Video
Written Component
The common interpretation of the Sixth Amendment is that it purports that everyone has the right to a fair trial. This trial must be speedy, public, and contain a jury consisting of unbiased people from the state where the alleged crime was committed, and witnesses for and against the defendant. Lastly, the amendment also states that the accused has the right to a lawyer for said trial. Before the Sixth Amendment, our court system was very disorganized.
Neither side of a trial had a lawyer, trials were glorified, minute-to-hour-long shouting matches, and the jury consisted of 12 men who knew the defendant and/or the victim and were therefore very biased. The incentive to include the Sixth Amendment in our constitution was to help organize the legal system and make criminal trials fairer for defendants. Originally, the main contention with the Sixth Amendment was whether or not the amendment’s right to counsel in criminal cases applies to felony defendants in state cases as well as capital ones.
The main Supreme Court ruling dealing with the importance of the Sixth Amendment is Gideon v. Wainwright (1963). In this case, Gideon was accused of Breaking and Entering. When he requested a lawyer, he was denied one and sent to jail. He then filed a habeas corpus petition claiming that, under the Sixth Amendment, he was deserving of a lawyer and shouldn’t have gone to jail. At the end of the appeals process, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, stating that almost every aspect of the Sixth Amendment is valid to federal and state prosecutions, meaning that Gideon in fact did deserve a lawyer. I agree with the interpretation supported by the Supreme Court: the Sixth Amendment is meant to be taken at face value and applied to all aspects of our legal system.
In order to truly present ourselves as a fair country with an unbiased legal system, we need to support all of our citizens. If I could change one aspect of the Sixth Amendment, I would advocate for amending the part of the amendment added by the Supreme Court after Gideon x Wainwright, in which it is required that public defenders give adequate representation to their clients. I believe that instead of controlling the effectiveness of public defenders, which is already a near impossible task, the legislation should instead provide better funding for public defenders. More than 80% of defendants charged with felonies are indigent, meaning that more than 80% of defendants in felony cases rely on public defenders. Despite public defenders representing a massive portion of defendants in our country, they are severely underfunded. In 2009 in Florida, the annual caseload of felonies per public defender 2,225 misdemeanors and over 500 felonies.
This disregard for public defender’s time has disadvantaged both them and their clients, seeing as they no longer have the time to fully investigate each case. Also, due to how many cases each public defender has, they get severely backed up, meaning that approximately 500,000 defendants waiting for their trial wait in jail for at least a year before it happens. These conditions are horrific and not sustainable. If the government increases funding for public defenders and places more equitable limits on how many cases public defenders can have, the way the US conducts criminal cases will improve exponentially for defendants and lawyers alike.
Bibliography (for written portion):
Guardian. “Poor People Rely on Public Defenders Who Are Too Overworked to Defend Them.” The Guardian. Last modified June 17, 2015. Accessed June 2, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/17/poor-rely-public-defenders-too-overworked.
Bibliography (for video):
Guardian. “Poor People Rely on Public Defenders Who Are Too Overworked to Defend Them.” The Guardian. Last modified June 17, 2015. Accessed June 2, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/17/poor-rely-public-defenders-too-overworked.
Tags: amendment, graham, isa, isabella, isabella-graham, isabella-graham-torres-the-sixth-amendment, sixth, sixth-amendment, the, torres
8 Responses to “Isabella Graham Torres — The Sixth Amendment”
c26mb1
Hey Isa, I like your video! I really liked your script and I commend you for taking difficult information and making it easy to understand! Your editing was great but I think that perhaps the slides could have a little less text to make them more comprehensible. That being said, this video was a pleasure to watch. A question I have is: does the right to counsel extend to all stages of criminal proceedings, such as plea negotiations and proceedings after the conviction?
c26ae@dalton.org
Nice Isa! Do you believe this clause is perfect, or should be amended slightly?
Amalia L.
Isa, I absolutely loved this video; the stop motion was so cool and visually interesting and engaging and the information in the voice over was clear and concise. I thought the depictions and descriptions of the wildly different court environments from before and after this amendment was really effective in helping the viewer to understand the significance of the amendment’s implementation. This makes me wonder why Shay’s Rebellion was not more significant to this amendment being added to the constitution?
c26sk1
Nice video, Isa. I think that you are trying to tackle an important regarding public defenders. However, while your solution poses limits and increases funding, it does not increase the number of public defenders available for the ever increasing amount of cases. How would you suggest going about this (if at all)?
c26pt@dalton.org
I loved how clear and easy it was to understand your video. I thought the images you put matched really well with your speaking parts too!
c26kc
the graphics are so cool. do you think there would be much of a difference if this amendment didnt exist?
zeran
top tier animation
pretty important amendment it seems
but i wonder how people nowadays might react to this with the extreme court clog america has
i’d be interested to hear both sides of the debate
Jacob Sorett
Great animations and editing. Exactly how or to whom were the courts biased?