Learning Objective 5.5

L.O.- Analyze the rights of criminal defendants found in the Bill of Rights 

Rights of Criminal Defendants

• Writs of habeas corpus: prisoners have a right to know what charges are being made against them.
•  Bills of attainder: laws declaring an act illegal without a judicial trial. 
• Article I prohibits this.

Search and Seizures

• Fourth Amendment: protects people from unreasonable searches by the federal government. 

• The police is allowed to search a person arrested, things in plain view of an accused person, and things or places in an arrestee's immediate control.
• police can search when suspicion occurs.
• The police must obtain a warrant or consent to search a place.

Self-Incrimination and Double Jeopardy 

• Fifth Amendment: protects those who have been charged with a crime.
• allows people to a grand jury, protects against self-incrimination, and prevents the national government from denying a person life, liberty, or property without the due process of law. It also prevents the national government from taking property without just compensation.  

• Miranda v. Arizona: A court case that requires that individuals arrested for a crime must be advised of their right to remain silent and to have counsel present. 
• Miranda Rights: statements made by police to criminals when arrested, telling them of their rights that are protected by the 5th amendment.

• Double jeopardy clause: protects individuals from being tried twice for the same offense in the same jurisdiction.
• part of the fifth amendment.

Exclusionary Rule

• Exclusionary rule: rule that prohibits the police form using illegally seized evidence at trial.
• adopted because of Weeks v. U.S.
• In Mapp v. Ohio the Warren Court ruled that "all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution is inadmissible in a state court." 

Sixth Amendment and the Right to Counsel & Jury Trials

• Sixth amendment: sets out the basic requirements of procedural due process for federal courts to follow in criminal trials
• A criminal has the right to counsel
• The legal responsibility for the government to provide every defendant in a criminal action with legal representation that also must be deemed effective.
• "lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries 

• A person accused of a crime can have a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury

Eighth Amendment  and Cruel and Unusual Punishment

a typical room where a lethal injection would occur

• Eight amendment: prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
• "excessive bail shall no be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
• The death penalty is constitutional by lethal injection but it's not used for those who are mentally challenged or are under the age of 18