Constitutional Protections in Criminal Investigations

Constitutional Protections in Criminal Investigations

Introduction

An affective judicial system is essential for maintaining the peace and stability of the society. However, there are a number of intermediate procedures and systems that are also necessary to ensure that the oppressed is provided with justice and the oppressor is held accountable for his actions. These procedures include planning an investigation strategy, implementing the plan utilizing the available resources and finally handing over the culprit to the courts to decide the punishment he deserves. Therefore, in order to ensure the proper execution of all these stages, it is essential that the overall procedure is started with most efficiency. In other words, it will be fair to say that unless the investigation does not provides sufficient relevant information regarding the case, carrying the next secondary steps can be almost impossible.

Discussion

Criminal Investigations therefore plays a very important part in ensuring that only the culprit is identified and held answerable. Hence, Criminal Investigation can simply be defined as a process that involves interrogations, confessions, and identifications. All these procedures are carried out by the respective investigative bodies in order to find proves and clues that will take the investigation procedures to the next step.

However, the important thing to note that during these criminal investigations, there is a high probability that the individuals relevant to the case are considered as suspects. In addition, there is a probability that the citizens arrested by the police are not mistreated before the verdict of the judges or any such supreme authority. Hence, the protections of individuals belonging to both the categories is essential in order to make sure that investigation procedures are conducted with accuracy thereby also ensuring that the rights of all the individuals investigated are fully granted.

The constitution of United States of America has discussed and catered these aspects. The clauses in the legal framework have restricted the investigative bodies to certain acts. The citizens therefore will be protected from some of the harsh and unnecessary investigation procedures. In addition, the USA law has also focused on the procedures of interrogation, proceedings of handling a confession and the activities of identifying the culprit must not affect the life, property or any other aspect of any American. There are four amendments in the constitutions that were made to protect the rights of the individuals involved in any legal case of any crime. These include the fourth, fifth, sixth and fourteenth amendment. These four amendments identify and discuss the roles and right of all the possible entities involved that includes judges, police, interrogation bodies, the culprit and the witnesses (Inbau, 1999).

Four Basic Components of the Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment plays a very important role in deciding the responsibilities and limitations of the law making and law enforcement bodies involved. The amendment can be divided into four basic components. These include,

The law frees an individual from being accountable for any infamous or capital crime, unless and until he is on an indictment or presentment ...