1. Introduction

a)

Courts are considered to interpret the law by trying to evaluate and clarify the meaning of the law. A court is considered to interpret from a Constitution or any other statute or through any kind of agency regulation. In addition to such, the courts are considered to determine the legitimacy of the law. The Pierce County District Court is considered to be an independent authority or an impartial branch of the government and its main purpose is to respect and promote the law along with the society and various other individual rights. It also tries to provide various open and accessible forums, which are also considered to be effective for all kinds of dispute resolution system. It also tries to resolve all kinds of legal matters in a way, which would be just and efficient, and it aims to solve it in a timely manner, provides with assurance to the parties, and provides them with dignified and other fair treatment. The above-mentioned court is considered to be located in the 930 Tacoma Avenue South.

b)

The study that was made for this research paper was through observation of various trials and trying to take notes for such. The data or the information that was collected was through observing the trials which were occurring in the court rooms and after observing those trials summarizing such in a paper.

c)

The visitors who are considered to enter the courthouses need to have a pass which was through a magnetometer and they need to go through a security check or security screening checkpoints. After the screening at the security check point I was given a set of guidelines along with a list of prohibited items which would help in minimizing any kind of delays. As the above-mentioned court house was considered to be a safe place where the citizens would have an easy access to the courts and would be able to obtain justice. The predominant characteristic was considered to be checking for any kind of weapons and other prohibited items. There were three security-screening lines which were general screening line which X-rayed all hand carried items. The Express Line, which did not allow any kind of hand, carried items and the ADA line which accommodated those who required mobility assistance. It was similar to the security system at the airports.  After the process, I had to explore the place and went to various courtrooms, which was considered to be in an enclosed place, and the court of law was considered to be held in front of a judge.

Discussion

2. Courtroom Demographics

a)

The judge in the court rooms were sitting behind a raised desk which was known as the bench and behind the judge there was a great seal or emblem of the jurisdiction and there were flags of the appropriate federal governments or the state governments. The judges in the courtrooms are considered to wear a plain black robe and was hearing the cases, which were going on. Adjacent to the bench there is a witness stand and next to such, there was the desks of the court clerks where the court reporter is considered to sit. The courtroom was considered to be divided which would be between two parts and for such a barrier is considered to be placed and such is known as the bar. It might be considered to be an actual railing or some other imaginary barrier. The bailiff is considered to stand or sit which would be against a wall and this is done to keep the order in that of the courtroom.

b)

The courtrooms were considered to consist of the counsel of both plaintiffs and defendants and there were different seats, which were allotted for the jury. The parties to a case along with the witnesses were present with their respective lawyers. There was a podium between two tables, which were provided for the lawyers to argue their respective case to the judge. Through various studies, it can be found that the courtroom demeanor is important and the people in the court have to maintain certain amount of discipline while being inside a courtroom. They have to follow the proper code of conduct and maintain a decorum inside the courtroom.

c)

In the Crook County Van Cleve is considered to provide a disturbing and somewhat groundbreaking ethnography for the criminal courts of that of the Cook County-Chicago criminal courts, which were considered to be the largest system in whole of the United States. The study showed that how the judges along with the public prosecutors and the public defenders in addition to the sheriff’s deputies try to form and maintain such system of criminal justice. The study focused on the race-neutral process, which were considered to be used as protections for the tools of the various racial punishment. It also discussed the effectiveness of the policing practices, which helps in provide several cases to the court house which mostly include non-violent offenders who are considered to be the individuals of color (Van Cleve, 2016). Therefore, the outcome for such was considered to be a systematic triage which helped in determining the various allocation of the scarce resources. The similarity to such was experienced during the criminal trials as the police were guarding the parties who were involved in criminal activity and the offenders were kept with high security which would not let them escape. The similarity to such was found in the policing practices and activities along with the trials that were happening in the courtrooms.

3. Key findings

a)

Arraignments

An arraignment is considered to be a court proceeding in which the criminal defendant is considered to be formally advised about the charges, which would be against him, and for such would be asked to enter a plea which would be in relation to the charges (Neubauer & Fradella, 2018).

Theme 1- Drunken Driving: In this theme, the individual who was considered to be a criminal defendant had been booked for or charged for drunken driving and such is considered to be a criminal offence under the revised code of Washington or RCW under that of the section 10.5 of the Washington State legislature. In this particular case, the defendant had pleaded guilty as he was under the influence of alcohol and the evidences of his blood alcohol concentration was found to be higher than .08 grams per deciliter of the blood. Therefore, the defendant had pleaded guilty.

Theme 2- Murder: In this theme, a criminal defendant was considered to face the charges for assault and murder as criminal offence. Due to the arraignment proceeding he was made aware of his constitutional rights and he was given a defense where the lawyer helped him in pleading not guilty to the judge. The criminal defendant had also applied for a bail and due to insufficient proof gathered or collected the judge had provided or granted with a bail arrangement.

In-custody Pretrial Hearings

A pre-trial hearing is considered to be a meeting which would be held between two or more parties to a case and such is considered to happen before the beginning or the commencement of a trial. These help in clearing several issues and helps in clearing the difficulties relating to several administrative details, which can be tackled before any trial and such, would help the parties concentrate on the actual issues without any disturbances or distractions (Myers, 2016).

