“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial” —US Constitution, Amendment VI, Clause 1.
From the time of the Assize of Clarendon (1166) and the Magna Carta (1215), the common law created protections in response to English monarchs who imprisoned enemies of the Crown without permitting them access to courts. By 1642, Sir Edward Coke was able to conclude that English judges “have not suffered the prisoner to be long detained, but…have given the prisoner full and speedy justice….” The evil to be avoided was lengthy pretrial detention. The English Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, for example, required timely hearings while the accused was on bail.
The Framers of the Constitution understood that a speedy trial was part of the essence of the rights of Englishmen. When the First Congress drafted the Bill of Rights, it approved without discussion the right to a speedy trial.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
One of the key rights Americans in the 1780s wanted specifically protected in the Constitution was the right to a speedy trial.
This was no doubt influenced by the Coercive Acts Britain enforced on the Thirteen Colonies after the Boston Tea Party, one of which was the Administration of Justice Act that said any royally appointed official in the colonies who was accused of a crime would be sent to England for trial if other royal officials decided he could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. George Washington referred to this Act as the “murder act” because it potentially allowed British officials to get away with murder in America by allowing them to be tried in England.
So this Amendment to our Constitution addresses that problem in two ways: by saying trial must be speedy, and by saying the accused must have an impartial and local jury.
The average time between trial an sentencing in this country today varies by the crime someone is accused of, but it’s never short. Someone accused of a non-fatal car accident (damaging property) can generally count on 2-2 1/2 years between filing and resolution. If it’s a criminal case, it’s much longer.
The problem here is that justice is being delayed, which already means it’s being denied, but it gets even worse: where does someone accused of a criminal act wait those five years?
They wait in jail. We don’t think twice about this because we’ve been doing it so long. But why on Earth should someone be imprisoned before they are found guilty of a crime? Jail is for convicted criminals, not people awaiting trial.
It’s a holdover from our past, the early 1800s, when the wait for a trial was a few days at most and the authorities wanted to make sure the accused showed up for trial and didn’t skip town. It seemed reasonable to have them wait in jail those few days. As the wait got longer, we came up with a horrible solution: posting bail.
This seems like a very small thing. If you’re arrested, you can post bail to stay out of jail until your trial. That seems fair.
But it’s not fair, because it gives those who have money an advantage over those who don’t. If you’re rich you can post bail; if you’re poor, you can’t. So poor people go to jail, while others don’t.
And if you are accused of a horrendous crime, like murder or child sexual assault, you have to post a much larger bail, maybe tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. This only guarantees that wealthy people will not be imprisoned while awaiting trial no matter what they are accused of.
Why should anyone have to pay to stay out of jail when they haven’t been convicted of a crime? The only reason this terrible system remains in place is that bail money helps fund state governments.
Putting innocent people in jail for years is wrong; putting people whose innocence or guilt has not been established is wrong. Both violate the Constitution. So it’s amazing that we do it with almost zero public outcry.
This page and its links contain opinion. As with all opinion, it should not be relied upon without independent verification. Think for yourself. Fair Use is relied upon for all content. For educational purposes only. No claims are made to the properties of third parties.
(c) 2018