1. Rights in Criminal Cases
No person shall be4 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 the 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, private
property be taken for public use without just compensation Amendment 5 to
the Constitution of United States of America.
2. The Criminal trial
In instances where the person is to be deprived of his
physical liberty for a substantial period of time, a trial in required. The
criminal trial process must include all the safeguards of the Bill of Rights as well as being a fair adjudicatory
process. When the individual is to be penalized for some infraction of civil
law through a judicial action, there is also the requirement that the trial
process be a fair one.
3. Deprivation of Liberty
There are two distinct way in which a person may be deprived
of liberty;
i.
First, the government might
deprive the person of his freedom of action by physically restraining him.
ii.
Second, the government
might limit someone’s freedom of choice and action by making it impossible or
illegal for that person to engage in certain types of activity.
4. Loss of Physical Liberty
Before an individual is subjected to punishment upon a
criminal charge, he must receive a full trial in conformity with many
constitutional safeguards or waive those rights.
The guarantees of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth amendment’s
restrict the ways in which the government may investigate as well as prosecute
someone for a criminal charge.
5. Neutral decision-maker.
If life,l liberty or property is at stake, the individual
has a right to a fare procedure. The question then focuses on the nature of the
“process” that is due. In all instances the state must adhere to previously
declared rules for adjudicating the claim or at least not deviate from them in
a manner which is unfair to the individual against whom the action is to be
taken. The government always has the obligation of providing a neutral decision
maker one—who is not inherently biased against the individual or who has
personal interest in the outcome.
6. The application of due process clause
The due process clauses apply only if a government action
will constitute the impairment of some individual’s life, liberty or property.
Where government actions adversely affect an individual but do not constitute a
denial of that individual’s life, liberty or property, the government does not
have to give the person any hearing or process whatsoever.
7. Judicial Definition of “Life Liberty or Property.”
Since 1972 a majority of the justices have chosen to take
quite literally, and restrictively, the concept that due process applices only
to life, liberty or property. In recent years the decision have narrowly
construed these terms so that the government may take some actions adversely
affecting people without having to give them any procedure to insure a fair
treatment of their interests Thus, the court has allowed the government to
injure someone’s reputation or terminate his employment without a hearing since
a majority of the justices did not find liberty or property present in the
facts of those individual cases.
When on life, liberty or property interest is at stake, a
state is free to deny privileges to individuals without any hearing and ,
therefore, on an arbitrary basis.
9. Specific Constitutional Limitation on the adjudicatory process
When the government is required to establish some procedure
concerning individual deprivations of life, liberty or property the scope of
permissible procedures is sometimes limited by specific constitutional
guarantees.
10. Right to an impartial decision maker.
The essential guarantee of the process clause is that of
fairness. The procedure must be fundamentally fair to the individual in the resolution
of the factual and legal basis for government actions which deprive him of
life, liberty or property.
11. Personal monetary interest
The supreme court has strictly enforced this right and held
that decision makers are constitutionally unacceptable where they have a
personal monetary interest in the outcome of the adjudication or where they are
professional competitors of the individual.
12. Form of the Hearing or Process
If there is a deprivation of life, liberty or property which
is based on disputed facts or issues, then the individual whose interests are
affected must be granted a fair procedure before a fair decision maker.
13. Loss of Liberty though Civil Process.
When the state seeks to impose physical restraints of
significant duration on a person it must afford him fair procedure to determine
the basis and legality of such a deprivation of liberty.
14. Commitment for Mental care
When the state seeks to commit someone for mental care on an
involuntary basis, it must establish a fair procedure for determining that the
individual is dangerous to himself or others due to a mental problem.
15. Enforcement of Debtor-Creditor Relationships
When a creditor uses government-enforced procedures to take
the property of his alleged debtor, the debtor-defendant is deprived of a
constitutionally significant interest in property. Once the creditor has
established his claim through a trial, the debtor has been accorded due process
of law and the state may aid the creditor to enforce his judgment.
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