Liza Graybill

• This month, the Supreme Court ruled that police, when questioning a child suspected of committing a crime, must take the suspect’s age into account and may have to provide Miranda warnings in circumstances that would not require the warnings to be given to an adult suspect.
• J.D.B. v. North Carolina
• Miranda v. Arizona was based on the Fifth Amendment’s protection against compelled self-incrimination. True, the court has subsequently indicated that Miranda was not compelled by the Fifth Amendment but rather is a “prophylactic rule” designed to prevent Fifth Amendment violations. But even so, why is age an appropriate consideration under the Fourth and Eighth Amendments but not the Fifth?

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• Miranda v. Arizona was based on the Fifth Amendment’s protection against compelled self-incrimination. True, the court has subsequently indicated that Miranda was not compelled by the Fifth Amendment but rather is a “prophylactic rule” designed to prevent Fifth Amendment violations. But even so, why is age an appropriate consideration under the Fourth and Eighth Amendments but not the Fifth?

• The Principle of Due Process
• Due process means that laws must be applied fairly and equally to all people, especially to a citizen accused of a crime. The Constitution uses the phrase in the 5th and 14th Amendments, declaring that the government shall not deprive anyone of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..." The 5th Amendment protects people from actions of the federal government

• The Fifth Amendment

   

  The 5th Amendment requires that a citizen cannot be accused of a serious crime without a grand jury investigation. It also forbids double jeopardy — the act of bringing a person to trial a second time for the same crime.

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• Fifth
  • Protection against
    • trial without indictment
    • double jeopardy
    • self-incrimination
    • property seizure

• The United States Constitution of 1789 guaranteed the right to a jury trial in criminal cases. Rights regarding juries were expanded in the Bill of Rights, which was adopted in 1791. The 5th Amendment guarantees that one cannot be indicted for a serious crime in the federal courts except by a grand jury.

• Amendment V

• No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

• "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
• A person being charged with a crime that warrants a grand jury has the right to challenge members of the grand juror for partiality or bias