Crown Prosecution Cases

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The crown prosecution service is a publicly funded government-based department within the prosecuting authority throughout England and Wales. This service acts independent of the courts and police service, although it works very closely with both. The Crown Prosecution Service employs its own staff as well as self employed people working under them. It is the role of the crown prosecution service to decide on which cases should be taken further, to court etc. It also ensures cases will be kept under review throughout the process. The year 1879 is when prosecution changed, the prosecution of offences act was created and cases would be investigated by the director of public prosecutions although this was limited to the most serious of cases.…show more content…
These serious cases were investigated by the director (Sir John Maule, appointed 1880) and he decided whether to prosecute. Less serious cases still suffered because of two factors; when police were carrying out both the investigation and prosecution as it was seen an unfair or biased judgement know as a miscarriage of justice. The less wealthy population who wished to bring to justice another individual they would struggle to afford the fees of someone to represent them and they would also be uneducated in law so could not represent themselves. During 1985 the prosecution of offences act led to the establishment of the Crown Prosecution service based on “the findings of the royal commissions on criminal procedure, chaired by Sir Cyril Phillips, which were published in 1981” (http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/crown-prosecution-service). The main factor Crown Prosecution Service being established was the separation of the investigation and prosecution areas of the…show more content…
(http://www.inbrief.co.uk/legal-system/the-cps.htm ) The crown prosecution service has a two-stage trial procedure to “encourage defendants, either on initial arraignment or after conviction of a number of sample counts, to plead guilty to any linked offences of which they are also guilty”. (http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/two_stage_trials/ ) The first stage of this process is known as an evidential stage. During this stage they have to sensibility look at all the evidence of the case, it is then the decision of the crown prosecution service to responsibly choose whether or not to continue the case, it must be taken into account whether or not the evidence is strong enough to cause a prosecution in court and if it is sensible to spend public money on taking the case
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