American Legal System

American Legal System

Guiding Questions

• What basic legal rights are provided to all Americans?

• What legal protections does the U.S. Constitution offer a citizen who is accused of a crime?

Vocabulary Words

• double jeopardy

• bail

• due process

• presumption

• search warrant

• exclusionary rule

• Miranda Warnings

American Legal System

• In many schools, officials or police officers sometimes search students’ lockers, book bags, and other belongings

• They cannot, however, look through students’ things whenever they wish.

• This is because you are protected from such unreasonable searches by the U.S. Constitution. 

• The Constitution establishes this and many other important rights concerning individuals and the law.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

• One of the most important protections, found in Article I

• a prisoner has the right to ask for a writ of habeas corpus.

• A prison official must bring the prisoner before a judge. The judge will then decide whether the accused was lawfully imprisoned

• Habeas corpus safeguards individuals against being kept in jail unlawfully.

Article I in Constitution

• Write of Habeas Corpus is found here

• Forbids the government from issuing bills of attainder and ex post facto laws.

• A bill of attainder is a law that punishes a person accused of a crime without a trial or a fair hearing in court.

• An ex post facto law is a law that would allow a person to be punished for an action that was not against the law when it was committed. It means "after the fact"

Administration of Justice

• The Constitution makes sure that the government respects our individual rights as it carries out the law.

• The Fourteenth Amendment granted civil rights to formerly enslaved people. This amendment requires the states to treat all people equally under the law. It bans unequal treatment based on factors such as gender, race, and religion.

• The Fourteenth Amendment also strengthens the Fifth Amendment right of due process

• Due process means that the government may not take our lives, liberty, or property without following legal procedure.

Rights of the Accused

• The Constitution makes sure that people accused of crimes receive fair treatment.

• They must also have every chance to defend themselves. The rights it grants are based upon the presumption of innocence.

• You are innocent until proven in the court of law

Fourth Amendment Rights

•  Protects citizens against “unreasonable searches and seizures.

• No police officer or other government agent can search your home or take your property without probable cause

• They need a search warrant. A search warrant is a judge’s authorization for a search. It describes the exact place to be searched and what objects may be seized, or taken.

• If police find evidence of a crime through an illegal search, the evidence may not be used in court.

•   This the exclusionary rule. In other words, evidence gained in a way that violates the Fourth Amendment may not be used in a trial.

Fifth Amendment Rights

• States that no person can be forced “to be a witness against himself”

•  It protects individuals against self-incrimination. This means that individuals do not have to answer questions that might show they were involved in a crime.

• Before 1960's the police pressured suspects into confessing to a crime but Miranda v. Arizona put an end to that. The Court ruled that police must inform suspects of their right to refuse to answer police questions.

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Miranda Warning

•  police must now issue what is known as a Miranda Warning. 

• they have the right to remain silent anything they say may be used against them as evidence

• they have the right to an attorney; if they cannot afford one, the court will provide one

Fifth Amendment

• The Fifth Amendment also protects the accused from double jeopardy.

• Jeopardy means “to be put at risk of criminal penalty.” A person who is tried for a crime and found not guilty may not be tried again for the same crime.

• Entitles people accused of serious federal crimes to be brought before a grand jury

•  A grand jury is a group that hears evidence presented by a prosecutor and decides if the government has enough evidence to bring a suspect to trial.they find enough evidence to justify a trial, it indicts, or formally charges, the suspect. 

Sixth Amendment

• The Sixth Amendment grants the accused the right to be defended by a lawyer.

•  In the 1963 Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright provided this right

• The accused have the right to know the accusations against them. They can question witnesses against them in court.

• They have the right to be tried by an impartial, or fair, jury. 

• Grants the right to a speedy and public trial. This protects defendants from being held in jail for an unreasonably long time.