Due Process and Jurisprudence

December 19, 2024

Legislation,State Law

Introduction:

This legislation sees to detail Due Process and Jurisprudence, as well as court procedure and the Statute of Limitations.

Constitutional Justification:

The San Andreas Constitution, under Article III, enshrines a Citizen’s Right to a Fair Trial and Due Process – a fair trial and due process of law.

Application:

The Judicial Process of Trial will befall the following guidelines:

Court Proceedings will follow a standardized Judicial process; this includes, but not limited to judicial discretion of scheduling of all court proceedings based on offenses and type of proceedings requested. It is required that all parties of proceedings have a correct submission of documentation and summary of the request. The San Andreas Department of Justice will maintain internal guidelines for the conduct and expectations of trials. Specialty trials will follow different proceedings based on type:

Bench Trials shall begin at the discretion of a ready and able Judicial member.

If the Bench Trial stems from a warrant, the Defendant may request a Bench Review of the warrant. This is not a full Trial including questioning, but simply a Judicial review of the veracity of the warrant. The Judge will either dismiss the charges due to lack of probable cause stated in the warrant or the Defendant will be sent to jail and will be able to appeal the charges at a later date when the issuing officer is available.
Once a Bench Trial has been requested and acknowledged by a Judge/Justice, the individual must be seen by a Judge/Justice before they can be fined or imprisoned.

Traffic Court: traffic tickets and/or violations may not be appealed on the court docket and must be handled in the city only. A civilian may request a bench trial upon receiving a traffic ticket. If the officer who handed out the traffic ticket is not available at the time of request, the civilian still has 14 days to get into the city at the same time as the officer and request a bench trial for the traffic ticket.

Appeals: every citizen has the right to appeal charges placed upon them unless a Judicial power dismissed or adjourned a case with prejudice. Citizens have 30 days to appeal charges from the day the charges were placed against them. Citizens have 15 days to appeal cases dismissed or adjourned without prejudice by a Judicial Power. Citizens may only appeal once, i.e. only two chances for Judicial Consideration regarding any case is available to citizens.

Heinous Act Guidelines: Citizens who are charged with Heinous Acts with sufficient Probable Cause will be held for a period of no longer than 12 hours pending Arraignment. An individual will be considered arraigned once they have gone before a Justice, or, if a Justice is not available, once bail conditions have been placed on the Docket. Charges must be placed on the Docket within 72 hours of filing.

A Heinous Act is defined as the following:

Serial Assaults and Killings
Murder of a Government Employee
1st Degree Targeted Violence
1st Degree Murder
2nd Degree Murder
Witness Tampering
Harboring a Fugitive
Terrorism
Treason
Weapons Manufacturing
Unauthorized Operation of a Militarized Vehicle

Any and all individuals who are arraigned and are released from custody pending trial shall enter into these standard Bail Conditions. Additional Bail Conditions may be implemented based upon the severity of the incident.

Residence: You shall not change your place of residence without first obtaining permission from the Court, including but not limited to the purchase of any new properties.
Intoxicants: You shall not drink or partake in any alcoholic beverages to excess. Upon request by any the Court presiding over the case, you shall submit to a medically authorized test for alcohol consumption.
Controlled Substances: You shall not use, purchase, nor possess any narcotic drugs, any dangerous drugs, or any controlled substances without them being prescribed by a licensed physician. Upon request by the Court presiding over the case, you shall submit to any narcotic or drug testing immediately.
Weapons: You shall not possess, own, carry, or have under your control any kind of weapon, regardless of weapons licensing.
Cooperation: You shall, at all times, cooperate with Law Enforcement and the Court presiding over the case, and your behavior shall justify the opportunity granted to you by this parole.
Law and Conduct: You shall comply with all institutional rules, including but not limited to the Penal Code of the State of San Andreas.
Search: You shall submit to a search of your person or automobile, by the Court presiding over the case, at any time day or night, without warrant, upon reasonable cause as ascertained by the Assigned Parole Officer or the Court presiding over the case.

