Bill of Rights You and the Law McGuire

 Freedom of  Speech and expression  Religion  Protest  Press  Tinker vs. Des Moines  Bethel vs. Frasier

 The 2nd Amendment protects the right to bear arms

 The 3rd Amendment says “No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”  This means that we cannot be forced to house or quarter soldiers.

 The 4th Amendment protects the people from unreasonable searches and seizures.  This means that the police must have a warrant to enter our homes. It also means the government cannot take our property, papers, or us, without a valid warrant based on probable cause (good reason).

 The 5th Amendment protects people from being held for committing a crime unless they are properly indicted (accused)  Grand jury for capital crime  You may not be tried twice for the same crime (double jeopardy)  You don’t have to testify against yourself in court. (Self-incrimination)

 The 6th Amendment guarantees a speedy trial (you can’t be kept in jail for over a year without a trial)  an impartial jury (doesn’t already think you are guilty)  that the accused can confront witnesses against them  the accused must be allowed to have a lawyer

 The 7th Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy civil trial.  A civil trial differs from a criminal trial. A civil trial is when someone sues someone else. A criminal trial is when the state tries to convict someone of a crime.

 The 8th Amendment guarantees that punishments will be fair and not cruel, and that extraordinarily large fines will not be set.

Alaska (1957) Hawaii (1948) Iowa (1965) Maine (1887) Massachusetts (1984) Michigan (1846) Minnesota (1911) North Dakota (1973) New Jersey (2007) New Mexico (2009) New York (2007) Rhode Island (1984) Vermont (1964) West Virginia (1965) Wisconsin (1853) Dist. of Columbia (1981)

 Convicted of murder of Mark MacPhail in 1991  Executed on September 21, 2011  Claimed his innocence all the way until his lethal injection  7 of the 9 key witnesses recanted their testimonies or changed their testimonies after the trial

 “To the many excellent reasons to abolish the death penalty — it’s immoral, does not deter murder and affects minorities disproportionately — we can add one more. It’s an economic drain on governments with already badly depleted budgets.”  “States waste millions of dollars on winning death penalty verdicts, which require an expensive second trial, new witnesses and long jury selections. Death rows require extra security and maintenance costs.”  “There is also a 15-to-20-year appeals process, but simply getting rid of it would be undemocratic and would increase the number of innocent people put to death. Besides, the majority of costs are in the pretrial and trial.”

 “According to the organization, keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. North Carolina has put 43 people to death since 1976 at $2.16 million per execution. The eventual cost to taxpayers in Maryland for pursuing capital cases between 1978 and 1999 is estimated to be $186 million for five executions.”  “Perhaps the most extreme example is California, whose death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year beyond the cost of imprisoning convicts for life. The state has executed 13 people since 1976 for a total of about $250 million per execution. This is a state whose prisons are filled to bursting (unconstitutionally so, the courts say) and whose government has imposed doomsday-level cuts to social services, health care, schools and parks.”

 “Money spent on death rows could be spent on police officers, courts, public defenders, legal service agencies and prison cells. Some lawmakers, heeding law-enforcement officials who have declared capital punishment a low priority, have introduced bills to abolish it.”  September 27,

State NameWashington # of Executions Since # of Executions before Current Death Row Population9 # of Innocent Persons Freed From Death Row 1

State NameTexas # of Executions Since # of Executions before Current Death Row Population321

 In Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130 (1878), the Supreme Court commented that drawing and quartering, public dissection, burning alive and disembowelling someone was an example of cruel and unusual punishment.Wilkerson v. UtahU.S.130  Convicts were fastened to a wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where they were hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded and quartered (chopped into four pieces). Their remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burnt at the stake.hangedemasculated disembowelledbeheadedLondon Bridgeburnt at the stake

 The Supreme Court declared executing the mentally handicapped in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), and executing people who were under age 18 at the time the crime was committed in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), to be violations of the Eighth Amendment, regardless of the crime. mentally handicappedAtkins v. VirginiaU.S.304Roper v. Simmons U.S.551

 the rights listed in preceding amendments (e.g., speech, religion, fair trial) are not the only rights the people have; it recognizes that there are rights that were simply not mentioned

 The 10th Amendment states that any power not granted to the federal government belongs to the states or to the people.