Role of Judges in the Criminal Justice System and Selection of Judges
Role of judges in the adversary system
The adversary system of justice is the primary system of criminal justice used in the U.S.A. In this system, the prosecution and the defendant are pitted against each other and allowed to present their arguments and evidence concerning the criminal act, these two sides tries to convince the jury that their arguments are the best.
The judge in the adversary system is quite passive in that he or she does not ask questions related to the case but instead waits for the advocates to bring all the evidence they can find to court. They are more concerned with the observance of sue process only deciding, for example, what evidence can be admitted when called upon by the counsel. The judge is to remain passive till the end of the proceedings then renders the judgment depending on arguments of the adversaries.
Procedure for the selection of the U.S. Supreme Court judges
As per to the constitution of the U.S.A, the Supreme Court judges are nominated by the president with the recommendation of the senate. The Senate then calls the nominees for an interview.
Judicial selection methods; Selection by merit or selection by election
Selection of judges is based on their merit or election results. Merit based appointments have over time proven to be the better method of selection. This is because, the judges are nominated based on their merits as experience and the good professional credentials ensuring that the judges selected are the most qualified if the selection is done through election this may not be the case.
North Carolina’s judicial selection process as compared to the federal judicial selection process
In North Carolina, the judges are chosen through non partisan elections and have a term of eight years while for the federal judicial system the judges are first nominated by the president before they are elected these judges have a term that lasts a life time unless impeached. The main difference between these two selection processes is that while in the federal selection process the judge has to be known and interested in politics, this is not a requirement in the North Carolina process.