth Amendment)
    • Privilege against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment)
    • Right to confront witnesses (Sixth Amendment)
    • Right to present evidence (Sixth Amendment)
    • Right to a jury trial (Sixth Amendment)
    • Exclusion of illegally obtained evidence (Fourth Amendment)
• What was the outcome of the proceeding? (guilty plea, set for trial, conviction, sentence)
• Student’s reflection and overall thoughts about the proceeding.
  • Was it more/less formal than you expected?
  • What student learned from the experience
  • How experience helped student learn more about criminal law and procedure

Be sure your paper includes all information asked for in the assignment.