Criminal investigation

“ One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation.” ”

“ DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: (A) INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION.—The term “independent investigation” means a criminal investigation or prosecution of a law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force, including one or more of the following: (i) Using an agency or civilian review board that investigates and independently reviews all allegations of use of deadly force made against law enforcement officers in the jurisdiction. (ii) Assigning of the attorney general of the State in which the alleged use of deadly force was committed to conduct the criminal investigation and prosecution. ”

“ Where considerations of health and safety are involved, the facts that would justify an inference of 'probable cause' to make an inspection are clearly different from those that would justify such an inference where a criminal investigation has been undertaken. ”

“ After filing a case, a public security organ may, based on the needs for criminal investigation, and after going through stringent approval procedure, employ technical investigative measures if the aforesaid case involves a crime endangering state security, a crime of terrorist activity or committed by an organization of the nature of a criminal gang, a major drug-related crime or any other crime seriously endangering the society. ”

“ The superiority of his calculations will always prevail against the routine of police investigation and, let us admit it, against the puerility of the criminal investigations with which presiding magistrates enjoy dabbling. In this business, as in all others, it is the small who pay for the great. ”

“ Justice would be more speedy and just as effective if the prosecution of all crimes were instituted before an examining magistrate, and the grand jury would then, at the summons of the court, meet to perform only those important and peculiar functions of investigation that are consonant with its dignity and necessary to the public weal. ”

“ When required by criminal investigation, a people's procuratorate or public security organ may inquire or freeze a criminal suspect's deposits, remittance, bonds, stocks, shares of funds or other property in accordance with relevant provisions, and the relevant entities and individuals shall provide cooperation. ”

“ There are, and I suppose always will be, a certain class of persons who admire a blatant, unscrupulous lawyer.”
“Oh, there can be no question about that, my lord—​none whatever,” returned the detective.
“I am glad you agree with me in this. Well, we acted wisely, I think, in committing the prisoner without any adjournment. I do not hold with protracted examinations. It has been truly remarked that, under the old system, an inquiry into a criminal charge before a magistrate was less an investigation of the entire circumstances of the case than an examination of the prisoner. ”

“ Where public security organs verify clues to organized crime and discover criminal facts or suspects, they shall file cases for investigation in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China. ”

“ To ascertain the circumstances of a case, when necessary, and subject to the approval of the person in charge of the public security organ, relevant persons may be assigned to conduct an undercover investigation, provided that the measures adopted shall not be used to induce others to commit a crime and shall not endanger public security or seriously threaten personal safety. ”

“ Many persons are arrested under suspicious circumstances, such as well-known criminals mysteriously loitering about the streets at night, or frequenting crowded places, or persons having property in their possession for which they can give no good account, nor of themselves. Frequently such an arrest is the first step in the detection of some crime in which (after investigation) , if the proper complainant is found, a formal complaint is taken, and the prisoner is held for trial. In many instances such an arrest prevents the commission of crime. ”

“ During a court hearing, if the collegial panel has doubts about the evidence, an adjournment may be announced for further investigation and verification of the said evidence.
When carrying out investigation to verify evidence, the people's court may conduct inquest, examination, sealing, seizure, expert evaluation, as well as inquiry and freeze. ”

“ Even setting this crucial historical evidence aside, and proceeding as the Court does, by looking to dictionary definitions, chapter 73 of the Federal Criminal Code, state statutes, and the Model Penal Code, the same result emerges: Core obstruction of justice requires a pending investigation or proceeding. ”

“ Close and scientific investigation has shown that the average convicted criminal differs intellectually from the normal person only in a slightly lower level of intelligence, a condition that may well be explained by the fact that the convicted criminal has been found out. Crime has been happily defined by a recent and most able investigator into the character of the criminal (12) as "an unusual act committed by a perfectly normal person." ”

“ The investigating officer should consult the legal advisor if he or she has any questions concerning the applicability of any of these rules.
8. Standard of Proof. Since an investigation is not a criminal proceeding, there is no requirement that facts and findings be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, unless another specific directive states otherwise, AR 15-6 provides that findings must be supported by "a greater weight of evidence than supports a contrary conclusion." ”

“ With respect to a criminal case which has been filed, the public security organ shall carry out investigation, collect and obtain all evidence, no matter it proving the criminal suspect's guilt or innocence, or the crime to be a minor or grave one. An active criminal or a major suspect may be put under arrest first according to law, and a criminal suspect who meets the conditions for detention shall be detained according to law. ”

“ It is doubtful if any very convincing arguments in favor of retaining the grand jury for the purpose of indicting ordinary offenders can be advanced. That it should be continued for the purposes of investigation, with power of indictment, to be summoned when the need thereof arises, is indisputable. ”

“ Public security organs shall be responsible for investigation, making arrest, execution of detention and preliminary inquiry in criminal cases. People's procuratorates shall be responsible for procuratorial work, including authorizing approval of detention, conducting investigation of cases directly accepted by people's procuratoriates, and bringing public prosecutions. People's courts shall be responsible for adjudication. ”

“ One general interest is of course that of effective crime prevention and detection; it is this interest which underlies the recognition that a police officer may in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner approach a person for purposes of investigating possibly criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest. ”

