THE PETE LAW FIRM

TRIAL BY JURY

Criminal Law What is Criminal Law? The law is a rule that every American citizen in the United States of America, agrees to live by, live under, and serve. There are different levels of law. We have the federal law. Which is the supreme law of the United States of America. The United States of America is a sovreign country. We all agree to be bound by the United State's federal law. The most far reaching, strongest, and important law is The Constitution of The United States of America. Under the Federal law there are State laws. Although every state in the United States are subordinate to the United States, each State however is it's own sovereign, and they have their own sovieign. What does Sovriegn mean? In it's most basic explanation, soverien is a Supreme Ruler, a Monarch and or a King. We live in State of Georgia, so our King is called our Governor. We all come under the authority and protection of the soverighn authority of both Georgia and the United States of America. Thus, as citizens of Georgia we all agree to abide by the laws of Georgia and the United States. Criminal Law. There are Federal criminal laws that can be violated and there are Georgia criminal laws that can be violated. Each has its on jurisdictions, rules and laws. Therefore some acts violate both federal and state law. Some acts only violate federal law. Some acts only violate state laws. However, if federal law conflicts with state law, federal law is supreme. Both federal and state laws have rules on how it can punish people that violate their laws. These laws are called criminal laws. These laws make it so that the King can fine, imprison, probate, parol, enslave and take away many civil rights, including the right to life.

Both federal and state law gives it citizens certain rights that prtotect them from the King. One of the most important rights they give, is a trial by jury. A right not to be punished by the King unless it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of it's peers. A jury is a selection of citizens of the accused peers to determine the facts of a case. The jury decides if the accused is guilty of violating the law or laws of the King beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury does not find the accused guilty, the accused is aquitted. That means the King that brought the charges is powerless to do any thing against the accused. However the other King could. If the jury finds the accusef guilty, the King can then label the accused a criminal. As a criminal the King can do whatever he or she wants to this criminal. He or she then can fine, imprison, treat the criminal as a slave, and take away all the criminal's civil rights, including the right to life. In essence, the jury is the only entity that can check the power of the King of Georgia and the United States.

The jury trial consists of three types of attorneys. 1. The judge also referred as the court. The judge or judges controls the trial and makes sure the prosecutor and defense obey the rules of the court so the accused may get a fair trial. The judge also passes sentence or aquits the accussed according to the verdict of the jury. 2. The prosecutor, who is an attorney that represents the King of Georgia, and or the United States. The prosecutor, has taken an oath that they will only bring charges against the accused that the prosecutor believes can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 3. The defense, who is an attorney, that represents the accused. The Defense has taken an oath to defend the accused by giving the accused assistance in the trial. This Defense oath is only to the accused. Thus, anything the accused tells the Defense cannot be shared with anyone. The burden of proff in a trial is on the prosecution. Throughout the trial the accused is presumed to be innocent even after the prosecution has rested his case. Next the defense brings forth evidence to the jury that the prosecution has made a mistake and shows that if the accused is found guilty it would be a travisty of justice because the charges against the accused cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt is a term of art that supports the belief that it is better that ten accused people go free than one innocent accused to be found guilty and marked as a criminal.

The jury determines the facts of the case after all the evidence is presented to them. After the defense rests, the judge gives the jury instructions. After the instructions, the jury goes to the jury chamber by themselves with only the evidence and the facts of the case. The jury reviews the facts of the case and they decide if the prosecution has proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt. If one juror does not agree, then the verdict must be not guilty. The standard of reasonable is a hard and heavy burden to achieve. Evidence is either direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is a fact derived from what person sees, hears, tastes, feels, and or smells at the time of the alleged crime. For example. If the question is "who shot the victim?" Direct evidence would be "I saw the accused shoot the victim." Circumstantial evidence is not direct evidence but is evidence that may suggest evidence of fact of an event. For example. If the question is who shot the victim, the witness may not have seen, heard, smelled, felt, and or tasted the act of the shooting at the time of the event, but still can testifyon what they saw, heard, smelled, felt and or tasted before or after the time of the crime. For example strong circumstantial would be if a witness testified, "I came upon the murder scene after I heard a gun shot. I came into the room and I saw the victim's dead body, and I saw the accused standing over the body and I saw blood on the accused, and I saw him with a smoking gun in his hand. Weak circumstantial evidence would be if the witness testified, "I saw the accused had a permit to have a gun."

The best evidence is direct evidence. In fact, most cases that have direct evidence get pleabargained and never see a jury. Most of the cases that go to trial are cicumstantial cases. Circumstantial cases are harder to prove because they leave more room for reasonable doubt. There are no eye witnesses, and so prosecution will ask the jury to jump to conclusions about the evidence. The more times the jury has to jump to conclusions the greater the reasonable doubt. Being convicted as a criminal has grave consequences. African Americans at one time in this country we're slaves. They were treated like animals. Thus, they had no right to a jury trial. Therefore the King could do whatever the King wanted to the slave. To be a juror is the highest, most important and the most powerful duty a citizen has. It is the only time that an ordinary person can tell the King "no."