The criminal justice system in America includes not just one, but a set of organizations and procedures that have been created by governments to mitigate crime and impose penalties on those people who choose to break the law. The United States has many individual criminal justice systems, and each jurisdiction, such as city, county, state, federal or tribal government, or military, has the ability to dictate how the system works and have different laws. That said, people in the United States rarely have contact with the criminal justice system and as a result obtain much of their ideals and knowledge of what the criminal justice system is and how it works from the media, particularly through watching entertainment television programs. (Albany) Although I attended countless court hearings as a police officer, attending a jury trial as a student was different because I was able to step back and look at the situation through the eyes of a student and not an officer of the government. Part of my portfolio assignment is to write a judicial report based on a criminal case. I was able to watch a few hours of a jury trial for a person accused of killing another person with a gun. My courtroom observation occurred on 04-29-14 at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, located at 7325 N. Potomac St. Centennial, CO. 80112. This Justice Center hears both 18 Judicial District Court cases and Arapahoe County court cases. The 18th Judicial District includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties. I arrived at the parking lot of the Arapahoe County Justice Center at 9:00 am to find cases pending hearing on the docket. When I arrived, I noticed how crowded the justice center was because there were... half of paper... pretty good, however the judge had to remind the witness several times to stop and not answer questions until she was there a sentence. After the prosecution rested, the defense asked cross-examination questions of each witness. After direct examination and cross-examination, the judge would ask the prosecutor if they had any redirected questions. If the prosecution had no redirection questions, the judge asked the jury if they had any questions for the witness. If there were none, the witness was released. This happened for each of the three witnesses I saw testify. I was able to watch the interrogations until the lunch break. As a police officer, I have witnessed countless court cases and already knew what to expect from everyone involved. Being in the galley as an observer is completely different from