Paralegal Research Guide: Criminal Law

Thoroughly explores constitutional issues essential to the collection and seizure of admissible evidence and legal interrogation, carefully outlining concepts and processes applicable to every state and pointing out where great interstate variation exists or specific state codes may have a strong impact.

Learn about the crucial role that public policy plays in the criminal justice system and explore the hot issues that are changing the face of criminal justice today--and shaping its future.

The text highlights the challenges that face the law as it continues to adapt to the needs of a complex and rapidly changing society and features a balanced text/casebook approach that provides a lively introduction to criminal law.

Presents the judicial procedures of criminal cases in plain language and a concise format suitable for a one-semester course.

Takes readers inside some of the most vexing forensic controversies of all time. In each case, Colin Evans lays out the conflicting medical and scientific evidence and shows how it was used or mishandled in reaching a verdict. Among the other cases: the assassination of JFK, the strange history of Alfred Packer, the death of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi, and the trials of Lindy Chamberlain and Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald.

Provides an accessible overview of the legal aissues, from the history of evidence in court, to 'gatekeeper' judges determining what evidence can be allowed, to the 'CSI effect' in juries.

This important overview serves as an introduction to the realities and practicalities of police investigation and the functioning of the criminal justice system when search and seizure becomes an issue.

An indispensable guide to criminal law that uses actual trials alongside plots and characters from popular television shows to illustrate criminal law issues like degrees of murder, the defense of intoxication, search warrants, insanity pleas, and the purposes of various pretrial hearings. Silver offers a concise, informative, and entertaining explanation of everything readers need to know to truly appreciate crime stories and understand how criminal law really works.

This comprehensive set of essays documents the most important criminal, civil, and political trials in the United States from colonial times to the present, examining their impact on both legal history and popular culture.