Criminal Procedural Law: Beginnings, Application, and Importance

The base of the American justice system is the constitution and the federal and state laws that govern the day to day life in this country. Criminal law contains laws that guide the prosecution of individuals for acts that have been classified as crimes. Criminal procedure on the other hand, contains laws that govern the way in which criminal law is enforced. Therefore substantive criminal law refers to the laws that prosecute people for illegal acts while criminal procedure guides those agencies that prosecute the people. In the time I spent in my internship I have observed how criminal procedure guides the actions of the law enforcement personnel in my agency. In the county where my organization does law enforcement a set of criminal procedure laws and a local agency procedure manual guides the officers to apply the law with maximum efficiency and to guarantee that the rights of individuals are not violated.

Criminal procedure has its origins in the US Constitution. The constitution contains a guarantee of equal rights for all citizens, although it does not contain any specific rights. The individual rights of citizens were added to the constitution in the first ten amendments. The amendments are based on the oppression that the first American colonists were subjected to by their British rulers. The forefathers of the American nation deemed that it is very important to create a written amendment to the constitution to guarantee that no American would be subjected to the kind of violations that the colonists had to endure. The most important of the ten amendments (also known as the Bill of Rights) in relation to criminal procedure are the fourth, fifth, sixth and eight amendments (Yates, notes). The fourth amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures, and illegal arrests. The fifth one guarantees due process, indictment by grand jury, and protection from double jeopardy. The sixth amendment reserves individuals the right to an attorney at trial, the right to a speedy and public trial, to an impartial jury and to know what his/her accusations are. Finally the eight amendment protects people against unusual and cruel punishments and excessive bails or fines (Bill of Rights Website, 1).

The Bill of Rights formally applied only to the federal government at first. The fourteenth amendment, which was ratified in 1866, was the first step towards incorporating the rights guaranteed in the first ten amendments to state laws and legislatures. It extended the due process clause to the states, making sure that citizens’ rights to a fair legal proceeding were respected (NPS, 1). The further incorporation of the other amendments in state trials took place over the course of the entire 20^th century in a series of landmark trials. It is important to mention Powell v.Alabama (1932) in which the right of counsel was guaranteed by law. In Palko v.Connecticut (1937) the double jeopardy clause was introduced in state proceedings. Rochin v.California (1952) ensured the enforcement of the law against illegal searches and seizures.Duncan v.Louisiana (1968) guaranteed the right to a jury trial in serious criminal cases.

These and many other landmark cases ensured that the rights of the American citizens would be respected in the application of the law. Virtually all the major criminal justice procedures in place today are the result of major landmark cases presented before the US Supreme Court and other major state and federal courts. Arrests today have to be legal, based on probable cause and factual evidence, as defined in Dunaway v. New York(1979) (Yates, Notes). Warrants have to be based on probable cause and are only taken under oath in a criminal court of law. Searches have to be performed with search warrants and seizures can only be performed where there is evidence of illegal activities. One of the most important rights that citizens have today is the right against self-incrimination. This right was enforced in Miranda v.Arizona(1966) and it forces police officers to inform an arrested suspect about his/her Miranda rights as soon as the suspect is placed into custody. This is a very important procedural aspect because it protects individuals in the setting of an interrogation.

Individuals living in the United States today enjoy some of the most extensive rights in the world. Their freedom is protected by the criminal procedure law, which dictates how the law enforcement and the judicial personnel can enforce the law. Without these extensive protections citizens could be arrested and incarcerated at the whim of an officer. Every day many of the rights of Americans are challenged in the courts of the nation, and it is the duty of every citizen to fight for the protection of these rights. The criminal procedure law is very important because without it governments could set up tyrannical regimes such as the one early colonists confronted in the form of the British Empire.

References

Bill of Rights Website. 2008. The Amendments. http://www.billofrights.com/amendments.htm

Dunaway v.New York, 442US200 (1979).

Duncanv.Louisiana, 391US145 (1968).

Miranda v.Arizona, 384US436 (1966).

National Park Service. 1997. 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution. Washington,DC: US Department of the Interior. http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/amend14.htm

Palko v.Connecticut, 302US319 (1937).

Powell v.Alabama, 287US45 (1932).

Rochin v.California, 342US165 (1953).

Yates, Jeff. 2006. Notes from Criminal Procedure Class (POLS 4720).