Running Head: Criminal Justice

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Criminal Justice

Several landmark Court cases have initiated change and argument within the system of
criminal justice in the United States. Landmark court cases establish an important legal concept
or otherwise considerably change the understanding of existing law. There have been different
court rulings regarding landmark court cases, which are mostly based on the administration of
criminal justice. For instance, in Gregg v Georgia, filed in 1976, the jury imposed the death
sentence on Gregg, who was the defendant, after finding him guilty on charges of armed killing
and robbery. Though the Supreme violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States
constitution, this ruling effectively lessened class of murderers subject to capital punishment
(Lively, 1999).
Conversely, in Gideon v Wainwright, filed in 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that
Gideons conviction was unconstitutional since Gideon was repudiated a defense lawyer at trial.
The court ruled that the sixth Amendment of the Constitution offers defendants the right to
guidance in criminal trials where the defendant is charged with a serious crime even if they
cannot afford one themselves. This ruling simplified the fact that the presence of defense counsel
is essential and fundamental to fair trials in the United States (Lively, 1999). However, In Plata v.
Brown, filed in 2001, the State acknowledged that deficiencies in prison medical care violated
the Eighth Amendment of prisoners rights and specified to a remedial restriction. The Supreme
Court concluded that the main, but not the only, cause of the violations, and that decreasing
crowding would not completely cure the violations. This ruling violated the Prison Litigation
Reform Act by ordering California to decrease its population to remedy unconstitutional
conditions in its correctional facilities. In general, the reason of considering these three Supreme
Landmark cases is that the Supreme Court violated the constitution while making each of its
rulings.

Criminal Justice

The concept of discretion refers to an official action that is taken by a criminal justice
official such as police officer, lawyer or judge, in which they use his or her own individual
judgment, to decide the best course of action. The criminal justice official considers the totality
of circumstances before determining whether legal action should be taken against an individual.
The best instance of this concept comes in the case of mandatory sentences, whereby legislative
intent is often avoided by prosecutorial discretion. Police officers are usually in the position of
having to make conclusions on how to handle a particular matter alone, or with little extra advice
and without instant supervision (Pollock, 2012). The use of discretion offers a counterpoint to a
system fixed in an inflexible set of rules; moreover, the ability of an individual to make an
informed decision and to think critically is at home in a society that seeks to stabilize individual
rights with public security. All the same, the discretion limits police and courts to have too much
power over making verdicts that can affect the safety, liberty or life of an individual.
Nevertheless, it is important to understand the history of corrections in order to
understand the current state of corrections. This is because, the current corrections system is
much diverse than the early punishment system. For instance, the current state of corrections in
the United States is a result of extreme historical development. Past corrections were based on
the government which is not the case nowadays. The newer viewpoint was that the government
owned the crime and had the responsibility of punishing the criminal. A crime committed against
one citizen was regarded to as a crime committed against the entire society. This remains the
general viewpoint concerning crime in most of the corrections today. Therefore, to understand
the current state of corrections, it is significant to revisit its history.

Criminal Justice

References
Lively, D. (1999). Landmark Supreme Court cases. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Pollock, J. (2012). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning.