CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
MR. CRUMP
NAME____________________________
PERIOD__________
CRIMINAL LAW AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS STUDY GUIDE
(Amendments 5, 6, and 8)
From our class discussion know the facts, issues and rule of law in each of the following cases:
1. Fifth Amendment
a. Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
b. In Re Gault (1967)
c. Goss v. Lopez (1975)
2. Sixth Amendment
a. Sheppard v Maxwell (1966)
b. US v. Nixon (1974)
c. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
d. Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
3. Eighth Amendment
a. Furman v. Georgia (1972)
b. Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
c. Ingraham v. Wright (1977)
4. Be able to define the crimes we studied in class and be able to indentify from hypothetical cases
what crime has been committed.
Read Chapter 7 (the Fifth Amendment)
1. What are the five rights protected by the 5th Amendment?
2. Answer the following about a grand jury:
a. What is the purpose of a grand jury?
b. How is a grand jury different from a petit (or trial) jury?
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c. What were the functions of a grand jury in 12th Century England?
d. How was a grand jury a barrier to the arbitrary power of the king?
e. Why was a grand jury important in colonial America?
f. What is the difference between a grand jury investigation and prosecution by information
with a preliminary hearing?
3. Explain what defenders and critics have said about grand juries.
a. defenders
b. critics
Double Jeopardy Clause
4. Answer the following about double jeopardy:
a. What is double jeopardy?
b. What has the Supreme Court said about double jeopardy rights?
c. Briefly outline the historical background of double jeopardy.
d. What did Justice Hugo Black say the purpose of the guarantee against double jeopardy was?
5. Double Jeopardy only comes into play when a defendant is found______________________.
What are three instances that double jeopardy does not involve?
6. Explain why charging a person with several criminal charges for a single criminal act does not
violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
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a. Explain why a person for a single criminal act can be charged with violating both state and
federal law and not violated the Double Jeopardy Clause.
7. What did the Supreme Court say about the Double Jeopardy Clause in the following?
a. death penalty sentences
b. retrial of sentencing in non capital cases
c. cases of habitual sexual offenders
Self Incrimination
8. What does ‘taking the Fifth” mean? Why is this right so controversial?
9. Why were the English courts of the Star Chamber (criminal cases) or of the High Commission
(church offenses) a dilemma for religious dissenters?
10. How did John Lilburne, a Puritan printer change the English legal system?
11. What was happening in the American colonies in regards to the right of self incrimination in
the 1700s?
12. What is the difference between an inquisitional and an accusational court system? Why is
the accusational system less efficient?
13. What has the Supreme Court said our accusatory system demands of the government in
punishing a person?
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14. What has the Supreme Court said about confessions?
15. Answer the following about the case of Miranda v. Arizona (1966):
a. What are the facts of the case?
b. What did the Supreme Court decide?
c. Why is this case so revolutionary?
d. What four things must the accused be advised of before any confessions are considered
voluntary?
16. When must the Miranda Warnings be given? What other rules apply to the Miranda
Warnings?
17. What has the Supreme Court said about the Miranda Warnings in the following cases?
a. Brewer v. Williams (1977)
b. Illinois v. Perkins (1990)
c. Arizona v. Fulminante (1991)
18. What is the “public safety” exception to the Miranda Warning?
19. Why have Miranda Warnings become so controversial?
20. What are examples of nontestimonial evidence? What has the Supreme Court said about
obtaining this type of evidence?
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21. What is immunity? What are the rules applying to immunity?
Due Process
22. Answer the following about due process:
a. What does due process of law mean?
b. What is the difference between procedural and substantive due process of law?
23. Explain how each of the following contributed to the concept of due process:
a. the Magna Carta
b. the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
24. What is legal procedure? Why is it so important?
25. What does the Due Process Clause require the government to do?
26. How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Due Process Clause in each of the following
circumstances?
a. shocking police conduct
b. for juveniles
27. Answer the following about the In Re Gault (1967) case:
a. What are the facts of the case?
b. What did the Supreme Court say about the Bill of Rights and juveniles?
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c. What rights do juveniles have?
d. What rights don’t juveniles have?
28. In civil law due process cases what must the courts determine?
29. Explain what is meant by the due process rights of notice and hearing.
a. notice
b. hearing
30. What did the Supreme Court say about civil law due process and student suspensions in the
case of Goss v. Lopez (1975)? How are emergency suspensions different?
31. What are punitive damages? How are they affected by civil law due process?
32. What does substantive due process mean? Why has the Supreme Court been reluctant to
uphold rights under substantive due process?
33. What part of the Constitution has been used to deal with substantive due process cases?
Why did the Supreme Court use the 5th Amendment due process clause to strike down
segregation in the District of Columbia?
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Read Chapter 8 (The Sixth Amendment)
1. In English history, what was a prerogative court? Why was the Court of Star Chamber
popular with some people? Why was it unpopular with most people?
2. Describe the protection given to those accused of crimes in the following:
a. English Common Law Courts
b. with the addition of the English Bill of Rights (1689)
c. Colonial America in the 1600s
d. reasons for increased awareness in America in the 1760s and 1770s
3. Explain what the following said about trial rights:
a. the Declaration of Independence
b. the Virginia Declaration of Rights
c. the US Constitution
4. What are reasons why an accused person would need a speedy trial?
5. What factors are considered by the Supreme Court to determine if a defendant has had a
speedy trial? What happens if a trial is not deemed speedy?
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6. What are the standards for speedy trials in federal cases?
