6Th Amendment US Constitution--Rights of Accused In
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF ACCUSED IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS CONTENTS Page Criminal Prosecutions ............................................................................................................... 1399 Coverage .............................................................................................................................. 1399 Offenses Against the United States ........................................................................... 1400 Right to a Speedy and Public Trial .......................................................................................... 1400 Speedy Trial ........................................................................................................................ 1400 Source and Rationale .................................................................................................. 1400 Application and Scope ................................................................................................. 1401 When the Right Is Denied .......................................................................................... 1402 Public Trial ......................................................................................................................... 1404 Right to Trial by Impartial Jury .............................................................................................. 1406 Jury Trial ............................................................................................................................ 1406 The Attributes of the Jury .......................................................................................... 1408 Criminal Proceedings to Which the Guarantee Applies ........................................... 1410 Impartial Jury .................................................................................................................... 1412 Place of TrialÐJury of the Vicinage ........................................................................................ 1419 Notice of Accusation .................................................................................................................. 1420 Confrontation ............................................................................................................................. 1421 Compulsory Process ................................................................................................................... 1429 Assistance of Counsel ................................................................................................................ 1429 Development of an Absolute Right to Counsel at Trial ................................................... 1429 Powell v. Alabama ....................................................................................................... 1430 Johnson v. Zerbst ........................................................................................................ 1431 Betts v. Brady and Progeny ....................................................................................... 1432 Gideon v. Wainwright ................................................................................................. 1434 Protection of the Right to Retained Counsel ............................................................. 1435 Effective Assistance of Counsel .................................................................................. 1437 Self-Representation ..................................................................................................... 1440 Right to Assistance of Counsel in Nontrial Situations .................................................... 1440 Judicial Proceedings Before Trial .............................................................................. 1440 Custodial Interrogation ............................................................................................... 1441 Lineups and Other Identification Situations ............................................................ 1444 Post-Conviction Proceedings ....................................................................................... 1447 Noncriminal and Investigatory Proceedings ............................................................. 1447 1397 RIGHTS OF ACCUSED IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS SIXTH AMENDMENT 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 commit- ted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa- tion; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS Coverage Criminal prosecutions in the District of Columbia 1 and in in- corporated territories 2 must conform to this Amendment, but those in the unincorporated territories need not do so. 3 In upholding a trial before a United States consul of a United States citizen for a crime committed within the jurisdiction of a foreign nation, the Court specifically held that this Amendment reached only citizens and others within the United States or who were brought to the United States for trial for alleged offenses committed elsewhere, and not to citizens residing or temporarily sojourning abroad. 4 It is clear that this holding no longer is supportable after Reid v. Cov- ert, 5 but it is not clear what the constitutional rule is. All of the 1 Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540 (1888). 2 Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879). See also Lovato v. New Mexico, 242 U.S. 199 (1916). 3 Balzac v. Puerto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 304±05 (1922); Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138 (1904). These holdings are, of course, merely one element of the doctrine of the Insular Cases, De Lima v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 1 (1901); and Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901), concerned with the ``Constitution following the flag.'' Supra, pp. 324±25. Cf. Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U.S. 516 (1905). 4 In re Ross, 140 U.S. 453 (1891). 5 354 U.S. 1 (1957) (holding that civilian dependents of members of the Armed Forces overseas could not constitutionally be tried by court-martial in time of peace for capital offenses committed abroad). Four Justices, Black, Douglas, Brennan, and Chief Justice Warren, disapproved Ross as ``resting . on a fundamental mis- conception'' that the Constitution did not limit the actions of the United States Gov- ernment wherever it acted, id. at 5±6, 10±12, and evinced some doubt with regard to the Insular Cases as well. Id. at 12±14. Justices Frankfurter and Harlan, concur- 1399 1400 AMENDMENT 6ÐRIGHTS OF ACCUSED rights guaranteed in this Amendment are so fundamental that they have been made applicable against state abridgment by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 6 Offenses Against the United States.ÐThere are no common- law offenses against the United States. Only those acts which Con- gress has forbidden, with penalties for disobedience of its com- mand, are crimes. 7 Actions to recover penalties imposed by act of Congress generally but not invariably have been held not to be criminal prosecutions, 8 as is true also of deportation proceedings, 9 but contempt proceedings which were at one time not considered to be criminal prosecutions are no longer within that category. 10 To what degree Congress may make conduct engaged in outside the territorial limits of the United States a violation of federal criminal law is a matter not yet directly addressed by the Court. 11 RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL Speedy Trial Source and Rationale.ÐThe right to a speedy trial may be derived from a provision of Magna Carta and it was a right so in- terpreted by Coke. 12 Much the same language was incorporated ring, would not accept these strictures, but were content to limit Ross to its particu- lar factual situation and to distinguish the Insular Cases. Id. at 41, 65. Cf. Middendorf v. Henry, 425 U.S. 25, 33±42 (1976) (declining to decide whether there is a right to counsel in a court-martial, but ruling that the summary court-martial involved in the case was not a ``criminal prosecution'' within the meaning of the Amendment). 6 Citation is made in the sections dealing with each provision. 7 United States v. Hudson & Goodwin, 11 U.S. (7 Cr.) 32 (1812); United States v. Coolidge, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 415 (1816); United States v. Britton, 108 U.S. 199, 206 (1883); United States v. Eaton, 144 U.S. 677, 687 (1892). 8 Oceanic Navigation Co. v. Stranaham, 214 U.S. 320 (1909); Hepner v. United States, 213 U.S. 103 (1909); United States v. Regan, 232 U.S. 37 (1914). 9 United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams, 194 U.S. 279, 289 (1904); Zakonaite v. Wolf, 226 U.S. 272 (1912). 10 Compare In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895), with Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194 (1968). 11 See United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94 (1922) (treating question as a mat- ter of statutory interpretation); NATIONAL COMMISSION ON REFORM OF FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAWS, WORKING PAPERS 69±76 (1970). Congress has recently asserted the authority by criminalizing various terrorist acts committed abroad against U.S. na- tionals. See, e.g., prohibitions against hostage taking and air piracy contained in Pub. L. No. 98±473, ch. XX; 18 U.S.C. § 1203 and 49 U.S.C. app. §§ 1471, 72; and prohibitions against killing or doing physical violence to a U.S. national abroad con- tained in Pub. L. No. 99±399, § 1202(a), 100 Stat. 896 (1986); 18 U.S.C. § 2331. Extraterritorial