When choosing a jury, both prosecutors and defense attorneys may object to certain people being included. Some of these objections, called challenges, are for cause the potential juror has said or done something that shows he or she may not act fairly.
Others are peremptory no real reason need be given, but one side does not want to have that person serve. Lawyers cannot use peremptory challenges to keep people off a jury because of race or gender. Right to a Speedy Trial: This right is considered one of the most important in the Constitution. Without it, criminal defendants could be held indefinitely under a cloud of unproven criminal accusations. The right to a speedy trial also is crucial to assuring that a criminal defendant receives a fair trial.
If too much time elapses between the alleged crime and the trial, witnesses may die or leave the area, their memories may fade, and physical evidence may be lost. The perpetrator broke the door, damaged the juke box player and the cigarette machine, and removed money from the register and juke box.
One witness reported that Clarence Earl Gideon had left the poolroom around a. This information was enough for the police to arrest Gideon and charge him with breaking and entering with intent to commit petty larceny. Gideon could not afford a lawyer. He showed up in a Florida court and asked the court to appoint him counsel. The court refused, stating that court-appointed lawyers were reserved for capital offenses.
At that time, the prevailing law was that the counsel would be appointed for indigent defendants in capital cases only; the rest of cases were evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Accordingly, at his trial, Gideon was left to defend himself without the aid of a lawyer. While Gideon maintained his innocence throughout, the jury returned a guilty verdict and sentenced him to 5 years in state prison, the maximum sentence. In fact, this legal case was made into a film.
Inmate Gideon began using his time and the prison library to study the American legal system. He came to believe that the trial judge had breached his constitutional right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment that was applicable to the State of Florida through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Next, Gideon penned a 5-page hand-written petition to the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the nine justices to consider his complaint.
That legal case, titled Gideon v. Cochran , was argued on Jan. Counsel Abe Fortas was assigned to represent Gideon before the U. Supreme Court; later this lawyer would serve as a U. Supreme Court justice from to Fortas argued that someone like Gideon, with no training in law, was no match against a trained trial lawyer.
Accordingly, there was no way to have a fair trial without legal representation. The argument from the other side was that the matter was up to Florida courts, rather than federal courts.
The existing practice of assigning court counsel to represent indigent defendants on a case-by-case basis should suffice. But nowhere is this right more important than when the accused faces the death penalty. Some of these attorneys have even been drunk or asleep at trial. Courts overturn death sentences on a weekly basis. An extraordinary number of these reversals are granted because the death sentence was a result of egregiously incompetent defense lawyering.
In fact, studies show that nearly 70 percent of death sentences are overturned during the appellate process, and a large proportion of these reversals are due to a finding that the condemned received poor and ineffective representation at trial.
Not every capital crime results in a death sentence; most do not. It is, instead, the quality of the lawyer for the accused. This amendment provides a number of rights people have when they have been accused of a crime. These rights are to insure that a person gets a fair trial including a speedy and public trial, an impartial jury, a notice of accusation, a confrontation of witnesses, and the right to a lawyer.
Accordingly, when law enforcement officials question high-ranking corporate executives after the initiation of formal criminal proceedings, the Sixth Amendment dictates that — absent a valid waiver of the right to counsel — all statements made by corporate executives are inadmissible against the corporation at a …. Self-incrimination may occur as a result of interrogation or may be made voluntarily. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution protects a person from being compelled to incriminate oneself.
Self-incrimination may also be referred to as self-crimination or self-inculpation. The United States Supreme Court, however, has ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial does not extend to the sentencing phase once a defendant has been convicted. Under the Fifth Amendment, a person must be given Miranda warnings, including informing the suspect of their right to an attorney, before a custodial interrogation by a government agent.
Under the Sixth Amendment, an individual facing criminal charges is entitled to the effective assistance of counsel. The Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U. Constitution both involve the right to counsel. Arizona, refers to the right to have an attorney present during a custodial interrogation; the Sixth Amendment right to counsel refers the right to effective assistance of counsel during critical stages of criminal prosecutions. These amendments include the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and the fourteenth amendments.
Their purpose is meant to ensure that people are treated fairly if suspected or arrested for crimes.
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