Defendant and the Bill of Term Paper

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Also, the search warrant must specify exactly what evidence the police are seeking. At times, a search warrant is not required, for if an officer observes a crime being committed, he/she has the right to arrest or apprehend the culprits. However, if a search warrant specifies what evidence is being sought during a search and other evidence is found concerning another crime, such evidence cannot be used in court.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees that an accused person will be treated fairly and justly by the officers that make the arrest and by the courts that hear the accuser's case. As to jury trials, three rules must be followed -- first, the jury must be made up of twelve members; second, the trial must be supervised by a judge with the authority to instruct the jurors, and third, the verdict of the jurors must be unanimous. However, prior to 1968, states were not required to provide the accused a trial by jury in criminal prosecutions. This was ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, for it violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments (Brant, 1965, p. 167).

The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the accused the assistance of a lawyer regardless of the fact that the accused cannot afford to pay for a lawyer. In 1963, Justice Hugo L. Black stated that the right-to-counsel provision in this amendment "is fundamental and essential to a fair trail in both federal and state courts." In addition, this amendment provides the right of the accused not to say anything which might incriminate himself. This is where the familiar phrase of "taking the Fifth" originated.

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Also, this amendment has much to do with the Miranda rights, created in 1966, which states that the accused has the right to remain silent and that anything said by the accused will be used against him/her in a court of law (Brant, 1965, p. 169).

Lastly, the Eighth Amendment, with its dictate that "cruel and unusual punishment" cannot be used on the accused, is highly controversial and many court cases have been argued concerning its meaning. The issue of capital punishment is, of course, the most highly debated topic concerning this amendment. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed this topic and handed down three decisions -- Furman v. Georgia, Branch v. Texas and Jackson v. Georgia. In each case, the death penalty was overturned, for it violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Unfortunately, the death penalty is still widely used today by many states, due to having the above decisions and many like them overturned by state and federal courts.

Conclusion:

The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments are all essentially necessary to the foundation of law in the United States, for without them, a person accused of a crime, whether federal or state, could face unfair or even dangerous prosecution and could be denied his/her basic human rights as described in the U.S. Constitution.

REFERENCES'

Brant, Irving. (1965). The Bill of Rights: Its Origin and Meaning. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.

The Bill of Rights: Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution." (2005). Internet. Accessed October 15, 2005. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm.

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