Theme 3- Assault:  In this particular theme, the criminal defendant had been charged for the offence of physical assault, which caused serious injuries to the other individual. There were discoveries made and the evidences were collected by the police authorities and in order to set the date for the trial and a pre-trial conference had been called for. A memorandum had been sent which consisted of the short statements of the particular case, and all possible details to that particular case had been mentioned in the memorandum. Such had helped the case as it acted as a brief exhibit which had been provided for the case and therefore, due to such every one was aware of the steps that were to be followed for this particular case.

Theme 4- Murder: In this particular theme, the criminal defendant had been charged for murder and therefore for the trial to commence there was a pre-trial hearing where the evidences which were collected or gathered had been provided to the judge before the trial and the list of witnesses that were to be cross-examined had been informed about to the court.

Trial/drug court

The cases at a crown court is considered to be tried by the jury. During the trial a case id=s presented and argued upon by the counsel and during the trial such case is considered to decide the fate of the defendant whether such individual would be considered to be guilty or not guilty. The judges decide such based on the evidence gathered (Clair & Winter, 2016).

Theme 5- Trial in the Drug Court: In this theme, the court during the trial for drug abuse tried to use the non-adversarial approach where the public safety was considered to be of utmost importance. The defendant who had participated and engaged in such activity had been placed in the drug court program.

Theme 6- Grand Theft: In this theme, the individual was going through a trial process for theft and therefore, with the help of evidence and the information gathered and collected by the police officers and it had been proved that the defendant was involved in the grand theft and therefore, he would be given punishment for a year to be in jail and would be charged for misdemeanor or any felony depending upon the circumstances.

b)

The above-mentioned themes were considered to be different from each other as all had distinctive features related to them. In the theme related to the drunken driving the driver had committed the crime and there had been evidences which supported the charges and with the murder trials the evidence were considered to be inadequate. Therefore, the criminal defendant had the opportunity of getting released on bail as the evidences gathered were poor. In the theme related to physical assault the proceedings were different and there had been a memorandum provided before appearing in a trial court which had provided with the specifics of the case. In the theme relating to the murder there were witnesses arranged who had been a witness to the crime which the defendant had committed. Such was considered to be a significant factor. In the case of the drug abuse trial the individual facing such difficulty had been sent to a proper program which would treat the individual. Lastly, in the last theme, the defendant had committed grand theft and therefore, the punishment would be imprisonment up to one year minimum. These were considered to be a social phenomenon as these steps were taken to ensure the safety of the public and the society from various violent individuals.

4. Comparison

Theme 1 with Van Cleve: Theme 1 discussed about drunken driving which was considered to be criminal offence and such was important because there needs to be clear awareness of the fact that irresponsible behavior can lead to personal injury or cause serious injury to others or even lead to loss of life. In comparison to the study of Van Cleve it can be understood that, such is different due to the fact that it focused more on the race-neutral tool and racial discrimination faced by a person of different color. Therefore, such was different (Richardson, 2016).

Theme 3 with Alexandra Natapoff: This theme is significant due to the misdemeanor of the individual as to being the one who had physically assaulted some other individual which caused grave injury to the individual. This theme is similar to the study of Natapoff as both discussed about misdemeanor but in comparison to the study of Natapoff it clearly discusses the ideology of misdemeanor if no crime has been committed or the kind of misdemeanors which do not look like offences. Therefore, it is different from the above-mentioned theme as the context of misdemeanor was different and in relation to activities which could not be considered to be offences (Natapoff, 2018).

Theme 5 with Murphy: This theme discusses the drug abused defendant and such is significant as there have been various cases of substance abuse problems or drug abuse which are increasing at an alarming rate and therefore proper treatment needs to be provided with which would help the individuals battling with such problems to come together and learn from it. In comparison to the study of Murphy such is considered to be different as it discusses the dark side of the forensic DNA (Murphy, 2018).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be understood from the above discussion that, the courtrooms provide with an enormous surrounding where individuals need to maintain a proper decorum. The court is considered to deal with various cases every day and therefore, I got to experience and witness numerous proceedings and was able to learn from such. The visit had helped me in learning the functioning of the judiciary system and how the cases which are dealt with are to be handled. In conclusion, it would be understood that the works of the other scholars had helped me in analyzing the difference between the proceedings and the cases involved and it helped me reach a certain amount of understanding about the operations of the courtroom system.

References

Clair, M., & Winter, A. S. (2016). How judges think about racial disparities: Situational decision‐making in the criminal justice system. Criminology, 54(2), 332-359.

Murphy, E. (2018). Forensic DNA typing. Annual Review of Criminology, 1, 497-515.

Myers, N. M. (2016). Eroding the presumption of innocence: Pre-trial detention and the use of conditional release on bail. British Journal of Criminology, 57(3), 664-683.

Natapoff, A. (2018). Punishment without crime: how our massive misdemeanor system traps the innocent and makes America more unequal. Basic Books.

Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2018). America’s courts and the criminal justice system. Cengage Learning.

Richardson, L. S. (2016). Systemic triage: Implicit racial bias in the criminal courtroom. Yale LJ, 126, 862.

Van Cleve, N. G. (2016). Crook County: Racism and injustice in America’s largest criminal court. Stanford University Press.