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Criminal Procedure

United States criminal procedure derives from several sources of law: the baseline protections of the United States Constitution, federal and state statutes, federal and state rules of criminal procedure (such as the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure), and state and federal case law either interpreting the foregoing or deriving from inherent judicial supervisory authority.

Criminal procedure deals with the set of rules governing the series of proceedings through which the government enforces substantive criminal law. Municipalities, states, and the federal government each have their own criminal codes, defining types of conduct that constitutes crimes.

Criminal Trial Procedure

Once a trial begins, the U.S. Constitution affords further rights to criminal defendants. Trying to avoid convicting an innocent defendant at all costs, the law only permits the prosecution to overcome the defendant’s presumption of innocence if they can show the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They very high burder differs drastically from a civil trial’s much lower standard in which the plaintiff must only prove a claim by a preponderance of the evidence.

One such right includes the right to cross-examine the proseutions witnesses Defendants derive his right from the Sixth Amendment’s Right to Confront Clause. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the Right to Confront Clause in Giles v. California (07-6053) (2008). After domestic violence resulted in a woman’s murder, the Supreme Court overturned a court’s admission of a murder victim’s statements under a theory of forfeiture by wrongdoing The Court reached this holding because the Framers did not recognize the forfeiture exception to the Confrontation Claus at the time of the Constitution’s founding.

Amendments that apply to Criminal Procedure

Fifth Amendment

Amendment V

“No person shall be 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 in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense 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, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Sixth Amendment

Amendment VI

“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, which district shall have been previously ascertained