Rights of the accused

The rights of the accused is a class of rights that apply to a person in the time period between when they are formally accused of a crime and when they are either convicted or acquitted. Rights of the accused are generally based on the maxim of "innocent until proven guilty" and are embodied in due process. These rights can mostly be found in the fourth, fifth,sixth, and eighth amendments of the United States Constitution.

Promotion of the rights of the accused sometimes comes into conflict with promotion of victim's rights. One example of this is conflict between the right of the accused to personally confront his accusers and the law that protects child witnesses from the intimidation that they may feel in the courtroom.

Rights

right of due process
protection from illegal search and seizures
the right to indictment by a grand jury
protection from double jeopardy
protection against self-incrimination
right to a fair and speedy public trial
right to trial by jury
notice of accusations
right to confront one's accuser
right to counsel
in certain civil cases, the right to jury trial
protection from excessive bail and fines
protection from cruel and unusual punishments

External links

Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights

This article about a criminal law topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

They are called the rights of the accused because they give rights to the convicted.

Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History