Criminal Law And Procedure

by Daniel E. Hall

Criminal Law and Procedure, 4E is a comprehensive text covering both substantive criminal law and criminal procedure. The importance of constitutional law to these fields is emphasized, as are the practical insights. Procedure topics explored include defenses to criminal accusations, parties to crimes, state and federal constitutional influences, the parties to the criminal justice system, the pretrial process, trial, sentencing, appeal and collateral relief, and the procedure of search and seizure. Contemporary issues in criminal law and procedure, such as terrorism and cybercrime, are also covered in the new edition. Students will further develop their understanding of the material through reivew questions and sidebars presented in the chapters.

Genres: Law

608 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Lexi Mag · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was absolutely RIDDLED with grammatical, spelling and punctual errors. Even had “this should be removed” lines in it. Like they gave up on editing it early on and just sent it out. I can’t believe how much I paid for an online version of this crap.

[Roxann Weir · Rating 5 out of 5]

This what we used for a Paralegal course in Criminal Law that combined the curriculum for 2 semesters into 1. That taken into account, this text had really good examples of the concepts we needed to articulate in how criminal law is different than civil law or equity law that most paralegal courses cover extensively. If it had any flaws, it was that it was VERY in-depth and thorough. Not for the faint of heart. Only read for a class or if you are serious about truly learning Criminal Law 101 and 102.

[Geng · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a textbook on criminal law and procedure written for undergraduates or paralegals. As a result, it is easily accessible to someone with no legal background, and it clearly lays out the elements of criminal law starting at the most fundamental level. The criminal law part covers the different types of crimes and the essential components of each. For example, I never knew that an assault is an attempt or threat that could lead to harmful physical contact, while battery is the actual crime of hitting or physical harming someone. Furthermore, the victim has to be aware of the threat for it to qualify as assault. So a swing and a miss at your passed out, drunk roommate is not a crime. The second part of the book concerns criminal procedure, i.e. how people are processed through the criminal justice system. There's a lot of discussion here about constitutional questions, such as Miranda rights (5th Amendment), unlawful search and seizure (4th Amendment), right to counsel (6th Amendment), and imposition of sentences, including capital punishment (8th Amendment). Frankly, I found this book completely fascinating and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in criminal law and would like to expand their horizons beyond what is presented on CSI and Law & Order.

[Timothy Rauch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a college level textbook on criminal procedure. As such, it may not be intelligible to the average reader without a professor there to answer your questions. I read a more comprehensive work on criminal procedure several years ago which spelled everything out and provided the legal reasoning for behind Supreme Court decisions. This work has the latest case citations but the reader is supposed to develop the legal reasoning skills as they read the book.

It can be used as a reference if the reader understands legal issues, but I was getting frustrated because it did not speak to the specific issues that I was interested in. I did like that the book included selected text from Supreme Court opinions and I was able to figure out the answers to the questions in which I was interested, but that required wading through several legal opinions which may be beyond the grasp of the average reader.