Library:Judicial Procedure Act

Every criminal trial that takes place under New Republic law shall adhere to the structure and procedures outlined as followed:

No trial may go to court unless the warrant system was correctly applied and followed. This includes official approval prior to arrest, and notification of the New Republic Justice Department upon both filing and acting on warrants. A trial may also not be acted on, legally, without evidence being provided to both the prosecution and defence counsel.

Once meeting these warrant and evidence distribution requirements, the trial may be acted upon. The structure of the trial shall follow a three-tiered system of outlying of evidence, followed by both the defence and the prosecution.

* (First) Formative Tier:

The trial shall be opened by the Associate Minister of Justice or the presiding Judge. The charges shall be read out, as well as information about the defendant, such as affiliation and rank.

The prosecution shall briefly substantiate for each charge, providing an excerpt of the relevant parts of evidence for each charge.

The defence will be offered an opportunity to respond to any charges, or criticise the substantiation of the prosecution. The defence will then be offered one week, should they choose it, to gather further evidence to contest these charges. Should the defence not desire this period, or should the defence be unable to act during it, it will be waived.

All evidence gathered with intention to be used by the defence after this period has elapsed must be provided to the prosecution and the Associate Minister of Justice, or it will be rendered void by the Judicial Committee.

Should no evidence be supplied after 7 days, without extenuating circumstances, the trial will continue.

If additional time is desired, it may be requested of the Judicial Committee, all Judges must agree for extra time to be granted.

* (Second) Expositional Tier:

After the defence has presented its refutation of the evidence, and declared its new evidence (if applicable), the trial may proceed to the second tier.

The Prosecution shall expand on each of the charges already listed, and, with the Judicial Committee's approval, introduce more if they feel it justified.

The Judicial Committee may query or request additional substantiation of any of the prosecution's data, and will then provide the defence an opportunity to attempt to refute the prosecution. Additionally, The Judicial Committee may query any of the defence counsel's data, and request additional evidence.

If the Defence refuses to address the questions sufficiently, or acts in a way contrary to the benefit of the proceedings, they may be, with leave from the Judges, prevented from responding in the final stage, or charged with contempt of court.

* (Third) Concordant Tier

The Judicial Committee will discuss the evidence behind closed doors, and announce, during their deliberations, if they are discarding any of the charges, or introducing new ones. They will do the same when discarding evidence, providing clear reasons.

The Judicial Committee will not discuss their opinions with any but the other members of the Judicial Committee and the Associate Minister of Justice, if they desire, may be contacted for their opinion. However they will be granted no decision making power in the process.

They will be permitted 7 days to deliberate on the evidence and charges, and may call on the defence and prosecution to make a final statement.

After they have deliberated for the amount of time, or as long as they need, whichever is shorter, they will announce their individual verdicts on each charge. When each Judge has announced their verdict, the Presiding Judge will give the senten

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Important: The data on this page is possibly outdated (last modified: 16 December 2012)