Article 5

The 5th Amendment is how everybody who is a U.S. citizen can be entitled to a trial by jury. U.S. citizens cannot be compelled to be a witness against their own person, nor can they be held without probable cause because a jury has to be present in order to make a proper conviction. Grand juries come from British common law, designed to protect people from prosecution by the religious monarchy. Grand juries occur when there are 12 to 23 people on it. The 5th Amendment is all about our nation’s laws as to how to deal with criminals or other forms of wrongdoing.

Grand juries have authority to investigate specific crimes against the challenger. The Double Jeopardy clause is about preventing a defendant from getting multiple trials about the same offense. This is an emotional toll on any defendant. The 5th Amendment is invoked when the witness believes that their objectivity is clouded by self-incrimination. When somebody gets arrested, they are read the Miranda rights leftover from Miranda Vs. Arizona (1966). When a cop reads somebody their rights, they start off with, “you have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you.”

The rights include having an attorney present, and the right to have a government-appointed attorney when the suspect cannot afford one. A waiver of the 5th Amendment rights only occurs when the suspect wants that to occur even while the court decides to analyze circumstances and events. The 5th Amendment does not extend to prepared business papers since the element of a compulsory route is not obvious. The 5th Amendment is also about an individual's right to due process since the offending party has the right to be heard no matter what.

If the 5th Amendment also relates to government’s use of private property, then it is about making sure that the government has to pay attorney’s fees when that property is taken by the government at large. The government returns it to the owner in full without damages. The 5th Amendment according to FindLaw.com is about how the 5th Amendment applies to most citizens except those who will be under impeachment. The 5th Amendment is about balancing individual rights as well as society’s rights as given to the individual. The expression “pleading the fifth” means that you are not going to say anything without trial by jury first, and you refuse to incriminate yourself.

The 5th Amendment works when the defendant has one conviction of a greater offense and then gets convicted of a lesser offense. If someone is tried for first-degree murder, they may again be tried for second-degree murder, if the first trial can be acquitted (FindLaw.com). The 5th Amendment covers how you cannot normally have more than one trial in some circumstances, depending on the state and the way they prosecute the defendant. The 5th Amendment also applies to felonies as stated by this Wikipedia page. The term “Due Process” describes a way that the government follows fair proceedings while the defendant is in custody. The prosecution can only limit their indictments under specific circumstances. The prosecution may continue if the defendant waives their 5th Amendment rights. A direct verdict must be subject to the jury. For mistrials, the prosecutor must act on “bad faith” by goading the defendant. The 5th Amendment simply means that one must not incriminate oneself. The right to remain silent was used in the 1950s during the time of McCarthyism, where people were accused of being “5th Amendment communists.”

Works Cited

https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment5.html

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fifth_amendment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution