The Criminal Defense Law site offers Criminal Defense law information. Criminal law is also known as the penal law and relates to crimes. This body of the United States law is for crimes which are prohibited as the crimes are intended, or should be known, to harm, threaten or endanger the welfare and/or the safety of the general public.
We also have a Lawyer Locator for when you need to retain a Criminal Defense lawyer.
Criminal law also covers decisions by appellate courts. These courts regulate criminal procedure and interpret criminal law. Criminal, or penal law, therefore covers a wide array of cases.
Criminal law is a unique law in of that it can have very serious consequences when the laws under the criminal code of the law is broken. Each state has different criminal or penal codes. A crime is composed of at least one criminal element. In the most serious cases, capital punishment, or the death penalty, may be a consequence if the crime is committed in a jurisdiction that has capital punishment in its laws. If a defendant is found guilty and charged with capital punishment, there may be many years of appeals and additional trials. If a defendant is facing jail/prison time for their crimes, they have a constitutional right to an attorney - the right to counsel.
Individuals who have committed offenses under the penal code of their jurisdiction can also be incarcerated in prison or jail, from as long as life to as short as 1 day or even less.
Other sentences may include house arrest, probation, parole, or fines.
There are three classifications of crimes in the United States: Petty Crime, Misdemeanor, and Felony. The least serious are petty crimes, while the most serious, felonies, can carry capital punishment. The classifications, how the criminal laws will be charged and the penalties associated with each classification of the penal laws are identified by the substantive criminal law.
Enforcement of criminal law is dealt with by the Criminal Procedure. Criminal Procedure will deal with how an individual that has been charg
ed under the criminal law will be handled and prosecuted. The Criminal Procedure sets out rules for the criminal law, including evidence, such as when it can be seized, when eyewitnesses can be interviewed or investigated and when the accused can be searched. The Criminal Procedure is especially designed to uphold an individual's constitutional rights, which include the right to remain silent, the right to public trial by a jury, the right to confront the accuser and the right to a competent attorney.
Criminal Procedure also covers rules for witnesses, investigations and evidence.
Criminal law covers the rules that deal with criminal activity that causes or is intended to causea harm to the general public and lays out the penalties and repercussions for such criminal activities. The criminal law statutes and rules are written by state legislators and Congress.
Criminal law also covers decisions by appellate courts, who, if clear rules are not present, define and interpret the criminal or penal law.
In order to be guilty of breaking a law under the criminal law, the prosecution (mostly, the state) must prove the defendant intended to act as they did. Intention is known as Mens rea in legal talk.
Criminal laws in the United States are a matter handled by each individual states. Each state has a different criminal statute; these statutes describe what conduct is a crime, intent, and usually the punishment that will be proper.
The United States constitution states that "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." During the application of a defendant who has been charged under the criminal law there are five objectives of the punishment: deterrence, prevention (incapacitation), rehabilitation, retribution, restitution.