7. Explain what each of the following said about public trials:
a. Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966)
b. Gannett Co. v. DePasquale (1979)
c. Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980)
8. What has the Supreme Court done to balance the conflict between the Sixth Amendment fair
trial rights and the First Amendment rights to free speech and press to determine what can be
written and said about criminal trials?
9. Trial by jury in criminal cases is the only right mentioned in both the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights. What additional protections are included in the 6th Amendment?
10. The Supreme Court has created a double standard for jury trials as applied to the federal
government and state governments. What are the standards for each?
a. federal government
b. state governments
11. Explain what each of the following jury selection terms mean:
a. voir dire
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b. venire
c. peremptory challenges
12. Answer the following about the fair cross section requirement for juries:
a. What does it prohibit?
b. accepting only women volunteers
c. juries in death penalty cases
d. jury pools versus individual juries
13. What does the Sixth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment say about using peremptory
challenges to exclude racial groups? Women? Whites?
14. Why was the requirement to have a local jury included in the Sixth Amendment? What
happens if this requirement works against the defendant?
15. Why is it important for a defendant to be informed of the charges against him or her? When
is the person informed of the charges in misdemeanor cases? What about felony cases?
16. What does the Sixth Amendment say about the right of confront witnesses?
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17. What has the Supreme Court said about the following?
a. hearsay evidence
b. cross examination exceptions
c. face to face confrontation
(1) in child abuse cases
(2) Why is it important?
(3) in Maryland v. Craig (1990)
18. What doe the right to compulsory process mean?
19. What did the case of US v. Nixon (1974) say about compulsory process? What is executive
privilege?
20. Answer the following about the right to counsel:
a. Why is it considered the most important part of the 6th Amendment?
b. What did this right originally mean?
21. What did the Powell v. Alabama (1932) or Scottsboro Boys Case say about the right to
counsel? How did Betts v. Brady (1942) modify that?
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22. Answer the following about the case of Gideon v Wainwright (1963)
a. Outline the facts of the case
b. What did the Supreme Courts decide about the right to counsel?
c. What happened at Gideon’s new trial?
d. How did the case of Angersinger v. Hamlin (1972) modify the Gideon ruling?
23. What has the Supreme Court said about the quality of defense lawyers? What are the
guidelines for effective assistance of counsel?
24. In Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) what did the Supreme Court say about when the right to
counsel applies?
Read Chapter 10 (The Eighth Amendment)
1. What three rights does the Eighth Amendment protect?
2. What are the origins of the Eighth Amendment?
3. What was the intent of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties enacted in 1641? What unusual
punishments did the Puritans in Massachusetts still allow at the time?
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4. Why did Madison’s draft of the Eighth Amendment meet with some opposition in Congress?
5. Answer the following about bails:
a. What does the Eighth Amendment say about bail?
b. When might bail not be available?
c. How is excessive bail interpreted in relation to ones ability to pay?
d. How can poor people pay high bails?
e. What does it mean to be released on ones own recognizance?
f. What has the Supreme Court said is excessive bail?
6. What is preventative detention? What has the Supreme Court said about preventative
detention?
7. What has the Supreme Court said about the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause and its
application to the following?
a. the states
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b. civil law cases
c. property seizure in civil court for criminal law violations
8. What did the Supreme Court say about cruel and unusual punishments in the Trop v. Dulles
(1958) case?
9. What were three reasons that caused many people to start questioning the use of the death
penalty starting in the 1960s?
10. Answer the following about the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972):
a. What did the Supreme Court say about the death penalty?
b. What were the facts of the case?
c. What did the Supreme Court tell states to do in future death penalty cases?
11. Answer the following about the case of Gregg v. Georgia (1976):
a. What did the Court say about the death penalty?
b. What did Justice William Brennan say in dissent?
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c. Describe the two part process necessary to implement the death penalty?
d. What did the Court say about making the death penalty mandatory in certain cases?
e. What must be considered in sentencing?
12. What has the Supreme Court said about the death penalty in the following cases?
a. Coker v. Georgia (1977)
b. Enmund v. Florida (1982)
c. Tison v. Arizona (1987)
13. What did the Stephanie Roper Committee do for victims rights? What has the Supreme Court
said about victim’s rights? (see box)
14. What has the Court said about the death penalty when
a. the defendant is disabled
b. the defendant is a juvenile
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c. the defendant goes insane
d. killers of whites are executed more frequently
15. What are the standards, according to Justice William Brennan, that a form of execution must
meet to be allowed by the Eighth Amendment? What did Justice Brennan say about
electrocution?
16. What is the most common form of execution today? What other forms are still allowed?
17. Answer the following about appeals:
a. Why are there so many appeals in death penalty cases?
b. What has the Supreme Court said about federal habeas corpus appeals by death row
prisoners?
18. What other punishments can be cruel and unusual and prohibited by the Eighth Amendment
even though the death penalty is not?
19. What has the Supreme Court said about proportional punishments in the following?
a. the general rule
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b. Robison v. California (1962)
c. Solem v. Helm (1983)
d. Harmelin v. Michigan (1991)
20. What has the Supreme Court said about prison conditions and the Eighth Amendment in the
following?
a. in general
b. minimum standards for prison health care
c. physical safety of inmates
21. What has the Supreme Court said about corporal punishment in schools in the following?
a. first define corporal punishment
b. What was the ruling in the case of Ingraham v. Wright (1977)?
c. Eighth Amendment and school children
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