Why is the 6th amendment so important
The Sixth Amendment Explained: The Constitution for Dummies Series
hey guys welcome to hip you history BAM
baby that's what I'm talking about I'm
talking about 1787 the Constitution and
us knowing the words so we can talk
about it we're banging out the sixth
amendment for you in this edition guys
so sit back get ready to grow your brain
let's look at the words let's chop it up
and see if we can't walk away a little
bit smarter than when we pressed play
giddy up from the learner here it comes
all right guys so let's start with the
words it's right on right maestro music
please BAM in all criminal prosecutions
the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial by an impartial
jury of state and district where the
crimes shall have been committed which
district shall have been previously
asserted by law and to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation
to be confronted with the witnesses
against him to have compulsory process
for ending witnesses in his favor and to
have the assistance of counsel for his
defense
so what are the silly ways that I kind
of help kids remember the basic concept
is to kind of put their six up there
touch their invisible watch and at least
get to the concept of time and of course
in the beginning the cue shall right
have the right to a speedy and public
trial we have that speedy part in there
Barker versus Wingo is the Supreme Court
case way back in 1972
yay 472 what a great year to be born but
in 1972 the court defines Speedy Trial
it's not an absolute term but basically
putting a time frame of about a year
before we can start investigating
whether that right has been violated now
if it has been violated it could be
numerous reasons it could be those feds
fault
it could be someone a natural emergency
or something like that but in 73 Strunk
versus United States that if the court
does find that the speedy trial has been
violated that the prosecution has been
dragging its feet maybe doesn't have
enough evidence and is trying to you
know draw out the calendar and that
rights been violated then any conviction
gets overturned and any indictment gets
squashed so that's pretty pretty
absolute right if you can prove that
it's not your fault now you also have
that public part in there and the public
part is not absolute either and Sheppard
versus Maxwell 1966 the Supreme Court
basically stated that it's preferential
to have a public trial that's what we're
talking about we should have public
trials but there could be you know
circumstances where maybe the government
has a has a legitimate interest in maybe
national security or maybe the defendant
has a interest in you know getting a
fair trial and that outweighs the idea
of having a public trial but generally
speaking we have public trials and for
the most part we have televised trials
and some states have some different
rules about what can be a televised
trial but there you go speedy and public
trial
the next part by impartial jury and
basically the state where the crime was
committed so there's a few things about
about jury rules and first you want to
make sure you understand what selective
incorporation is we've talked about this
in previous lectures but it's the idea
that you can take the 14th amendment no
stage of the nayad citizen's equal
protection and due process right if
we're taking away your life your liberty
or your property you get due process
that's in the fifth amendment right but
that only applies to the federal
government so as the Supreme Court kind
of evolved judicial review starting with
like Gitlow versus New York in nineteen
twenty five I believe they started
selectively incorporating some of the
Bill of right amendments to the states
so the sixth amendment is some stuff
that's been selectively incorporated
we'll talk about attorney stuff in a few
minutes here but when it comes to jury
rules a lot of its not been selected to
the incorporated there's some kind of
like broad rules but states still
generally get to determine kind of how
juries are put together so for instance
on a federal level you have the number
12 but some states as well as number six
when it comes to how many people sit on
a jury also on a federal level it has to
be unanimous decision if you're charged
with a federal crime if every 12 juror
say that you're guilty to convict you if
you don't get 12 to say that you're not
guilty that it's a hung jury it's got to
be unanimous but some states they have
rules where you don't have to have
unanimous decisions you could have a 42
decision or something like that and the
Supreme Court is let that stand now in
terms of what else we ever talked about
in partialities as impartial jury right
we have a process that's been developed
through kind of judicial law that is
called voir dire which is basically this
process when the jury is going to put
together that the prosecution and the
defense will
have a chance to kind of quiz each juror
to make sure they're not prejudiced
against their client or they are
presidential against their client so for
instance if you're a prosecutor you
don't want maybe a peace activist on
some type of trial where a peace
activist is being charged with a federal
crime because obviously they're going to
be prejudiced towards the peace
activists so this is supposed to get
that impartial jury
now there's also kind of rules about
basically making sure that you have like
a cross selection of people so if you
can prove that there's some systematic
exclusion of a certain group and that
