Criminal record

“ And it is settled law in this court, and in this country generally, that in any criminal case a general verdict and judgment on an indictment or information containing several counts cannot be reversed on error if any one of the counts is good, and warrants the judgment, because, in the absence of anything in the record to show the contrary, the presumption of law is that the court awarded sentence on the good count only. ”

“ It is a fact, which may at first appear paradoxical, that the jury in the ordinary run of criminal cases passes upon the guilt or innocence of very few professional criminals. A moment's consideration will reveal the reason. The professional criminal usually has a "record" and he knows full well that in view of his past history, if there be any sort of a case against him, his own defence, however eloquent or ingenious, will go for nothing. ”

“ Investigators, when interrogating a criminal suspect, may record or videotape the process of interrogation, and shall do so in case that the criminal suspect is involved in a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death penalty or in an otherwise major criminal case. ”

“ The inferior evidence to establish the existence of a judicial record must be something officially connected with it, such as the journals of the court, or some other entry, though short of the judgment or record, which shows that it has been judicially made. The burning of an office and of its records is no proof that a particular record had ever existed. ”

“ All persons convicted of crime against whom a previous criminal conviction has been proved, or who are subject to police supervision, are carefully measured before they are liberated, and the results tabulated on what are called card-registers. The parts of the body selected for measurement are those which in an adult are the least liable to alteration ”

“ I conclude that evidence adduced at trial can be considered by a district court as the basis for a motion in arrest of judgment when that evidence is used solely for the purpose of testing the constitutionality of the charging statute as applied. I do so because the legislative history surrounding the passage of the Criminal Appeals Act abundantly shows Congress contemplated review by this Court in such a case. ”

“ No one, except a person charged with an offence when giving evidence on his own application, and as to the offence wherewith he is charged, is bound to answer a question if the answer would, in the opinion of the court, have a tendency to expose the witness, or the wife or husband of the witness, to any criminal charge, penalty, or forfeiture, which the court regards as reasonably likely to be preferred or sued for. ”

“ But independently of this, my lords, let us look at the record itself, and see whether, on the face of the record, there is any ground whatever for this objection. Every record must be construed according to its legal effect—according to its legal operation. You cannot travel out of the record. Now, what is the judgment? Why, 'that the court adjudges the defendant, for his offences aforesaid, to be fined and imprisoned.' What is an 'offence' on this record? There are two counts defective: but why? Because they charged, according to the unanimous opinion of the judges, NO offence. ”

“ Based on my discussions with the Special Counsel and my initial review, it is apparent that the report contains material that is or could be subject to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 (e) , which imposes restrictions on the use and disclosure of information relating to "matter [s] occurring before [a] grand jury." Fed. R. Crim. P. 6 (e) (2) (B) . Rule 6 (e) generally limits disclosure of certain grand jury information in a criminal investigation and prosecution. Id. Disclosure of 6 (e) material beyond the strict limits set forth in the rule is a crime in certain circumstances. ”

“ Such Certificate or Conviction shall be a Bar to any other Proceedings. XXVIII. And be it enacted, That if any Person against whom any such Complaint shall have been preferred for any Common Assault or Battery, shall have obtained such Certificate as aforesaid, or having been convicted shall have paid the whole Amount adjudged to be paid under such Conviction, or shall have suffered the Imprisonment awarded for the Nonpayment thereof, in every such Case he shall be released from all further or other Proceedings, Civil or Criminal for the same Cause. ”

“ In sum, the Court in the exercise of its power to formulate evidentiary rules for federal criminal cases has consistently declined to hold that an informer's identity need always be disclosed in a federal criminal trial, let alone in a preliminary hearing to determine probable cause for an arrest or search. ”

“ Some accident occurs, some crime or misdemeanor becomes aggressive,—then the law refers to the police, and immediately, if any documents bear on the suspected criminal, the judge is informed. These records, an analysis of his antecedents, are merely side-lights, and unknown beyond the walls of the Palais de Justice. No legal use can be made of them; Justice is informed by them, and takes advantage of them; but that is all. These documents form, as it were, the inner lining of the tissue of crimes, their first cause, which is hardly ever made public. No jury would accept it ”

“ The docket-entries and files of the court stand in place of the record. When a formal record is not required by law, those entries which are permitted to stand in place of it are admissible in evidence. Several judicial decisions in England have been referred to by the counsel of the plaintiff in error, to the effect, that the finding of an indictment at the sessions cannot be proved by the production of the minute-book of the sessions, from which book the roll, containing the record of such proceedings, is subsequently made up. ”

“ Our government comprises, therefore, not only a law-making branch and a law-enforcing branch, but also a LAW-INTERPRETING, OR JUDICIAL, branch—the courts.
THE RIGHTS OF ACCUSED PERSONS The Constitution guarantees justice to persons accused of violating the property rights, or other rights of citizens, by theft, fraud, or otherwise, as well as to the citizen who has been wronged. "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed ... ”

“ The defendant contends that under such circumstances the finding of criminatory articles or papers can only be proved when, by express provision of statute, the possession of them is itself made criminal. ”

