Puerto Rico Court System Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Puerto Rico Court System - Research Paper Example There are various weaknesses that could be acknowledged out of the current judicial systems and this is as documented by Griffin and Abbot (2006). Understanding the strengths and the weaknesses would undoubtedly go a long way in informing what should constitute a desirable judicial system. One of the strong points in Griffin and Abbot (2006) is that they develop a comparative approach to judicial systems, and this approach is advantageous because it does not only give examples of flaws in practice that should be addressed but also some strengths that could be adopted, such as by newly established states. According to Griffin and Abbot (2006), U.S judicial system is constituted in a federal manner whereby each state within the federation has a different judicial system. Under the state court system, one is regarded innocent until proven guilty. This implies that the burden to prove one’s innocence lies with the state and not the person being accused. The system is made stronger because it is the responsibility of the state to find someone guilty thus making a person optimistic about their innocence prevailing. Another aspect of this judicial process is that a criminal is assured of a fair, quick trial as well as enjoy the privilege of being judged by jurists. This means that not a single judge can decide on one’s fate as it is the case in other countries. It also implies that a person who is innocent has all the evidence evaluated prior to making the sentence. These elements are undoubtedly the strong points of judicial systems and inform any benchmark to constitute a de sirable court system such as for a newly established state... These elements are undoubtedly the strong points of judicial systems and inform any benchmark to constitute a desirable court system such as for a newly established state. However, there is a limitation to this in the sense that much of the evidence may be suspended due to the procedure. A cop collecting evidence must do so according to set down statutes otherwise they could be done away with. In this case, evidence on tape cannot be taken into consideration if the accused was not aware that a recording was taking place as he was being interrogated by the police. This has led to guilty people walking away scot-free for crimes they have committed. This is because the passing of sentence is recommended by the same panel of jurists who determined his or her case the process becomes fair. Furthermore, the process gives judges a lot of freedom when sentencing criminals. Reeves (2008), cites examples of cases where two people get different timeframes when they have committed the same felon y. That tends to be one of the shortcomings of the state judicial process. The article proposes one guideline, neither should there be minimum nor maximum sentence.Unfortunately, discrimination when passing maximum sentence seems to be confined to black males, as the majority of the population gets fair sentencing.