DG2 PI Process:

H. Investigations
1. If a citizen believes that someone has violated an article of the Constitution or a
law in the Code of Laws, they can report this suspected violation for
investigation and trial.
A. The allegation can be posted in the Judicial thread.
B. The allegation can be made privately to the Judge Advocate or Chief
Justice.
C. The allegation can be made anonymously through a Moderator.
1. If reported to a Mod, the Mod will pass the allegation to the
Judge Advocate.
2. Allegations of misconduct must include:
A. Name of the defendant.
B. Article, law or standard violated.
C. When/where the article, law, or standard was violated.
3. The Judge Advocate notifies the suspect and the Public Defendant of the
charges.
4. The Judge Advocate opens an investigation thread detailing the alleged violation
and the defendant’s history of convictions (if applicable).
5. The first two replies to this thread are reserved for the Public Defendant and the
suspect's responses to the charges (defense). If these responses have not been
posted in 24 hours they lose these reserved spots and anybody can post.
6. Citizens post their opinions on the charge, whether they think the suspect is
guilty of an infraction, if the case should go to trial (poll), what punishment(s)
would be in order if the defendant is found guilty, etc.
7. When discussion has petered out and at least 48 hours have passed the Judge
Advocate will post a trial.
A. If the defendant pled "guilty" to the charges, the trial poll is skipped and
the Judge Advocate will proceed to posting a sentencing poll.
B. If the results of the investigation thread are overwhelmingly in favor of
the defendant the Judge Advocate will submit the case for Judicial
Review and possible dispensation as a "No Merit" case.
C. The trial poll will have options of Guilty/Innocent/Abstain and will
remain up for 48 hours.
D. In the event the trial poll ends in a tie, the members of the Judiciary
shall decided amongst themselves if the defendant is innocent or guilty.
If the triumvirate of the Judiciary cannot come to an agreement, the
Chief Justice alone will cast the tie breaking vote.
8. If the suspect is found or pleads guilty, a sentencing poll is held.
A. The sentencing poll will remain up for 48 hours
B. The polls for Constitution and Code of Laws violations will be set to
allow multiple choices.
C. Poll options for violation of the Constitution sentencing poll.
1. Eviction from the Demo game
2. Suspension from the Demo game
3. Impeachment
A. For officials only.
4. Final warning
A. For previous offenders only.
5. Warning
6. No Punishment.
7. Abstain
8. If the offender has previously received a Final Warning, the
options of Warning and Final Warning will not be offered on the
sentencing poll.
9. If the offender has never received a Warning, the option of
Final Warning will not be offered on the sentencing poll.
D. Poll options for violation of the Code of Laws sentencing poll.
1. Suspension from the Demo game
2. Impeachment
A. For officials only.
3. Final warning
B. For previous offenders only.
4. Warning
5. No Punishment.
6. Abstain
7. If the offender has previously received a Final Warning, the
options of Warning and Final Warning will not be offered on the
sentencing poll.
8. If the offender has never received a Warning, the option of
Final Warning will not be offered on the sentencing poll.
E. Poll options for violation of the Code of Standards sentencing poll.
1. Warning
2. No Punishment.
3. Abstain
F. In the event any type of sentencing poll ends up in a tie, the members of
the Judiciary shall decide an appropriate sentence from among the
options that were tied. If the triumvirate of the Judiciary cannot come to
an agreement, the Chief Justice alone will select the sentence from
among the options that were tied.
9. Sentencing
A. A Moderator, who will be responsible for enforcing the punishment,
must approve evictions, suspensions and impeachments.
B. A Moderator must set the amount of time for suspensions.
-- Ravensfire

This is a lengthy proposal (as is the DG2 process), comments are in the next post.