“ When an individual is in custody on probable cause, the police may, of course, seek out evidence in the field to be used at trial against him. Such investigation may include inquiry of persons not under restraint. General on-the-scene questioning as to facts surrounding a crime or other general questioning of citizens in the factfinding process is not affected by our holding. It is an act of responsible citizenship for individuals to give whatever information they may have to aid in law enforcement. ”

“ When official pronouncements on individuals purport to rest on evidence and investigation, it is right to demand that those so accused be given a full opportunity for their defense in such investigation, excepting, of course, grand jury investigations. ”

“ Acree, a very familiar problem in law enforcement is getting evidence on what law enforcement officers come to believe to be criminals or people involved in criminal activity. You know it is happening, but you don't have proof or you don't have proof that is good enough to take to court. In the search for good evidence, oftentimes you try to construct something that you can track through so that you then have evidence that you can present in court that will stand up. ”

“ The same cause will always produce the same effect; the same chain of events will invariably terminate in one and the same catastrophe. The apparent deviations from this law are due to unrecognized differences in the producing causes, to additional or missing links in the chain of evidence. Therefore I hold that a criminal, however clever he may be, leaves behind him a complete trace of his every act, from which his crime may be reconstructed with absolute certainty by a competent detective. ”

“ The men who make the charges are ready to substantiate them and take the consequences. The accused men shirk an investigation, drive their accusers out of the organization, so that their evidence may not be available, and hold on with the grip of desperation to the positions they are accused of disgracing. ”

“ Each for its own ends—be it professional pride, personal glorification, hard cash, or revenge—is equally anxious to find the evidence and establish a case. Of course, the police are the first ones notified of the commission of a crime, but as it is now almost universally their duty to inform at once the coroner and also the district attorney thereof, a tripartite race for glory frequently results which adds nothing to the dignity of the administration of criminal justice. ”

“ While encouraging police officers to put questions to all possibly informed persons, whether or not suspected, during the early phase of their investigation which aims at discovering who committed the offense, the Rules admonish that so soon as the officers make up their minds to charge a particular person with a crime, they should caution him, first, that he need say nothing and, second, that what he says may be used in evidence, before questioning him or questioning him further. ”

“ The laws of conspiracy have provided an effective substantive tool with which to confront the criminal groups. From a legal standpoint, organized crime continues to grow because of defects in the evidence-gathering process. ”

“ Thus, it is up to the appellate court to reach the legal conclusion whether, under the totality of the circumstances and considering the historical facts as addressed by the circuit court, a reasonably-objective police officer either would have reasonable suspicion that the person stopped has committed, or is about to commit, a criminal act, or would have probable cause to believe that, upon search, contraband or evidence of criminal activity will be found. ”

“ The history of criminal trials shows numerous cases of prosecutions of oathbound conspiracies for murder, robbery, and other crimes, where officers of the law have disguished themselves and joined the organizations, taken the oaths, and given themselves every appearance of active members engaged in the promotion of crime for the purpose of securing evidence. Evidence secured by such means has always been received. ”

“ Under our system society carries the burden of proving its charge against the accused not out of his own mouth. It must establish its case, not by interrogation of the accused even under judicial safeguards, but by evidence independently secured through skillful investigation. ”

“ And each has its own particular victim upon whom it intends to fasten the blame. Heaven save his reputation! Many an innocent man has been ruined for life through the efforts of a newspaper "to make a case," and, of course, the same thing, though happily in a lesser degree, is true of the police and of some prosecutors as well.
In every great criminal case there are always four different and frequently antagonistic elements engaged in the work of detection and prosecution—first, the police; second, the district attorney; third, the press ”

“ THE TWINS. THE records of police courts afford but imperfect evidence of the business really effected by the officers attached to them. The machinery of English criminal law is, in practice, so subservient to the caprice of individual prosecutors, that instances are constantly occurring in which flagrant violations of natural justice are, from various motives, corrupt and otherwise, withdrawn not only from the cognizance of judicial authority, but from the reprobation of public opinion. ”

“ For example, diagrams must be prepared, photographs taken of the place of the crime, witnesses compensated for their time and their expenses paid, and, most important of all, competent experts must be engaged. This leads us to an interesting aspect of the modern jury trial.
When no other defence to homicide is possible the claim of insanity is frequently interposed. Nothing is more confusing to the ordinary juryman than trying to determine the probative value of evidence touching unsoundness of mind, and the application thereto of the legal test of criminal responsibility. ”

“ There are two classes of cases where a private detective must needs be used, if indeed any professional assistance is to be called in: first, where the person whose identity is sought to be discovered or whose activities are sought to be terminated is not a criminal or has committed no crime, and second, where, though a crime has been committed, the injured parties cannot afford to undertake a public prosecution. ”

“ Criminal cases, such as robberies, assaults, forgeries, murders, and the like, are conducted in a different manner. The head of the police in the district where the crime was committed, is entrusted with the collection of the evidence. ”

“ In those penal cases, which belong to the competency of the People’s Court, the courts of appeal or the courts of assize, a preliminary court investigation is to be held at the request of the prosecution, if the prosecution, according to its own discretion, deems this necessary. ”