HY 357 Lecture Notes - Lecture 46: Jury Trial, Miranda Warning, William Rehnquist
6 Jun 2018
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The Rights of Defendants
The rights of criminal defendants are protected by the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth
amendments to the Constitution. Although these protections are intended to shield
individuals from abuses by the government, the government also has an obligation to
safeguard its citizens against criminal activity. The Supreme Court has had to address
both concerns.
The Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment is a guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures
and requires that a search warrant be granted only with probable cause. If the police
exceed their authority and conduct an illegal search, the evidence gathered may not be
admissible in court under what is called the exclusionary rule. While initially applied
only to federal cases, the rule has been extended to state courts since 1961. In recent
years, the Supreme Court has attempted to limit the exclusionary rule amid complaints
that a blanket exclusion of all evidence, used even when the police error was a minor
one, was letting guilty defendants go free. Under chief justices Warren Burger and
William Rehnquist, the Court has adopted the good faith exception to the Fourth
Amendment. This exception uses loopholes in the exclusionary rule, such as when the
police believed they had a valid search warrant but it turned out to be based on
outdated information. The good faith exception has been applied even to searches
without warrants for which the police could show their intention was legal. Warrantless
searches are based on a broad interpretation of what constitutes probable cause and a
reasonable search. The overall trend has been to weaken the guarantee of personal
security in favor of controlling criminal behavior.
The Fifth Amendment
The Fifth Amendment is probably one of the most misunderstood safeguards of
personal liberty. In the American legal process, the burden of proof lies with the
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Document Summary
The rights of criminal defendants are protected by the fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments to the constitution. Although these protections are intended to shield individuals from abuses by the government, the government also has an obligation to safeguard its citizens against criminal activity. The supreme court has had to address both concerns. The fourth amendment is a guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires that a search warrant be granted only with probable cause. If the police exceed their authority and conduct an illegal search, the evidence gathered may not be admissible in court under what is called the exclusionary rule. While initially applied only to federal cases, the rule has been extended to state courts since 1961. In recent years, the supreme court has attempted to limit the exclusionary rule amid complaints that a blanket exclusion of all evidence, used even when the police error was a minor one, was letting guilty defendants go free.