“ In order to find the accused guilty on the sixth county, you must find from the evidence, by the same measure of proof as is required in all criminal cases, that the check referred to in the sixth count was deposited by the accused in the Washington bank for collection, and that the bank was to act in collecting the same, as the agent of the accused, and not as the owner of the check in question. ”

“ A criminal information is a proceeding in the King’s bench by the attorney-general without the intervention of a grand jury. The attorney-general, or, in his absence, the solicitor-general, has a right ex officio to file a criminal information in respect of any indictments, but not for treason, felonies or misprision of treason. ”

“ A general practitioner is asked to sign a certificate of identity in circumstances where it is not easy to be certain. A good-natured, busy doctor may aid roguery by simply echoing what an applicant, or his friends, may have suggested.
In criminal trials, an English jury ought to be afforded some safeguard as to identity. A supposed old convict who had become a constable fell again into evil ways, but was soon found out by a comparison of fresh finger-prints, with records which he had not at first been suspected of having left behind. ”

“ In each of these situations there is some possibility of prosecution-often a very real one-for criminal offenses disclosed by or deriving from the information that the law compels a person to supply. Information revealed by these reports could well be 'a link in the chain' of evidence leading to prosecution and conviction. But under our holdings the mere possibility of incrimination is insufficient to defeat the strong policies in favor of a disclosure called for by statutes like the one challenged here. ”

“ In parliament he interested himself in the reform of the law of evidence in criminal trials, and on 20 June 1860 moved the second reading of the felony and misdemeanor bill, with the object of assimilating proceedings on trial to those at nisi prius. ”

“ If any book, document or paper which is in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceedings contains any entry in which any informer is named or described or which may lead to his discovery, the court shall cause those entries to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far as may be necessary to protect the informer from discovery. ”

“ In this section—
“official record” means a record kept for the purposes of its functions by any court, police force, Government department, local or other public authority in Great Britain, or a record kept, in Great Britain or elsewhere. for the purposes of any of Her Majesty’s forces, being in either case a record containing information about persons convicted of offences ”

“ But the court which is best and most conveniently able to exercise the nice discretion needed to determine this balance of convenience is the one which has considered the case on its merits, and therefore is familiar with the record. Records in cases like this are often very voluminous. ”

“ It would be inconsistent with the reasons above stated, as well as with a great weight of authority, to hold that, in the case of a deed actually executed by a married woman of full age and sound mind, a certificate of her separate examination and acknowledgment, in the form prescribed by the statute, and duly recorded with the deed, can afterwards, except for fraud, be controlled or avoided by extrinsic evidence of the manner in which the examination was conducted by the magistrate. ”

“ Where in any proceedings the fact that a person has in the United Kingdom been convicted or acquitted of an offence otherwise than by a Service court is admissible in evidence, it may be proved by producing a certificate of conviction or, as the case may be, of acquittal relating to that offence, and proving that the person named in the certificate as having been convicted or acquitted of the offence is the person whose conviction or acquittal of the offence is to be proved. ”

“ Where the statute makes the conviction of the principal thief a condition precedent to the trial and punishment of a receiver of the stolen property, the record of the tiral of the former would be evidence in the prosecution against the receiver to show that the principal felon had been convicted; for a fact of that nature could only be established by a record. ”

“ No bill of exceptions is required, or is necessary, to bring upon the record the findings, whether general or special. They belong to the record as fully as do the verdicts of a jury. If the finding be special, it takes the place of a special verdict; and, when judgment is entered upon it, no bill of exceptions is needed to bring the sufficiency of the finding up for review. But there must be a finding of facts, either general or special, in order to authorize a judgment; and that finding must appear on the record. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But if the grand jury is to exist at all, it must be constituted, and required to act, in accordance with the law. The indictment is invalid if there be on the grand jury one who has not the proper qualification to sit, or if an unauthorized person be present, or if the evidence is not legally sufficient. ”

“ The only mention of informations in the first crimes act of the United States is in the clause providing that no person 'shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished, for an offense not capital, nor for any fine or forfeiture under any penal statute, unless the indictment or information for the same shall be found or instituted within two years from the time of committing the offense, or incurring the fine or forfeiture.' Act April 30, 1790, c. ”

“ If no felony has in fact been committed, then the arrest without a warrant is in every case unlawful and may be lawfully resisted. The law does not justify either an officer or a private citizen in arresting for a felony without a warrant on mere suspicion or information that a felony has been committed. If either act without a warrant on groundless suspicion or information on the question of whether a felony has in fact been committed, he acts at his peril. ”

“ Criminal Penalties.— Any officer or employee of an agency, who by virtue of his employment or official position, has possession of, or access to, agency records which contain individually identifiable information the disclosure of which is prohibited by this section or by rules or regulations established thereunder, and who knowing that disclosure of the specific material is so prohibited, willfully discloses the material in any manner to any person or agency not entitled to receive it, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000. ”

“ In England every criminal trial from beginning to end is, and has always been, public. Preliminary inquiries into an indictable offence may be, but rarely if ever are, conducted in private. On the continent of Europe, with rare exceptions, all preliminary proceedings in a criminal charge are secret. ”