The Fifth Amendment outlines the rights of individuals charged with a crime, including the right to a fair trial, protection against self-incrimination, and the prohibition of double jeopardy. It also establishes the concept of due process, influenced by Magna Carta, and obliges the state to demonstrate criminal behavior before taking action against a person. The Fourteenth Amendment extended these rights to all citizens, including formerly enslaved African Americans.
The Fifth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, aimed at defining what rights citizens had under the newly established United States government. Specifically, this amendment defines some of the rights of an individual charged with a crime, or of individuals whose statements could cause them to be charged with a crime. There are several rights contained in the Fifth Amendment: the right to be free unless indicted by a grand jury, the right to a fair trial, the prohibition of double jeopardy, and the right not to testify against oneself (self-incrimination).
The right to due process, in particular, is believed to be heavily influenced by Magna Carta, established by King John of England in 1215. Magna Carta instituted trial by a jury of peers, so that people accused of crimes could obtain a ‘fair hearing a court before any sentence was determined. With this idea comes the concept of being innocent until proven guilty.
The Fifth Amendment takes this idea from Magna Carta and obliges the state to demonstrate criminal behavior and not to take any action against a person suspected of a crime, such as injuring him, seizing his property, or imprisoning him, unless a crime is reasonably suspected or established. Once a grand jury determines that there is enough evidence to try a person, they can be held in jail until a further jury trial has taken place, which determines innocence or guilt. Another idea that comes with due process is that the state can’t just keep people in jail indefinitely without charging them with a crime.
A second provision of the amendment is that people cannot be charged twice for the same crime, called a double jeopardy. If a state fails to secure a conviction on the first try, it cannot try again. This can prevent the courts or the legal system from harassing a person through repeated allegations that they have committed the same crime.
Probably the part that most people hear often is the idea that individuals shouldn’t incriminate themselves or testify against themselves. The right to avoid self-incrimination applies in particular when witnesses appear before a court to give evidence that could result in the prosecution of a crime. In these circumstances, people may choose to “plea the fifth.” A person accused of a crime also has the right not to testify in her defense at trial and not to speak to the people arresting her, as any statement he makes can “be used against them.”
The rights established in the Fifth Amendment received broader definition with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The latter amendment concerned the redefinition of citizens to include freed African Americans; the earlier amendment applied primarily to citizens, and slaves or even free African Americans were not usually referred to as citizens when the United States Constitution was first ratified. By defining a citizen as a person “born or naturalized in the United States,” the United States has been able to extend the “equal protection” of the laws to most people living in the United States, including all formerly enslaved African Americans . The Fourteenth Amendment also reaffirmed the right to a fair trial for all citizens.
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