Professor Braithwaite, Spring 2013, Criminal Procedure Investigations
Watch 2/7 and 4/9
1/10/13
Criminal procedure – rules required to determine whether an individual has violated one of our social norms
Due Process – how to make the determination whether someone has violated a norm and to determine how to punish
– 5th amendment – Applies only to the federal government
– 14th amend. – Applies to the state
o Bill of rights did not apply to the states
Most criminal law is take place mostly in state courts
Due Process – as it pertains to state criminal proceedings
– Powell v. Alabama – you have to give indigent def. a lawyer
– Norris v. AL – excluding blacks from jury violates
– Brown v. Miss. – authorities beat a confession
Question
– Accuracy (race) – did the D’s actually commit the crimes they are charged with?
– Rule of Law – a process or procedure that is adopted by the legislative authority which applies to everyone
– Bill of rights – The purpose of the due process clause in the 14th amendment was to absorb the bill of rights to the states
– Fundamental Fairness – you know it when you see it (this is not easy to apply)
o Because of the difficulty in its application the court decided to apply the bill of rights
Hurtado v. CA pg 84
– A D’s due process rights was violated when no grand jury indictment for a capital crime
– Rule of Law – a process or procedure that is adopted by the legislative authority which applies to everyone
– Majority – is a grand jury a necessary entity and is the Supreme Court the appropriate forum to discuss? This is not something that the need to be mandated
– Dissent – The purpose of the due process clause in the 14th amendment was to absorb the bill of rights to the states (applied today)
Duncan v. Louisiana pg 97 (fundamental fairness issue)
– Potential 2 year conviction
– The D received 60 days when there is a possibility of 2 years in prison.
– Holding
o The failure to grant jury trial was a violation of due process
– Hint
o Jury trial will be applied at any time where the possible exposure would exceed 6 month
– Incorporation
o Takes the focus away from the amorphous term due process and brought the focus on the bill of rights
Standard v. Rule
– Standard – you have to look to something else to make the determination
o Due Process
– Rule – a hard fast definition of what a term is
o Jury trial
o Right to counsel
Bill of rights – specific rights pertinent to criminal cases were not handled in a way that we see it now and therefore, is not necessarily the blueprint to a fair trial.
– In present day, the Bill of Rights applies to the meaning of Due Process. (Hartado is used)
Medina v. CA pg 104
– D claimed that he was incompetent to stand trial and the CA State Statute said that the Burden of Proof is on the person who claims to be incompetent.
– The burden of proof was by the preponderance of the evidence
– The D argues for the Mathews test (only used in civil cases)
o Private interest affected by the gov. action.
o The risk of an erroneous deprivation of the interest
o The gov’s interest
– In criminal cases, due process means the Bill of Rights and therefore the Mathews standard is not allowed
– The burden of proof requiring “clear and convincing evidence” is a violation of Due Process
Summation
– Due process – constitutional laws relationship to state criminal justice systems
o Because of the vagueness of due process, the court began to incorporate the bill of rights into due process
– For the most part, due process is the bill of rights.
1/15/13
For the most part, Due process in the criminal cases means the Bill of Rights
– Residual due process clause
o Where fundamental fairness or accuracy would play a role in areas such as
§ Competency
§ Burden’s of proof and the like
§ Brady material (exculpatory evidence)
– 4th and 5th amendment rights are NOT absolute, they are a matter of degree
Boyd v. United States 292
– Facts
o Boyd was not paying duties on certain glass products
o Why did the gov’t want to know what he had?
nt of a search.
· Together what do the 4th and 5th amendment protect?
o Privacy Right
o Property Right
– How far does Boyd go?
o A persons private papers are protected
o Suppose, that Boyd was a partnership where Boyd wrote to his partner that he did not pay tax on the glass, could the cops get those letters?
§ Prof: “not under Boyd, they would be private letters”
§ Does Boyd go further?
– Notes
o Gouled v. United States
§ Facts
· There was a search warrant
· Did the police execute the warrant?
o Yes, and the evidence was used at trial; the court said that the evidence was violated the fourth and there was no violation of the fifth.
o But if the police got the warrant, then why is there a problem?
· Mere evidence rule – if the purpose of the search and the seizure and they used these documents in the prosecution of the D then that violates the 4th and 5th amendment because of Boyd.
o Why did the court use the mere evidence rule?
§ What makes a search reasonable in Boyd? If the gov’t has a greater interest in the property.
§ The Mere evidence doctrine is grounded in Property interest and if the gov’t had a superior interest then there is no problem.
§ Governmental entities – generally good entities
· Examples
o SEC
o EPA
o ICC
· What do they need to be effective?
o Information
· Under Boyd these entities are not allowed to look through papers to get information.
· Particularly with Boyd in grounding its rational in property interests, contained the seeds of its own destruction. To regulate they need information.
o If there is a need for information then the court starts making certain moves to weaken the power of Boyd
