The Amendments in Constitution

The Amendments in Constitution

Introduction

Constitutional rights related to American criminal law are same for all citizens. Criminal justice is the system of law enforcement that is involved in arresting, prosecuting, protecting, and punishing those who are alleged of criminal crimes. The criminal justice system consists of three parts 1) legislative, 2) adjudication and 3) corrections. When the citizens are accused of crimes, the U.S constitution's 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th amendments provide them constitutional basis of rights.

Discussions

Due process

Due process is that laws must be applied fairly and equally to all especially those citizens accused of crimes. Taking in regard the justice system for criminals, due process means that the citizens accused of crime must be told about the charges against them so that they can defend themselves at a trial. The main purpose of due process is that it acts as a safeguard for the citizens accused of a crime. Due process allows the defendants to have a fair trial. It also gives the right to defendants to have their own witnesses, raise their own evidences and present their premises of facts.

Constitutional rights

The fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendments in the US constitution provides rights to the citizens especially those accused of crimes. The supreme court of U.S interprets due process clauses; these clauses provide four protections 1) procedural due process (in civil and criminal proceedings), 2) substantive due process, 3) a prohibition against vague law, 4) and as a vehicle for the inclusion of Bill of Rights.

The US constitution's 4th amendment discusses that there should be a ban against irrational searches of people and their possessions. This amendment also provides the right that no warrant should be issued without proper investigations and all the warrants must give details about the place that is to be searched and the people and possessions that are to be detained in detail. This amendment was introduced in congress in 1789 by James Madison.

The major issue related to this amendment is the interpretation of “unreasonable” searches and seizures (Abadinsky, 1982). The rules related to this are complicated, and they also change often, but the common principle is that searches are valid methods, but unreasonable ones are prohibited. In this amendment, the Supreme Court has allowed police to search following:

The individual under arrest

The scenario as per the views of the person accused

Items or places that can be accessed by the person under arrest by touching or reaching out or that might be in the possession of the individual

Property where there is a strong doubt that a person could be in immediate danger

Case of Knowles v. Iowa 525 U.S. 113 (1998)

The case was in the U.S. Supreme Court which depicts that 4th amendment bars an officer of the police to conduct a search of the vehicle that was stopped due to minor violation of the traffic after a citation has been penned down by the officer for the laws broken.

Case of Katz ...