A short tandem repeat profile is read from an electropherogram, compared against a reference, and reported with a statistic. A random match probability estimates how often the profile would appear among unrelated people, by multiplying allele frequencies across loci under independence assumptions and a subpopulation correction. A likelihood ratio instead compares two stated propositions. Y-chromosome and mitochondrial results are lineage markers estimated by counting.
An investigative detention is measured by its purpose, not by a stopwatch. It may last as long as is reasonably necessary to confirm or dispel the suspicion that justified it, provided the officer pursues that inquiry diligently and does not use means more intrusive than the situation requires. When the detention outgrows its purpose, or when its conditions match the hallmarks of custody, it becomes an arrest and probable cause is required.
The general federal limitation period requires that a non-capital offense be charged within five years after it was committed. Congress set longer periods for offenses against financial institutions, certain terrorism offenses and offenses against children, and removed the period entirely for a few categories. The clock runs from completion of the offense, which for a continuing offense means its last act. Fugitive status and a request for evidence abroad both suspend it.
Federal witness immunity comes by court order on the government's application, and it supplies use and derivative use immunity: no compelled testimony, and nothing derived from it, may be used against the witness except in a prosecution for perjury, false statement, or failure to comply. Transactional immunity, which bars prosecution for the conduct itself, is not the federal statutory form. Proffer protection is narrower still and rests on contract.
Federal law conditions surrender on the existence of an extradition treaty, with a narrow statutory exception. A request travels through diplomatic channels, a federal prosecutor files a complaint, and a judge or magistrate judge hears evidence of criminality. Certification passes the matter to the Secretary of State, who holds the surrender decision. Commitment beyond two calendar months permits application for discharge.
The Constitution obliges a state to deliver up a person charged in another state who is found within its borders, and federal statute supplies the mechanism. The demand must allege presence and flight and must attach a certified indictment, information supported by affidavit, affidavit before a magistrate, or judgment. If no agent appears within thirty days of arrest, the prisoner may be discharged.
An inventory is an administrative caretaking measure that requires neither a warrant nor probable cause. In exchange, it must be conducted according to standardized criteria that limit officer discretion, including criteria governing whether closed containers are opened. The decision to impound the vehicle must itself rest on standardized policy. A search carried out for investigative purposes, or one that departs from the policy in the record, is not an inventory.
A court may order antipsychotic medication over a defendant's objection to restore trial competence only where important governmental interests are at stake, the medication is substantially likely to restore competence without significantly impairing the defense, it is necessary because less intrusive means will not work, and it is medically appropriate. Medication on dangerousness grounds is governed by a separate administrative process.
Rule 8(a) permits joinder of offenses that are of the same or similar character, are based on the same act or transaction, or are connected with or constitute parts of a common scheme or plan. Rule 8(b) permits joinder of defendants alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction or series of them. Misjoinder is a pleading defect tested on the face of the instrument. Prejudicial joinder under Rule 14 assumes proper pleading and asks whether trying the counts together would be unfair.
Delinquency jurisdiction turns on the age at the time of the act in most states, not the age at filing. The lower boundary is set by statute in some states and left to common law in others. The upper boundary is usually the eighteenth birthday, but continuing jurisdiction runs well past it, and extended or blended sentencing schemes stretch a juvenile case into adult sanctions without a transfer order.
Accreditation is an assessment of a management system and a defined scope of testing against an international standard. The certificate names the disciplines and methods covered, so work outside that list is unaccredited work. Assessments are periodic and sample case files rather than reading all of them, and declared proficiency tests are easier than casework. Federal law conditions the national DNA index and certain grants on accreditation and external audits. It certifies no conclusion.
A later adjudicator deciding what an offense involved may consult the charging instrument, a written plea agreement, the transcript of a plea colloquy, the judgment, and in a tried case the jury instructions and verdict form. Police reports, arrest affidavits and presentence narratives sit outside that set. A stipulated factual basis that incorporates an investigative document moves it inside, which is the single most common way a narrow plea record is lost.
