Criminal justice BEA expressing views about crime and punishment Look at these extracts from calls to a radio phone-in programme called ‘Your Call to Jeremy’, which on this occasion is about crime and punishment. Hello, Jeremy. I want to know why financial criminals in the City always seem to escape punishment, while poor people always seem to receive custodial sentences’ even for committing minor offences. My view is that if someone is put on trial and is found guilty and given a sentence, then they should have to serve out” their sentence. Releasing someone early for good behaviour is a complete nonsense. Jeremy, I'd like to point out 2 that there have been a couple of serious miscarriages of justice’ recently and people don’t seem to. | f- realise how damaging this is. No ‘We're facing soaring’ crime rates in this city and it’s about time the criminals were brought to justice. And I'm sick of hearing about extenuating circumstances® ‘one should face trial on the basis of unreliable evidence or trumped- up charges’, ~ that someone had a deprived childhood, oF they're not fit to stand trial, Rubbish! 2 ' a sentence to be served in a prison or similar institution ? serve the full amount of time situation where innocent people are found guilty 5 rising very fast * Courts and trials * invented and false accusations circumstances that lessen the blame, also mitigating circumstances These newspaper clips contain typical collocations about courts and trials. A key witness gave evidence today in the Misthorpe murder trial. The witness claimed to have seen the accused leaving Ms Bartrami’s house. The trial was adjourned’ until March 7th. The accused, 27-year-old Liam Grout, Was remanded in custody~. Mr Hanry had denied all knowledge of the alleged fraudulent business deal. His lawyers atlempted to show that Derek Yardley was an ‘unreliable witness, Despite suggestions that the judge might dismiss the case’, Pens in favour of Mr Hanry and awarded damages® to him. " was suspended tll a later time or date 2 send to prison until the trial begins or continues > verdict which all the decision makers agree to 4 decide that the case is not worth considering Tha unanimous verdict’ today in Raylton District Court, Clare Irene Wilson, 37, was found not guilty of murder. The judge said thie prosecution had failed to prove beyond Teasonable doubt that Ms Wilson was guilty. Mary Jones was leased it Mn after} her | lawyers successfully contested the verdict which sentenced her to prison for three years: ‘The judge, Mr James Egdon, overturned the verdict in the Court of Appeal. Mary Jones het= self did not appear in court bat later said that she felt justice had been served. 5 ordered the organisation or person who has been responsible for causing injury or loss to pay money to the victim as compensation 6 disagreed with the verdict and tried to change it38.1 38.2 38.3 38.5 Exercises Rewrite the underlined part of each of these extracts from conversations to make them sound more like extracts from newspaper reports. 1 An increasing number of crimes per head of the population have been recorded in the last twelve months. 2 Why should young criminals get away without being punished for crimes just because of their age? 3 The lawyers : disagreed with the court's decision. 4 The judge threw out the case because he felt the evidence was not strong enough. 5 John Jones said he didn’t know anything about the robbery. 6 The judge said thar the trial would now take place next month. ‘Choose the correct collocation. 1 Someone might get out of prison early for soaring / extenuating / good behaviour. 2 If you get a custodial sentence, you go to prison / only serve the sentence if you commit another crime | have to do some community service. 3 If you are remanded in custody, you are allowed to go home / obliged to pay some money 1 kept in prison. 4 If you serve out a sentence, you are released from prison early / kept in prison for the full amount of time | kept in prison for life. 5 If charges are trumped-up, they are accurate | invented | exaggerated. Correct the mistakes with prepositions in the collocations. 1 He was put in trial for murder. 2 He was later remanded on custody. 3 The witness appeared on court for the first time today. 4 The murderer was soon brought into justice. 5 The case against Mr Sharp was proved over reasonable doubt. ‘Complete each sentence using a word from the opposite page. 1 Unfortunately, there have been a number of . 2 The lawyer claimed that there were some 3 This is the sixth time the accused has 4 The jury was quick to reach a... “ou. Verdict, finding the accused guilty. 5 The accused ... _.-all knowledge of the crime, but no one believed her. 6 Charles Weiss was . onus damages for the injury he had suffered. 7 The newspaper said . chad been served by the conviction of Joe Lee. 8 The trial has been... _ until next week, 9. He has been in court on several previous occasions but only for committing offences, _. of justice recently. «on €ireumstances. in court. For each word in box A find two collocating words in B. Then write sentences using each of the ten collocations. A find ge tral