Importance Of The Sixth Amendment

The Sixth Amendment and the Rights it Ensures

"Those who wrote our constitutions knew from history and experience that it was necessary to protect against unfounded criminal charges brought to eliminate enemies and against judges too responsive to the voice of higher authority"(Maravillosa 1). These words said by Justice Byron White are the exact living dispute of the protection of the rights the United States Constitution and its Amendments promise us. The Sixth Amendment protects the rights of the people specifically in the courtroom and the conditions of law. The rights within the Sixth Amendment ensure the American people the rights of an impartial jury, the right to a lawyer, and demonstrate ability of the court system to change.

An impartial

Every person is born with certain rights, and with these rights come the obligation of using them properly. On the other hand, it is the duty of law enforcement to remind you of these rights in situations which this occurs. The Miranda Right we know of today would not be possible without one man, Ernesto Miranda. He was a felon living in Arizona, convicted of rape and kidnapping of a, eighteen year old girl. When taken into police custody and identified by the victim as the attacker, he quickly admitted to the crime. Once given his sentence of twenty-three years in prison, he appealed the sentence. He told the Supreme Court that he was not reminded of the right to remain silent, therefore his sentence was illegitimate. The Supreme Court replied back by saying the he knowingly dismissed his rights when he confessed to the police. Three years after the crime, in 1966, the Supreme Court upturned the Arizona Supreme and created the ground rules of police interrogation. Thus, the Miranda Rights come to existence, where a suspect in custody must be told of his rights of the Sixth and Fifth Amendment (Dodson 1-2). The Miranda Rights allow law enforcement to remind those questioned of their rights. This prevents any problems that may arise with suspicious questioning and false information. The court system has proven its ability to change and accommodate to new

Without the person’s knowledge of their specific rights, law enforcement is going against the lawful procedures the court system has set out. While it is the job of the police to remind a person of their rights, there are times when this is not the case. As said by Alex McBride in his study of the Miranda v. Arizona case, "No statement obtained from the defendant can truly be the product of his free choice” (McBride 1). This statement demonstrates how important Miranda Rights are. McBride states that any statement a defendant says it is not the outcome of them choosing to speak, but rather the pressuring of a defendant to speak without the knowledge of their rights. If the defendant was familiar with their rights, then anything stated from them is the creation of unforced information that is lawful. While the Constitution is in place to protect the rights of Americans with its laws, over the years, new situations arise causing the need to put changes and amendments in place to solve these