Citizen Complaint

I. Complaint
A. A Complaint is filed with the Court by a citizen
1. May be filed as a post in the Judicial Thread or;
2. PM to any Justice or;
3. PM to Moderator
B. The Complaint should detail the circumstances for the accusation, and
include some evidence.
C. The Court appoints a Prosecutor for case.
1. The Accuser may represent themselves, arrange for an Advocate, or
request the Court to appoint an Advocate.
D. Court notifies Accused and determines Defense.
1. Accused may represent themselves, arrange for an Advocate, or
request Court to appoint an Advocate.
E. The Prosecutor and the Defense investigate complaint.
1. May interview witnesses, gather evidence, etc.
2. If complaint made via PM, the Prosecutor and the Defense shall
communicate with Accuser through the person the Complaint was sent
to. The identity of the Accuser should not be revealed unless they
choose otherwise.
F. The Prosecutor and the Defense then present the results of the
investigation to the Court.
1. The Court should be skeptical of all allegations, requiring a reasonable
chance the allegation is true and determining that, if the allegation is
true, a violation of COUNTRY_NAME law has occurred.
G. By majority vote, the complaint is disposed as follows:
1. Dismissed
a. Complaint dismissed completely.
b. Complaint should not be referenced in future, non-court events
(think arrest record vs court record).
2. Accepted
a. Complaint accepted for Trial.
3. Partially Accepted
a. Only some parts of the complaint are accepted.
b. Those portions not accepted are Dismissed and should not be
referenced in future discussions.
H. If the complaint is Accepted, the Court should determine if there is a
specific action that can significantly remedy the harm caused.
1. The Prosecutor, the Defense and the Accused meet to determine a
proposed remedy.
a. If they unable to determine a remedy, the complaint is Accepted.
2. The court then votes on the proposed rememdy. If a majority of the Court
agrees with proposal, the remedy is accepted.
a. If not accepted, remedy discussions should continue, with guidance
from Court.
3. The Chief Justice shall post all instructions needed to carry out the
remedy for the next turn chat.
4. Failure by the Accused to carry out remedy, or make every effort to see
that the remedy is carried out, is treated as Guilty plea.
5. The Complaint treated as Dismissed if remedy is carried out.
I. If the complaint is Dismissed for any reason, including the Accused carrying
out the rememdy, the Chief Justice shall post the disposition and reasoning
in the Judicial Thread and the Judicial Log. Any remedy should be included
in this post.

II. Trial
A. The Prosecutor creates the formal charge.
B. The Chief Justice shall create a trial thread in the Citizens forum, entitled
"People vs <Accused>".
1. The first post shall be from the Chief Justice containing formal charge.
2. The second post shall be from the Prosecutor.
3. The third post shall be from the Defense.
4. The Discussion continues until the Chief Justice declares arguments over.
a. Associate Justices may overrule if both agree. They may also declare
a halt to arguments if both agree and Chief Justice is not willing.
b. At this time, the Prosecutor and the Defense should make final,
summary posts.
C. The Judiciary shall then confern privately and determine by a majority vote,
Court determines
1. Innocent
2. Guilty

III. Sentencing
A. The Chief Justice shall create a poll to determine the sentence
handed down to the guilty party.
1. If there are multiple Guilty verdicts, the Chief Justice shall
determine if multiple polls (one per charge) or a single, combined
sentence poll shall be used.
2. The poll shall include options determined by the Chief Justice
a. The Chief Justice shall consult with the Associate Justices
for appropriate options, but the final decisions shall rest
with the Chief Justice.
b. The options shall be ranked in the order of most severe
to the least severe.
c. There shall be no abstain option.
d. Some of the sentencing option the Chief Justice should
consider are:
A. Expulsion (removal from the current DG)
B. Suspension (time to be determined by Moderators)
C. Impeachment (removal from office)
D. Final Warning
E. Public Apology (wording to be approved by Moderators)
F. Warning
G. No Punishement
e. The preceding list should not be considered complete.
The Judiciary may add additional options as needed.
f. Options may be combined at the discretion of the
Judiciary for a single sentencing option.
g. Explusions and Suspensions must be approved by a
Moderator prior to their inclusion in the poll.
3. There shall be a minimum of three options with varying
levels of severity.
4. There shall always be an option of "Warning"
5. The poll shall be open for 2 days (48 hours)
6. The poll shall allow each citizen to select only one option.
7. Once the poll has been closed, the Chief Justice shall
determine the sentence for the accused.
a. Each vote shall be determined as a vote for the option
selected, and all less-severe options.
b. The sentence selected shall be the most severe sentence
that a majority of the citizens supported.
Example:
Option A - 4 Votes
Option B - 12 Votes
Option C - 13 Votees
The sentence carried out is option B.
Option A has 4 total votes.
Option B has 16 total votes.
Option C has 29 total votes.
A total of 29 citizens voted, making Option B is the most
severe sentence that a majority of the citizens support
with a total of 16 votes in support and 29 votes overall.
8. The Chief Justice shall announce the sentence in the sentencing
poll, and PM the accused with it.
9. Sentencing shall commence once the sentence is announced.
10. The guilty party may appeal the sentence to a Moderator.

