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The Fifth Amendment
Role of the supreme court
Analysis of the fifth amendment
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The Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth-Amendment to many American citizens and law makers is considered abstract. The complexity of this concept can easily be traced back to its beginning in which it lacked an easily identifiable principle. Since its commencement in 1789 the United States Judicial system has had a hard time interpreting and translating this vague amendment. In many cases the courts have gone out of their way to protect the freedoms of the accused. The use of three major Supreme Court disputes will show the lengths these Justices have gone through, in order to preserve the rights and civil liberties of three criminals, who were accused of heinous crimes and in some cases were supposed to face up to a lifetime in federal prison. The act of interrogation has been around for thousands of years. From the Punic Wars to the war in Iraq, interrogating criminals, prisoners or military officers in order to receive advantageous information has been regularly used. These interrogation techniques can range from physical pain to emotional distress. Hitting an individual with a whip while they hang from a ceiling or excessively questioning them may seem like an ideal way to get them to reveal something, but in reality it is ineffective and . This is because even the most enduring individual can be made to admit anything under excruciating circumstances. In the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights there is a provision (“no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself” ) which reflects a time-honored common principle that no person is bound to betray him or herself or can be forced to give incriminating evidence. This ideology of self-incrimination has been challenged heavily over the past s... ... middle of paper ... ...ntegrity of the American government and follows the Constitution which is what our nation is structured after. Had these Justices not made such remarkable decisions many others would suffer. It would be difficult to fathom a nation where women could not vote, races lived separately and immigrants were unable to create a life of their own. The fact that the Supreme Court made radical movements to spread equality throughout the nation and was able to excel and continue to institute this idea is what separates America from the rest of the world. Works Cited Niewyk, Donald L. The Jews in Weimar Germany. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1980 German-Jewish Economic Élite, 1820-1935. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989 Pulzer, Peter. Jews and the German State:The Political History of a Minority 1848-1933. Detroit. Reich Citizenship Law September 15, 1935 (Article II, Section I)
After reviewing the article “Inside Interrogation: The Lie, The Bluff, and False Confessions”, it became very evident the huge problem with interrogations and false confessions in the criminal justice system is with false confession. Jennifer T. Perillo and Saul M. Kassin crafted three distinct experiments to try and better understand false confessions and how trues the actual numbers in real life are. What Perillo and Kassin were trying to prove is that “the bluff technique should elicit confessions from perpetrators but not from innocents” (Perillo, Kassin 2010). What is called the “Bluff Technique” is an interrogation technique that uses a sort of threat or hint that there is certain proof that a person will think is more of a promise for
The American criminal justice system decided differently in the similar circumstances. The courts endorce the police, detectives and prosecutor’s methods to take confession from defendants during the interrogation at law enforcement agencies office. It was viewed alright for the detectives to use psychological intimidation methods to get confession from the defendants in interrogation rooms. And the courts did not see as if there were any deprivation of defendants rights. During the appeals the courts decided that defendant was informed of his rights and he was willingly and awarely confessing the guilty of crime. 3)The rendering of this decision had constitutional implications in which other Supreme court cases would try to use Miranda rights as precedence or oppose the
Our interrogation tactics have come a long way from using physical force to retrieve incriminating evidence, which was referred to as the “third degree”, to non-violent methods of obtaining information. We’d like to think that the system we have instilled in America is perfect and fair, but that is far from the reality. Although we have eliminated physical force from interrogations, the new equivalent implemented to the third degree is psychological torture. The nation-wide system used to interrogate potential suspects- the Reid Technique- is heavily flawed and corrupt. In his book Unfair, author Adam Benforado, unveils the truth behind modern interrogation style: it coerces suspects into producing false confessions by subjecting them to grueling
“The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that ‘no person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.’ U.S. Const. amend. V. The related provision in the Tennessee Constitution states that ‘in all criminal prosecutions, the accused . . . shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself.’ Tenn. Const. art. I, § 9.” State v. Blackstock, 19 S.W.3d 200, 2000 Tenn. LEXIS 168 (Tenn. 2000). The Supreme court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that before a subject can be questioned by the police they must be warned that they have the right to remain silent, that anything they say can be used against them, that they have a right to an attorney, and that if they cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to them before interrogation
“Effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination”, the court noted that, “ The modern practice of in- custody interrogation is physical oriented,” and that, “ The blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional exquisite.” The court specifically outlined the necessary aspects of remain silent and the right to
are expected to tell the truth, even if that truth was to put you in
To show an unbiased and educated examination of the five cases involving questionable interrogations, I will give information on the crime that occurred, the problems with the interrogations and other evidence, who is at fault for problems within the case, how the defendant was cleared (if he was), and the compensation and future changes that were a direct response to these cases provided that they occurred or are in the process of occurring. The five cases that I will examine involve the accused: George Allen, Hunter Johnson, Peter Reilly, Michael Crowe, and Reggie Clemons. Each case is significantly different yet showcases many acts of injustice within the justice system.
