Response needed to questions at least 150 words

1.    Discovery is the process of finding and validating the evidence that will be used against the defendant in a criminal court proceeding. Discovery can be helpful because it can help to get to the bottom of a mystery and provide solid evidence for a crime. However, obtaining that information, and the inherent red tape involved in that task, can hinder the process and may prevent some court participants from exploring further to find that discovery evidence. For example, in the case of a wife who is being abused by her husband, an officer may be called out to the home because a neighbor complained of the noise. Now, there may be a lot of obstacles and red tape that the officer will have to wait on before they can explore further for proof that the husband was harming his wife, but careful examination and process into the discovery evidence may yield fruitful in a court case. Class, in what other ways might discovery evidence be used?

2.    You pose an interesting question in regards to newspapers printing the names of people who have been indicted by the grand jury. On one hand, as it is a matter of public record, does it really matter if the newspaper prints the names or not? On the other, many people will follow certain criminal trials religiously either by newspaper or on social media. They will not necessarily take the time to go requesting the public records for the outcome, so their means of receiving the news is how they find out if that person has been indicted or not. To this end, perhaps it is a good thing that the newspapers print this information. Class, what are your thoughts?

3.    the limits and expectations of what falls into the category of probable cause. The cases of police shootings as they are attempting to search a vehicle or other citizen owned property have seemed to grow in number recently. What could be the cause of this? Police are not even to draw their weapons without probable cause for needing it. There are a couple of theories that could be explored on this front. The first is that people are becoming more and more out of control, so police are feeling that their lives, as well as the lives of those around them, may be threatened. In this case, they would be more likely to go to their gun first. Another theory is that, with this acceleration of the crime rate, there is an equal acceleration of frustration and feelings of being overwhelmed in the police task forces. Tempers may run high, so people may become more trigger happy. It is a sad thought, but a possible scenario. Class, what other scenarios might lead to a probable cause in this?