that's giving you an unfair trial that
has been selectively incorporated so
there are those types of rules in place
but there you go it's kind of the where
the crime was committed and again you
there's flexible rules here so if
everybody in the town thinks that you
are you know a puppy killer and they all
scream puppy kill or every time you put
your head out the window you might
request a different location and the
judge might grant that so there are
cases where you can have you know trials
not where the crime has been committed
but you get the general idea all right
let's take a look at the next part bang
bang bang bang bang bang bang to be
informed about the nature and the cause
of the accusation so this is basically
to make sure that you're getting that
due process by having the charges very
specific very specific to the wall for
two reasons you know number one so you
know what you're charged with
there's no vagueness and there you're
being charged of being very bad bad very
bad it's not going to cut it so it's
going to be a statue it's going to be
some type of criminal law and then
secondly you want to make sure that you
kind of clear up that double jeopardy
scenario if you're going to be able to
claim double jeopardy that you can't
charge me with the same crime twice you
want to make sure you know what you're
charged with
so that's pretty straightforward so you
have to be informed about the nature and
the cause of the accusation you got that
good good for you let's keep going
to be confronted to the witnesses
against him so this is called the
confrontation clause and a lot of stuff
develops out of common law but over
across the pond where they have attained
such they have this kind of hearsay
clause that it's not allowable to bring
into court what I heard somebody say
about you and that is secured in
Amendment six with the confrontation
clause that I have to be able to
confront the person accusing me of this
crime or making witness testimony in
this crime there are a couple of
exceptions one of them is kind of a
dying declaration so certainly you can't
confront a dead person and if they're on
the dying bed and they make the video
and they you know Johnny did it
you shot me that can be put into
evidence there's also kind of an
evidence confrontation clause which
means that if there's going to be like
DNA presented or something like that you
get to cross-examine the DNA magic no
you can't do that so you get to kind of
cross-examine whoever the scientist is
of course who did the you know the
testing so you can make sure that you
can ask questions about validity and
such like that there's only a couple
more hang on here we go to have
compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in your defense so this is
basically your ability to name witnesses
name people that you want to be put up
on the stand whether they're hostile to
you or friendly to you so you know if
you want mr. Jones to testify and mr.
Jones is like I'm busy I'm bowling I
don't want to go now it's gentleman
you're going so that's the compulsory
part you can make them have to come and
of course is to give you a fair trial
makes perfect sense
all right the biggest part is the end so
hold on here we go
and they have the assistance of counsel
in his defense this is your right to an
attorney of course that makes perfect
sense you should have somebody to be
able to defend you but nowhere in there
does it say technically that if you
can't afford one that you get one so
here we go this is selective
incorporation first judicial review so
the Supreme Court in 1932 in Powell
versus Alabama very famous Supreme Court
case the court said that because of the
fifth amend their is a due process
clause go watch that video if you have
it that we can't deny you your life your
Liberty your property without due
process that if somebody is up for
capital punishment your take away your
life and you can't afford a lawyer so
you have to defend yourself you're not
getting due process so therefore the
state the government we the people will
give you that lawyer at no cost to you
and in 1938 the Supreme Court extends
that to all felonies so they decide that
the Fifth Amendment gives them the right
because of the due process clause to
kind of expand the Sixth Amendment now
where does it get interesting and it
gets interesting 1963 I hope that's
right Gideon versus Wainwright where
Florida puts Gideon in jail by you know
basically convicting him and he has no
defense because he has to defend himself
and he's indigent and so it's a leave a
felony burglary charge but he can't
afford a lawyer so he goes it on his own
and it's like the little guy against the
Giant he gets squashed like a bug so
then he goes to prison and he reads law
books and he kind of goes to the Supreme
Court writing his own letter and
basically the Supreme Court hears his
case and he says this is really
important but because of the Fourteenth
Amendment because no state shall deny
its citizens due process then we're
going to take the Fifth Amendment and
apply it to you Florida and hence out
what they have elapsed arteries or
our our dollar Martin George your wife
out of oil annoying now we can set up
new get the idea so there you go guys
there's the sixth amendment for you if
you can understand the sixth amendment
and all this kind of rotating pieces and
you can understand the concept of
selective big corporation that that did
know about that 1787 and you got it
going on so make sure if you haven't
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