Transfer of criminal proceedings from one court to another in the USA
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of the regulation of referral of criminal proceedings from one court to the United States of America, namely under federal legislation and the legislation of individual states. Thus, the article refers to certain provisions of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (Judiciary) of the United States of America. The judicial practice of district and appellate courts on the specified issue was analyzed and attention was drawn to the most significant court cases that reveal the peculiarities of the use of the institution of referral of criminal proceedings in individual states. The issue of the influence of publicizing the case in the mass media on the resolution of the case by the jury and the influence of public opinion on sentencing and finding the accused guilty of a criminal offense was considered. It was concluded that the court may agree to a change of jurisdiction when the case becomes widely publicized among the residents of the district and may affect the objectivity of the jury or the nature and purpose of the committed criminal offense makes the case sensational, or for the convenience of conducting the trial, or when the accused is a well-known person to the residents of the district, or the judge harbors prejudices about the defendant, the details of the crime or other factors. Also, special attention is paid to ethical issues that arise in the process of referral. For example, how US judges should deal with bias or how they can guarantee the objectivity of judicial proceedings in conditions of public pressure and resonance. In addition, the work of scientists and practitioners on the described topic is highlighted. Thus, in the analyzed works, it is shown that motions to change the venue of proceedings are effectively satisfied even in the most high-profile cases, and in some cases, a change of venue may actually lead to a trial more favorable to the accused district than in the district where the criminal offense is likely to have occurred due to the social characteristics of such district. In general, the article can be an important contribution to understanding how important is the balance between the right to a fair trial and the influence of society on the judicial system.
Author: M. V. Karandas
Institution: Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404691936