These standard conditions for Bail may also be utilized as standard conditions of parole. When bail is Granted to a Defendant by the Court, these conditions will be presented. The Judge/Justice overseeing the case shall assign a monetary amount for their bail. Should the accused not appear before the court for their trial, this amount will be seized from them in the form of a bill to their account or equivalent amount in personal assets in the form of property, cars, or other tangible goods should they not have the funds to cover the amount owed. These standard conditions may be modified by the presiding Judge/Justice in any way they see fit. The presiding Judge/Justice is the sole party who may violate someone’s parole based on an agreement tied to a Case. This violation is at the Judge’s/Justice’s sole discretion and no appeal process will be granted. Should these conditions be violated, the individual shall be remanded to Bolingbroke Penitentiary and held until the scheduled date of their trial.

Mistrials: Mistrials may only be called and approved by a Judicial Power of whom is presiding over the case in which the mistrial is designated, or a Justice of the San Andreas Department of Justice. All Judicial Powers or attorneys are REQUIRED by the State of San Andreas to motion for a mistrial if any rights herein are violated during due process or trials.

Writ of Habeas Corpus: San Andreas recognizes the Writ of Habeas Corpus as a tool by which attorneys may request release of their Client(s) given several factors. First, their Client(s) must be on a hold with no formal charges pressed by Docket filing. This does not include approved investigative holds by a Judicial Power or PD Command Members. Writs of Habeas Corpus should only be utilized when an individual has been held for 72 hours without charges filed.

Investigative Holds: PD Command are able to do their own investigative detainments of up to 24 hours, anything beyond that is to be approved by a Judicial Power and is not to exceed 72 hours total. To hold an individual upon investigation, the state must have reasonable suspicion upon the individual that they were involved in a crime.

Common Law of San Andreas: all Judicial Powers, Attorneys, and Police Department(s) shall follow the common law of the State of San Andreas. The San Andreas Department of Justice shall create a working list of all common law decided from court cases it has heard. Common Law may only be decided by a Justice from the San Andreas Department of Justice. This also includes common case laws such as:

Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985)
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106 (1977)
Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295 (1999)
Carroll v. United States 267 U.S. 132 (1925)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Trial Outcomes:

There are three potential outcomes for a criminal trial held in the State of San Andreas. They are defined as follows:

Guilty: The accused citizen in question has been found to be criminally liable and responsible for the charges they are accused of. This means they have been convicted of a crime or they have admitted they have committed the crime they are accused of.
Not Guilty: Not Guilty as a ruling means that the accused citizen has been found to be innocent of the criminal charges they are accused of.
Mistrial: A case being declared a mistrial means that the entire trial and process have been terminated without a verdict rendered. This means that the case can be rescheduled to be heard properly.

Civil cases may have different outcomes that include, but are not limited to, the following; monetary damages, punitive damages, restorative damages, civil punishments, asset forfeiture, compelled actions, or any other form of relief that a Judge/Justice might find necessary as a result of trial proceedings.

Attorney Client Confidentiality: Attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications between a lawyer/attorney and their client that relate to the client’s seeking of legal advice or services. This protection extends to any information exchanged during these privileged communications, encompassing not only verbal discussions but also written correspondence, emails, text messages, and other forms of communication.

Double Jeopardy: Citizens of the State of San Andreas shall not be prosecuted twice for the same criminal incident. The only exception to this is the Delayed Death Exception, which is when an individual is charged with a violent felony or other charge relating to the attempted murder or injury on a person. If the individual(s) who were harmed die at a later date from the injuries sustained in the original crime, the charge may be revisited by prosecutores and re-tried with the new appropriate charge.

Maximum Jail Time for Non-HAG/Court Ordered Charges: Citizens of the State of San Andreas shall not be subject to more than 360 months incarceration for accumulated charges that are the result of a singular incident during processing except under the following conditions; if the charges being pressed are listed under the Heinous Act Guidelines, if the punishment is the result of a ruling/decision given out by a sitting Judge or Justice of the San Andreas Department of Justice, or if the charge is a result of a Court decision (Violation of a Court Order, Failure to Appear, Contempt of Court).