The purpose or “goal of [an] interrogation is to facilitate the act of confessing [and obtaining truth]” (Leo & Thomas, 1998). The problem arises when an officer sits down with a suspect in an attempt to gain information or a confession; however, the suspect refuses to cooperate. So how can an officer facilitate the process and get a suspect to talk or even better, confess? Years ago this was accomplished by police through the use of force also known as police brutality. That practice has been abandoned due to the infringement of individual rights. Police were forced to seek an alternate means of obtaining information that did not rely on inhumane practices. This turnaround came in the form of trickery and deceit; called interrogatory deception. This type of psychological coercion is taught and practiced daily by today’s law enforcement. It is based on the utilitarian standpoint by police that the means justifies the outcome. This type of interrogation is performed in a way “which elicits admissions by deceiving suspects who have waived their right to remain silent” (Skolnick & Leo, 1992). For example, an officer co...
As a goal, this thought paper aims to provide a guideline for police investigators to establish a better system of interrogation as a way to avoid false confessions. However, and being honest, it is difficult to change a system that has been based on old doctrines and practices, also known as the popular saying "that 's the way it 's always been done.” But, as its opposite says, “just because something’s always been done that way, doesn’t mean it should continue to be done that way,” and a clear example of this problem is the use of methods for interrogation purposes. The fact that the Reid technique is still being used to train police on how interrogations are carried out should be a topic of concern. As the journal paper on the Social Psychology of False Confessions mentions, the processes that involve the Reid technique are based on a book -Criminal Interrogations and Confessions- that was written in 1962 ( Kassin, 2015) Although it is currently in its fifth edition, we cannot be certain that the methods used by investigators in 1962 are still effective in 2016. Additionally, we cannot rely on this process of interrogation to assess whether a person is innocent or guilty because there is the chance that these old procedures could incite people to plead guilty and hence provide false confessions. To an extent, it is unbelievable that given the literature and material available on this topic, there have not been any progress in trying to change the way in which investigators interrogate people. From 1962 on, new areas of study in criminal law have been created and developed. Therefore, a group of specialists, such as investigators, psychologists, lawyers, judges, and others, should create a manual on interrogation methods less ba...
According to the Sixth Amendment a defendant has the right to counsel, the right to know the nature of their crimes, the right to a speedy trial, a fair jury, and the chance to confront the witnesses accusing the defendant of a crime. When a defendant isn’t given the right to counsel or when a defendant isn’t properly Mirandized, any and all evidence obtained becomes inadmissible in court. The Exclusionary rule also comes into play with the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment gives the individual the right to a grand jury, forbids double jeopardy, and the right not to self-incriminate. Therefore, when a defendant is coerced into a confession this confession could be thrown out in
Thank you for reading and providing an excellent response. Granted, most interrogation methods appear to violate a person’s 5th Amendment right. But, when conducting further research of the mode, methods, and techniques utilized during an interrogation it does not violate a person’s right. Consequently, techniques utilized by clandestine organization have caused for a great concern the violation of a person(s) 5th Amendment right.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?” Our Fifth Amendment right, but it’s more complicated than that. The right to self-incrimination must have an agreed upon standard. Many people are often misinformed about their Fifth Amendment right. The court system should have a standard way of doing things, and these standards should be applied evenly to all who enter the legal system.
Therefore, false confessions have become so problematic that it is has been putting innocent individuals in danger of their freedom. As well, many wrongful conviction cases are viewed in the Innocence Project which “documents that approximately 25% of it’s cases of post-conviction DNA exonerations involved false confessions” (Henkel et. al., 2008, p. 556). If false confessions is such a big issue, why has anyone not study the ways to prevent them? Police-induced tactics are constantly used behind closed doors in interrogation rooms to coerce the individual to confess. Although, many jurors “do not view the use of minimization tactics used during interrogation as coercive” (Appleby, Hasel, & Kassin, 2013, p. 117). Thus, jurors can be unaware
Leo, R and Ofshe R. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions. 16 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 189,
Yet, one fifth of exonerations have been found that people confessed to a crime that they did not commit. The whole point of interrogation is to try and extract the confession from the criminal who they know has already committed the crime so that way their trial will go a lot smoother. Often police interrogation may take place even before they have started investigation or know anything about the person they are interrogating. In order to get the confession they want, many extreme and rough psychological techniques are used in order to break the criminal, but sometimes these techniques are used on an innocent person instead which will still cause them to confess to a crime they did not commit. Although the suspect may know they have the right to remain silent, many times they will often still wave their rights because they know they are innocent and therefore have nothing to hide. When looking at some of the psychological techniques used when interrogating someone, the first most notable thing that is used is the small room they use that completely isolates the suspect of any other communication, which will make the suspect feel very insecure and