Log into your account. Password recovery. Recover your password. Forgot your password? Get help. The Constitution of the United States of America applies a number of constitutional rights and protections to individuals who are facing a trial.
Potential jurors must be selected randomly from the community, and the actual jury must be selected by a process that allows the judge and lawyers to screen out biased jurors. In addition, a lawyer may eliminate several potential jurors simply because he feels that these people would not be sympathetic to his side—but these decisions called "peremptory challenges" may not be based on the juror's personal characteristics such as race, sex, religion, or national origin.
See Jury Selection. The Sixth Amendment gives defendants a right to a "speedy trial. Thus, judges often have to decide on a case-by-case basis whether a defendant's trial has been so delayed that the case should be thrown out.
In making this decision, judges look at the length of the delay, the reason for the delay, and whether the delay has prejudiced harmed the defendant's position. Every jurisdiction has enacted statutes that set time limits for moving cases from the filing of the initial charge to trial. While these statutes are very strict in their wording, most defendants cannot get their convictions reversed on the ground that these statutes were violated.
For more, see The Right to a Speedy Tria l. The Sixth Amendment provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right For more detail, see Are lawyers available for defendants who can't afford to pay for one?
Judges routinely appoint attorneys for indigents in nearly all cases in which a jail sentence is possible. The U. Supreme Court has ruled that both indigent defendants who are represented by appointed counsel and defendants who hire their own attorneys are entitled to adequate representation—that is, to have a lawyer who does a reasonably good job at defending the defendant.
Defendants are entitled to adequate representation not only at trial but also during plea bargains. However, adequate representation is by no means perfect representation. Here are examples of claims that defendants have made to get their guilty verdicts thrown out but that appellate courts have rejected.
Note that the rulings depend on the particular facts at hand, meaning that these kinds of claims might, under different circumstances, actually establish ineffective assistance of counsel. On the other hand, circumstances can be sufficiently shocking to justify throwing out a guilty verdict based on an attorney's incompetence.
Judges have reversed guilty verdicts where:. Among the clauses of the Fifth Amendment is this well-known provision: "44818or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb. For much more on double jeopardy, including what it means for sentencing, see The Prohibition Against Double Jeopardy. One important exception to the rule against double jeopardy is that defendants can properly be charged for the same conduct by different sovereigns.
For example, a defendant may face charges in both federal and state court for the same conduct if some aspects of that conduct violated federal laws while other elements ran afoul of the laws of the state. Additionally, the Supreme Court has upheld that child witnesses in sex crimes cases can testify via close circuit television, which allows a defendant to see the witness, while the witness is not traumatized or intimidated to testify in the presence of their alleged attacker.
The right to a public trial, which is protected by the Sixth Amendment, initially ensured a defendant received a fair and reasonable trial. However, the attraction of media personnel to courtroom trials has altered the rights and procedures for ensuring a fair, public trial. Virtually all trials are public, which in turn, allows media personnel, victims, and supports to be in the court. A judge, however, can limit the number of persons allowed in a courtroom, remove unruly individuals, and restrict television and photographic coverage of a trial.
Additionally, the judge may issue a gag order, which will prevent parties from discussing parts of the criminal proceedings with the news media for fear of jeopardizing a defendant's right to receive a fair trial. The Sixth Amendment guarantees right to a trial by jury for all criminal cases, however, the Supreme Court has interpreted this to guarantee the right to a trial by jury for those individuals facing charges that a carry sentence six months or more in jail. Trial by judge, instead of by jury, is possible; however, if either side requests trial by jury, it must occur.
Additionally, the size of the jury varies on a state-by-state and case by case basis, with usually at least six jurors up to twelve persons. In a twelve-person jury, the entire jury does not need to return a unanimous decision in non-death penalty cases; however, a six-person jury panel must return a unanimous decision.
The right to legal counsel is established by the Sixth Amendment, and for cases with a possible punishment of incarceration, indigent defendants must be provided free legal counsel. The right to counsel commences as soon as judicial proceedings begin, which usually is at the arraignment. For Attorneys. We Help! No Hassles Guarantee. Search: Search. Popular forms.
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