Research On The Protection Of Defendant's Rights In The United States

The protection of defendant rights deprives from British and Americangenealogy of law and it is more typical in America. With continuous development ofdefendant rights protection in America, respect for persons and reasonable protectionof defendant rights gradually become a global trend. Therefore, it is far-reaching tocomparatively analyze the advantages of American defendant rights protection and thepractical condition in our country. By doing this we can improve the law of defendantrights protection in China. My thesis will do the discussion from the followingaspects.The first part is about the introduction of defendant rights. Rousseau said peopleare born to be free but also are confined into many shackles. Rousseau's words showthe significance of rights. Therefore, this part will firstly analyze the basis, function,and value of rights and explain the connotation of defendant rights. Then I willelaborate that defendant rights are entitled by constitution and human rights in thenatural law theory. At last, I will finish this introduction by categorizing defendantrights respectively from the rights in substantive law, procedural law, criminal law andconstitution.The second part is about American defendant rights in criminal law and itsconstitution foundation. In this part, I will start from the layout of rights in Americanlaw to elaborate the importance of the limitation of power and the protection ofdefendant rights and expound that the rule of criminal law on defendant rights isinseparable with constitution because the constitution, as the country's basic law,plays a fundamental role in the law system. The protection of defendant rights inAmerican criminal law is raised to the level of constitution, which is mainly embodiedin the fourteenth amendment of rights bill and constitution.The third part is about the protection of defendant rights in American criminallaw. I will introduce the protection of defendant rights in American criminal law fromfive aspects. Firstly, I will talk about ex post facto law and attainder. Americanconstitution prohibits federal government and state governments enacting ex post facto law and attainder. Secondly, I will introduce the deprivation of citizen rights.American constitution prohibits federal government and state governments enactingbills which will involve the deprivation of citizen rights. Many state constitutions hasat least one or two similar regulations. The third is about equal protection. If judgeshold severe and unjust bias against a defendant, the trial would be unfair. After theissue of in the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth amendment, the concept of justtrial is deeply embedded into American regulation and the tenet of American judicialofficers. The forth is about the right of privacy. The right of privacy is not only animportant concept in American constitution, but also a concept in civil tort law. Theprotection of privacy is extraordinary important when some people or some thingsbring you mental trouble, which can be called a tort. The fifth is about cruel andunusual punishment. The Eighth amendment of federal constitution provides thatadditional bail and extra punishing fee are forbidden, so are the cruel and unusualpunishments. The prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments is common inAmerican constitution and each state constitution except Connecticut and Vermonthas similar regulation.The forth part is about the protections of defendant rights in American criminalprocedural law. In this part, I will introduce the criminal procedure law rights ofdefendant rights in America from nine aspects. The first one is the principle of doublejeopardy prohibition. The Supreme Court once provided that double jeopardy waseffective not only in the range of federal judicial power, but also in all the states. Ofcourse, the premise of this regulation is in the scope of an administrative unit. That is,one case can not be accused for the second time in the same state or in the scopewhere federal government has judicial power. The second is the respect for persons. Incriminal procedure, the cogent reasons of respect for dignity lie in: firstly, all thecitizens have the right to be respected by their government in accordance with theinherent requirements of social contract which are the basis of democratic society.Secondly, the necessary condition to respect individual freedom and to obey sociallaw system is to guarantee the respect for dignity in the criminal procedure, based onthe factors like seriousness of criminal punishment, probable reduction of defendant'ssocial status caused by criminal suit, and social public outrage. The guarantee ofrespect for dignity is very important for the public to accept procedure process and torespect sentences. The third is exclusionary rule of illegal evidence. In America, exclusionary rule of illegal evidence or exclusionary motion of illegal evidence isenacted to maintain the value of law and citizens' basic constitution rights. This rule istightly connected with American constitution, such as the provision of refusingunauthorized search and detain in the Forth Amendment, the provision of refusing selfincrimination in the Fifth Amendment, the provision of getting lawyer's help in theSixth Amendment and the due law process in the Fourteenth Amendment. Theexclusionary rule of illegal evidence is applied to all the evidence whose acquisitionviolates the above mentioned rights. The forth is about prohibition of selfincrimination. Prohibition of self incrimination, which belongs to the same familywith unreasonable investigation and arrest, is also a basic right entitled by Americanconstitution. It is an ancient principle in British and American law that a defendant isproved to be guilty by improperly forcing himself to provide testimony against hisown will. Likewise, a person is innocent before strong evidence can be provided toprove his guilt. That is to say, defendants are out of the responsibility to prove theminnocent or guilty. On contrary, it is judicial departments' duty to prove whetherdefendants are guilty or not. The fifth is about the rights to be informed. The Sixthamendment of American federal constitution provides that the charged have the rightto be informed of the nature and reason of their charges in all the criminal accusation.There are similar regulations in states constitution, which are usually expressed inalmost the same language. Some of them are even more specific and moreunderstandable. The sixth is about the right of speedy trial. The Sixth Amendment offederal constitution provides all the trials against defendants must be done quickly andopenly.41states have the similar regulation and the rest of states also guaranteedefendants' this right in the means of court decision and so on. The seventh is aboutthe search of residence, the arrest of people and the confiscation of files. The ForthAmendment of American constitution provides that citizens have the right of refusingillegal arrest. Each citizen has the right to refuse illegal arrest and they can use forcesto prevent this kind of illegal confinement of freedom under necessary condition. TheForth Amendment of American constitution provides: citizens have the right to protecttheir freedom, residence, document and property from being searched illegally. Asearching warrant can not be signed and issued unless it is based on reasonableevidence and supported by a vow or pledge and there is specific introduction on thesearching place and the people and things that will be detained. The eighth is about the presumption of innocence. The due process clause in American constitutionalamendment provides any person can not be presumed to be guilty before he is provedto be guilty. Simply speaking, any one is innocent before he is proved or sentenced tobe guilty. The presumption of innocence stresses that the charges against defendantsmust be supported by sufficient, solid and effective evidence. The defendant should bepresumed to be innocent if they can not be proved to be guilty in the trial.The fifth part is about comparative analysis of defendant rights protection inAmerica and the Chinese reality. Through the comparative analysis, I will sum up theadvantages of American defendant rights protection and conclude the similarities anddifferences in two countries defendant rights protection and then find out differencesin the layout of defendant rights and in the fundamental role of constitution. Featuresof protection of defendant rights in American criminal law are mainly embodied inimplementation of constitution, the protection of equality, the protection ofcomprehensiveness and penetration of concepts. All of these embodies that theprotection of defendant rights is ruled from the aspects of constitution, equality,comprehensiveness and the implementation of the concept of human rights. There aremany deficiencies in the protection of defendant rights in our country. Therefore, weshould coordinate and improve this situation by using the relationship of constitutionand human rights, the statute and regulation in sustentative law, procedural law,criminal law and criminal procedural law.The sixth part is about the enlightenment of defendant rights protection inAmerica----improvement of criminal law in China. Through the above comparisonand analysis, my thesis will provide some advice for the improvement of defendantrights in our country and expound that the improvement of defendant rights protectionin our country should be diversified and coordinate in order to balance the interests ofdifferent parts and maintain the fundamental role of constitution and basic humanrights. Then I will provide specific advice about the improvement of defendant rightsprotection in our country from the aspects of substantive law and procedure law.