criminal

Carly Schreiber – Sixth & Seventh Amendment

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The United States Constitution’s Sixth Amendment declares that “in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” This amendment developed as a result of the British colonists’ experiences, who repeatedly subjected them to arbitrary arrests and unfair trials. The founding fathers intended to create safeguards to defend the rights of people facing criminal charges and guarantee fair and just trials. 

The Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution says, “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right to trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.” This amendment’s origins can be found in English common law traditions, where jury trials were crucial for settling civil disputes. 

In federal criminal cases, the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy, public, and impartial jury trial that takes place in the state and district where the alleged crime was committed. The defendants are entitled to legal representation, have to be made aware of the allegations against them, and have the right to answer questions and present their own witnesses. This ensures that defendants are given the chance to present their case and are judged by a fair and impartial jury of their peers, and are not subject to arbitrary or extended detention. 

If the dispute is worth more than twenty dollars, the Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial. It also forbids the re-examination of jury-decided facts unless specifically permitted by law. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining the traditional role of juries in resolving civil disputes and forbids courts from overturning jury verdicts unless they do so in alignment with the common law’s rules. 

Legal scholars and court rulings have disagreed in the past on how to interpret these clauses. The Sixth Amendment has sparked debates about what constitutes a “speedy” trial and what requirements should be used to assess whether the right of a defendant to a single trial has been violated. The extent of the jury trial guarantee provided by the Seventh Amendment and its relevance to modern civil litigation has also been questioned. In Barker v. Wingo (1972), the Supreme Court established a four-factor balancing test to determine whether a defendant’s right to a speedy trial had been violated. This case serves as an example of how the Sixth Amendment is applied in court. This case exemplifies the ongoing debate about the specific requirements and circumstances defining a “speedy” trial.

 

Bibliography

 

“Barker v. Wingo.” Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/71-5255.

 

“Gideon v. Wainwright.” Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1962/155.

 

“Miranda v. Arizona.” Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/759.

 

“Right to Speedy Trial by Jury, Witnesses, Counsel.” National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-vi.

 

“Sixth Amendment Rights in Criminal Prosecutions.” Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-6.

The VI & VII Amendments

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The 6th and 7th Amendments are criminal amendments alongside the 5th and 14th Amendments. There were two main reasons why the Sixth Amendment and Seventh Amendment were created. Firstly, these amendments responded to and strengthened previous British criminal prosecutions where only magistrates and judges would collect evidence and ask questions. Second, it was influenced by the enforcement of the sugar acts, where the British  sent colonials to Vice-Admiralty courts outside the colonies, without juries, and no representation. The Sixth responds to these concerns, creating a court framework so that criminal prosecutions would consist of a jury of peers to eliminate bias and guarantees the accused rights to a speedy, impartial, public trial. Now, the Sixth Amendment is more commonly understood to guarantee the accused rights to an attorney, no matter the cost.

However, this only existed after the Gideon vs. Wainwright court case, where Gideon, denied the right to an attorney after being convicted of a break-in, appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights were violated. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor, and now the right to an attorney is explicitly and widely known to be incorporated within the Sixth Amendment. There are several other occurrences where the Sixth protected the accused’s rights after their right to a speedy trial was violated. For example, Zedner vs. United States is a criminal case where the district court judge convinced JACOB Zedner to waive his right to a speedy trial.

Zedner, four years later, appealed to the Supreme Court, stating that waiving his rights violated his rights under the Sixth Amendment. In the end, all judges ruled in his favor. The Sixth, as demonstrated, is an essential part of the Amendments that protect the rights of the accused and creates a fairer and more impartial criminal prosecution system.

The Seventh Amendment states that both parties have the right to a jury on civil cases that exceed twenty dollars. The second clause of the Seventh states a similar case to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy. Civil cases will not be re-examined unless according to the standard law rules. Recently, however, the decision to use civil juries has been declining partly because of many negative downsides, including the fact that people are less willing to pay lawyer fees for a jury, jury trials for civil cases are generally more time-consuming for all parties, and State governments can modify the threshold(money needed)until the use of juries in civil cases are allowed.

Since the Seventh Amendment was created to serve as a means of representation, the original purpose of the Seventh Amendment to represent the American people may seem outdated. However, it still must be understood that both the 6th and 7th Amendments are significant to protect and ensure the rights of the accused. Otherwise, accused people would not have rights and face extreme bias and conviction rates within court systems.