Adv Crim Prac and Pro Sim

Catalog description

Elective Course Course Requirement: written assignments and final project This course will explore the impact of real-world occurrences on the movement of criminal cases through the criminal justice system within the parameters established by the Pennsylvania rules and statutes. The primary focus of the course will be on Pennsylvania criminal procedure, but the skills are transferable to federal criminal procedure. For example, what happens when you receive a call at 6:00 a.m. because your next door neighbor?s son was arrested the night before? What questions do you ask of your client and what questions do you NOT ask? What steps do you take to address bail, to acquire court documents, to preserve evidence? For prosecutors, when you show up at the courtroom of a magisterial district judge to conduct preliminary hearings, what are your initial actions? What evidence do you need to obtain to present at the hearing, at trial? How do you handle witnesses who are too involved or who do not want to be involved at all? How does social media create problems or provide usable evidence? How do the rules of criminal procedure and the rules of evidence impact the answers to these questions?