The Bills of Rights and Criminal Justice in the United States of America
The criminal justice is one of the critical component of the United States government and social systems. Although the Constitution defined the main foundations of the social life in the country, it is the Bill of Rights, which substantially expanded the personal rights and liberties of the American citizens (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008).
In particular, the following Amendments are of particular interest for the members of the law enforcement community:
The Fourth Amendment made unwarranted searches and seizures illegal (Schwarz, 1992).
The Fifth Amendment serves to protect the community from self-incrimination and double jeopardy. In addition, it established the ideas of due process and grand jury for the criminal proceedings (Schwartz, 1992).
The Six Amendment provides a number of important procedural rights and privileges, including a speedy and public trial, the right to impartial jury, the right to counsel etc. (Smith, 2008).
Finally, the Eight Amendment forbids imposition of excessive bails and declares that infliction of the cruel and unusual punishments is not tolerated in the country (Schwartz, 1992).
The Six Amendment is particularly interesting, because it provides a defensive procedural framework for the criminal procedure (Smith, 2008). The legal practice of the past showed that although some basic legal principles have been enshrined in the early laws, the accused person frequently faced unreasonable and unjust burdens (Neubauer & Fradella, 2011). Thus, by specifically stipulating that the accused in entitled to a speedy and public trial, impartial jury, assistance of the legal counsel and reliance on independent witness testimonies, the Founding Fathers provided effective defensive remedies to the accused persons (Stair, 2003).
References
Bodenhamer, D. & Ely, J. (2008). The Bill of Rights in modern America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Neubauer, D. & Fradella, H. (2011). America's courts and the criminal justice system. New York: Cengage Learning
Schwartz, B. (1992). The great rights of mankind : a history of the American Bill of Rights. Madison, Wis: Madison House.
Smith, R. (2008). Defining our freedoms. Edina, MN: ABDO Pub. Co.
Stair, N. (2003). The Bill of Rights : a primary source investigation into the first ten amendments of the Constitution. New York, NY: Rosen Primary Source.
