Bill of Rights - history.

« being indicted (formally accused) by a grand jury.

Second, a criminal suspect may be prosecuted only once for each crime.

If a jury acquits the accused person, there can beno retrial.

Third, a person cannot be forced to testify against himself or herself in any criminal case.

This is the right against self-incrimination.

Fourth, the due process clausebars the government from arbitrarily depriving anyone of life, liberty, or property.

Fifth, the government may not take anyone’s private property unless it is necessary for apublic purpose and unless the government pays a fair price for it. F Sixth Amendment In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have beencommitted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnessesagainst him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. Comment: The Sixth Amendment guarantees people accused of crimes the right to a speedy and public trial.

Defendants in federal cases are entitled to be tried in the area in which the crime was committed, and both state and federal defendants have the right to have an impartial jury decide their guilt or innocence.

The Sixth Amendmentprohibits the government from prosecuting an accused person without first informing him or her of the nature of the charges against him or her.

The accused has the right to“confront”—that is, to cross-examine witnesses who testify against him or her at trial.

Those accused also have a right to subpoena (compel) supporting witnesses to testifyin court and to have a lawyer assist in their legal defense. G Seventh Amendment In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall beotherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Comment: The Seventh Amendment, which does not apply to the states, guarantees the right to a jury in some types of federal civil (noncriminal) trials. H Eighth Amendment Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Comment: The courts must allow most criminal defendants out of jail before their trial if the defendants put up a reasonable bail—a financial guarantee that they will come to the trial.

If a person is convicted of a crime, the government cannot impose unreasonable fines or inflict inhumane punishments.

What is “cruel and unusual” has no fixedmeaning, and so decisions interpreting the clause are sometimes controversial.

The Supreme Court has generally held that a punishment that is wildly disproportionate tothe crime committed is cruel and unusual.

The Court has also upheld the death penalty against claims that putting someone to death, regardless of what that person did, iscruel and unusual. INinth Amendment The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Comment: The Ninth Amendment declares that just because certain rights are not mentioned in the Constitution does not mean that they do not exist.

Courts may not infer from the silence of the Constitution that an unlisted right is unavailable to protect individuals from the government. JTenth Amendment The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Comment: The Tenth Amendment restates a fundamental constitutional rule: If a particular power was not assigned to the federal government by the Constitution itself, then the states may exercise the power, unless the Constitution also prohibits the states from exercising it.

The Tenth Amendment also states that people are free to act,without permission of the federal government, in areas outside the scope of the federal government's powers. K Summary The first ten amendments to the Constitution have been crucial to the political and legal development of the United States.

They accomplished three important purposes.First, they declare an important ideal—that the people have rights with which no government may interfere.

Placing ideals into the Constitution makes it harder for tyrantsto restrict human rights.

Second, they provide the basis for actually securing the rights.

In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison that a bill of rights “putsinto the hands of the judiciary” a “legal check” against tyranny by the legislature or the executive.

Third, the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, helps protectdemocratic government by barring criminal prosecutions against those who criticize the government and those who hold unpopular beliefs, and by providing a safe havenfor minorities who are oppressed in many other countries. III ORIGINS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS A The English Legal Tradition in America When English immigrants came to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, most assumed that they would have the same protections against governmentalabuses of power that they had in England.

The most important of these were the right to trial by jury and the right of habeas corpus, which prevented the government fromjailing people arbitrarily.

Other personal liberties brought from England to America included the right of accused persons to have legal assistance at trials, and a ban onexcessive fines and bail.

These rights came from several centuries of English legal tradition, recorded in documents such as the Magna Carta of 1215, the Petition of Right of1628, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689, from which the American Bill of Rights took its name.

The assumption of basic legal rights of citizens also came out of theEnglish common law, a body of English court-made law that evolved from the 12th century. English settlers in America included many of these protections in colonial laws.

The English Americans decided to codify (write into law) some parts of the common law and to make additions suited to the colonial society.

The 1632 charter for the Maryland colony, for example, declared that all people who were born or who moved there wereentitled to 'all Privileges, Franchises and Liberties' of a native Englishman.

By 1639 the Maryland General Assembly had passed an act for 'the liberties of the people.' Residents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony created the Body of Liberties in 1641, an important forerunner of the American Bill of Rights.

The Body of Liberties grantedlimited religious freedom, assured landowners of the equal protection of the laws, the right to petition the government for change, and the use of the writ of habeas corpus.It also banned punishments considered 'inhumane, Barbarous or cruel' and recognized the right of an accused person to have legal assistance under some circumstances.The Body of Liberties also required the presence of several witnesses to a crime before a person could be sentenced to death.

It also granted citizens the right to travel andsettle abroad, an important freedom often denied in England.. »