IV. Conclusion
A. The Chief Justice shall post a summary in the Judicial Log
and in the Judicial Thread.
1. The post shall include the formal charge(s), verdict(s)
and sentence(s), as appropriate.
2. The post shall include a link to the discussion thread and
the sentencing poll(s).

V. General
A. The Accused is innocent unless proven Guilty.
B. All proceedings should go forth in an expedient manner.
C. All proceedings started under one Court shall continue with that Court
through the conclusion of that proceeding.
D. The Accused may plead Guilty at any point, immediately moving the case to
Sentencing.
E. Members of the Court may not initiate a Citizen's Complaint.
F. Should a member of the Court be the target of a Citizen's Complaint, a
pro-tem Justice shall be appointed.


-- Ravensfire

Whew - that's done!

My apologies to all for the length, and congrats to those who read it all! Some of you have seen versions of this before - the core is the same.

First, some background. I HATE the DG2 PI process. Passionately. PI's are designed to PUNISH people for doing wrong. Come on - we are supposed to be friends here, remember? Friends don't punish one another for some wrongdoing - they point it out, correct the problem, and go on.

That's what this process is designed to do. Figure out if there is a legitimate problem, then fix it. Everyone then moves on with the game, as friends.

Now, that isn't always possible. So, you have to allow a stricter process - the infamous trial. I don't like that part either. It's designed to stir up bad emotions and get people angry at each other. Remember that friends concept? Yeah, anger is a great way to destroy that. So how to prevent that... Well, encourage the venting in a controlled way. It's gonna happen, might as well get it all out. But citizens still have the right to a fair trial - we just got everyone good and riled up, and now you expect a fair trial?

I do. Call me a sucker, but I will always hold the members of the Judiciary up to the highest possible standards. They must always put the interests of the game before their personal feelings. And you can bet I'm gonna poke at that during elections. The Judiciary determines guilt or innocence, allowing the citizens to vent all they need to in the trial.

If the accused is guilty, then friends have to determine how to punish a friend. The Judiciary creates the options, but the citizens determine the final sentence.

Result? A process that tries to fix the problem before anything else. I will view anything getting to the trial as a failure.

Thanks for listening, the soapbox is ready for the next person!

-- Ravensfire

Looks good. The safety valve (Remedy Alternative) may be the best thing to hit the Demogame in a while. If it works. :D

I'm glad you didn't go with multiple options on sentencing.

Excluding the public in determining guilt or innocence will speed the process up immensely.

You know where the inspiration for that came from? Just to credit where it's due - donsig has been suggesting for a while that we needed a new system to handle problems that could correct the problem, not just punish it.

Now this isn't exactly what he was suggesting, but that was the inspiration.

-- Ravensfire

Originally, I was opposed to this idea, but the more I think about it the more I like it. It may need some fine tuning, but otherwise I am in support of this proposal. I think that the remedy is a good idea, as long as it requires unanimous approval between the Prosecutor, the Defense, and the Accused, and has a time limit on it, after which if no remedy was proposed it would be passed down as Accepted in the ordinary manner (48 hours would probably suffice).

Originally posted by ravensfire
You know where the inspiration for that came from? Just to credit where it's due - donsig has been suggesting for a while that we needed a new system to handle problems that could correct the problem, not just punish it.

Now this isn't exactly what he was suggesting, but that was the inspiration.

-- Ravensfire

Actually, I think it was me who used those words and donsig told me it would never work 'cause Investigations arouse too much emotion. Sheesh, I should PI that guy......

No, wait...I didn't say that :lol:

This is probably the single most important development of the entire demogame. Ravensfire has presented a method of settling 'problems' which will ensure that the demogame does not become acrimonious. I stand and applaud. I also encourage everyone else to give this full support.

Any more comments on this? I'm planning on polling this tonight barring further suggestions.

-- Ravensfire

Poll has been posted here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73217).

-- Ravensfire