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Due Process in Criminal Proceedings.

At the beginning of our national history, it was written in our earliest state and national constitutions that "all men are born free and equal, and have natural, essential, and unalienable rights." Over time, the phrase "all men" began to be defined as "all men," meaning mankind, a word including women, children, and minorities. This expanding concept was interpreted as granting to all men and women, regardless of race, or ethnicity, or national origin, or age, the right to equal treatment under all the laws and the rules and regulations promulgated under them. Due process refers to the means, guaranteed by the Constitution, for insuring that the government provides justice to its citizens in all legal proceedings. With regard to the criminal justice system, due process means that a defendant accused of a crime must be told of the charges against him or her, have the opportunity to present a defense against such charges at a trial, and have the services of counsel and the right to an appeal. As stated by fellow student Melissa Devault “Due process begins when an investigation of a particular suspect related to a crime begins. It also extends through arrest, interrogation, trial, and sentencing. It is


One large principle of due process in relation to the criminal justice system is in the fourth amendment of the U.S Constitution. The fourth amendment states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.". The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution places limits on the power of the police to make arrests; search people and their property; and seize objects documents and contraband, such as illegal drugs or weapons. The search and seizure provisions of the Fourth Amendment are all about privacy. Privacy in this circumstance is defined as the freedom to decide which details of your life will be revealed to the public and which will be revealed only to those you care to share them with. To honor this freedom, the Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by state or federal law enforcement authorities.

areas then others but it does cover the entire process. These due process rights derive from the fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth Amendments to the Constitution. Although the first ten Amendments were intended to apply only to actions of the Federal Government, over the years the courts have been able to extend due process rights to those accused of violating state law via the 14th Amendment, that says, "No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." This legal principle is known as incorporation. What is due process, this concept might seem at best an easy definition that could be explained in a sentence or two. However, when one looks at the concept of due process, one is destined to find that the term is not susceptible to an exact, strict, all-inclusive, or concrete definition. Part of the majesty of the concept is that it is too broad to admit of a short definition that embraces every situation, and that any definition must depend on the relation a particular act bears to the fundamental law that limits legislative power. A specific and well known quote by Judge Thomas Cooley stated that “due process of law in each particular case means such an exertion of the powers of government as the settled maxims of law permit and sanction, and under such safeguards for the protection of individual rights as those maxims prescribe for the class of cases to which the one in question belongs. Where doubt exists, law and government are encumbered to come down on the side of individual liberty” (Thomas, 2003). By looking to the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendments and the cases that have set the precedents of law the concept of due process can be explained and be better understood.

When discussing due process of law and the rights afforded the citizens of the United States in the Bill of Rights, up in till the interpretation of the fourteenth amendment by the Supreme Court, the rights afforded in the Bill of Rights only applied to the Federal Justice System. When the fourteenth amendment was finally challenged to the supreme court the court held that the Bill of Rights in relation to due process and the other rights afforded in the Bill of Rights applied to the states specifically held that the amendment ''operates to extend . . . the same protection against arbitrary state legislation, affecting life, liberty and property, as is offered by the Fifth Amendment, ''Hibben v. Smith, 191 U.S. 310, 325 (1903), and that ''ordinarily if an act of Congress is valid under the Fifth Amendment it would be hard to say that a state law in like terms was void under the Fourteenth,'' Carroll v. Greenwich Ins. Co., 199 U.S. 401, 410 (1905). See also French v. Barber Asphalt Paving Co., 181 U.S. 324, 328 (1901).

However, the opposite is also true in these circums

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Waterfront Comm'n, Thomas Cooley, Alexander Louisiana, Fourth Amendment, Justice Sutherland, Federal Government, Grand Jury, Gideon Wainwright, , Lillie Robinson, due process, process law, life liberty, bill rights, criminal justice, fourth amendment, due process law, liberty property, justice system, process rights, life liberty property, due process rights, criminal justice system, liberty property due, searches seizures,

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Approximate Word count = 3780
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)


  

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