Due Process in the American Legal System.

It seems that since we have been hearing the following phrase “innocent till proven guilty” for many, many years on the front steps of courts, the media and many other outlets. As a people whom are politically free when it comes to crime either you are innocent or guilty, however, sometimes in media and other circles a person is labeled guilty without being given their right of due process. In this paper the reader will have an understanding of due process from the author’s research.
In the American legal system there are many elements to the steps of when a crime is actually in the development of happening and to where it is carried out by the criminal or criminals and all parties involved. One of the most important steps in the legal process is “Due Process” Webster's New World College Dictionary Fourth Edition says: Due Process is the course of legal proceedings established by

the legal system of a nation or state to protect individual rights and liberties." Due Process will allow an accused person time to go through the court proceeding, in hope of proving his or her innocence or guilt. Due Process will give the individuals who have been accused of a crime the right to a fair and public trial, the right to be at the trial, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to be heard. The 14th amendment ensures that not only all citizens are entitled to due process but at the same time they are entitled to fair notice. Meaning that crimes and punishment must be publicly known to all citizens by any means possible. Due process is broken up in many facets in regards to procedures and trial.

The due process model recognizes the disparity of power between the state and the private citizen. The state has virtually unlimited resources to press its case against the citizen. We recognized long ago that the state, despite its power and investigative resources, sometimes makes mistakes. If the state was never wrong in its accusations, there would no need for trials and all that we would require would be a sentencing tribunal. The state and its agents are suspicious of many things. The due process model is there to guard against the arbitrary exercise of power.
The foundation of the due process model lies in the desire for certainty. Is guilt clearly established? Are we punishing the right person? If power is exercised in an arbitrary way, public confidence in the system – and belief in state infallibility – is rapidly undermined. Due process replaces arbitrariness with a systematic approach designed to minimize errors. The main manifestations of this are the enumerated powers of the police, the PACE codes, criminal procedure, and the rules of evidence.
In Criminal Clinic you saw how the police do not have a free hand to question people as they wish. The disparity in power cannot be erased but the police can be prevented from unfair procedures that are likely to exert undue pressure on suspects leading to unreliable confessions. Our trial procedures have many inbuilt protections for defendants that reflect a time when there was even greater disparity between the power of the state and that of the citizen. The role of the legal profession in criminal defence is comparatively recent – and the idea that the state should pay for the professional defence of poor people is even more recent.
Historically in our criminal law there was no formal legal defence at all – the only defence afforded the citizen was common law due process. This prohibited the defendant from testifying – this meant he could not be compelled by the state to testify

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The concept of due process is that the law expresses the protection and fairness of individual citizens against powers that the state have. The public nature of the legal system is express through due process, which ensures the idea that the government is accountable to the citizens and not the citizens to the government. To help ensure justice and equality it is recommend for public scrutiny to be necessary. (Meyer, Grant, 2003) “Due process is intended to provide us with protection from government infringement on our civil rights to liberty, life, and property without due process of law.” Due process plays a key role from the public perception because the system must seem fair concerning the legitimacy of the law, legal actors, and the courts.
As stated by (Meyer, Grant, 2003) “perception of fairness or unfairness reflect concern with the process of justice as well as the outcome”. Moreover, the concept of due process is the protection of our lives, liberty, and property rights, according to due process of life the government cannot stop a person who is convicted of a capital crime of his or her life before they can go through, and complete the appellate process. All citizens of the United States have various liberty interest and due process of liberty restrict the government from taking this liberty interest from us without due process of law. Additionally, the government must take appropriate legal procedures before attempting to take an individual property.
The United States legal system is an adversarial system, which exercise the idea that any accused individual must be considered innocent until proven guilty. (Silbert, Joannou, 2006) the very premise of our adversary system of the criminal justice is that both the defense attorney and the prosecutor will work to extreme length to make sure that the guilty is convicted and the innocent go free.

The main purpose of due process is to show a person that the law expresses the fairness against the power of the state. The public nature of the legal system is shown through due process, which ensures the idea that the government is responsible, not that person. To help ensure justice and equality it is recommended that public scrutiny is necessary (Merver, Grant 2003). Due process is intended to provide people with protection from government when it comes to our civil rights to liberty, life, and property without due process of law it would be very easy from to get in trouble for something they have not even done. Due process has a very big role when it comes to the public perception mainly because the systems seem fair concerning the legitimacy of the law, legal actors, and the courts. As stated by (Meyer, Grant, 2003) "perception of fairness or unfairness reflect concern with the process of justice as well as the outcome". The concept of due process is the protection of our lives, liberty, and property rights, according to due process of life the government cannot stop someone that has been convicted of a capital crime of his or her life before they can go through and complete the appellate process.

Everybody that is a citizen of the United States has many different liberty interest and due process of liberty restrict that it keeps the government from taking this liberty interest from us without due process of law. The government has to take the appropriate and legal procedures before attempting to take an individual property. The United States legal system is a system that strongly believes in the idea that anybody that have been accused or that is being accused, must be considered innocent until proven guilty. One of the main focuses of our adversary system of the criminal justice system is that both the defense attorney and the prosecutor will do whatever they have to do to make sure that the person that has committed the crime is proven guilty and they are convicted and the innocent go free. Innocent until proven guilty is a saying that has been used for many many years and has been quoted for many years. In our society, we have labeled the accused person either guilty or not guilty without giving that person their right of due process. By allowing that person to use the due process system they will it will buy them enough time to go through the court proceeding, in hope of proving his or her innocence or guilt. Due Process will give the individuals who have been accused of a crime the right to a fair and public trial, the right to be at the trial, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to be heard.

A lot of people proper to have a jury trail, a jury trial is the stage in the process were all of the investigation that has taken place concerning the accused will be presented during this process. A jury trial is made up of twelve citizens of the community who have been randomly picked to serve on the jury. The jury is responsible from taking all the facts and evidence of a crime and coming together as a group of 12 reviewing all the information and then voting to decide if the accused is guilty or not. During the jury trial, the accused person will be represented either by a paid lawyer of his or her choice or by someone that has been appointed by the court. During the trial it is the prosecutor’s responsibility to prove that the person being accused is guilty and it is the accused person and their representer to go against the information the prosecution presents to show that they are innocent. Once the jury has heard all of the evidence, they will decide on whether the person is guilty or not guilty. If the accused person is found guilty by the jury, then he or she will be sentenced according to the law. If the accused person is found not guilty by the jury, he or she will be able to return back into society as a free person.

The due process model recognizes the disparity of power between the state and the private citizen. We recognized long ago that the state, regardless of how much power it holds and investigative resources, that they are not perfect and sometimes makes mistakes too. If the state was never wrong in its accusations, there would no need for trials and all that we would require would be a sentencing tribunal. The due process system is there to guard against the arbitrary exercise of power. The foundation of the due process system lies in the desire for certainty. If power is exercised in an arbitrary way, public confidence in the system and belief in state infallibility is rapidly undermined. The disparity in power cannot be erased but the police can be prevented from unfair procedures that are likely to lead to more pressure on suspects leading to unreliable confessions. These procedures have many inbuilt protections for defendants that reflect a time when there was even greater disparity between the power of the state and that of the citizen. The role of the legal profession in criminal defense is comparatively recent and the idea that the state should pay for the professional defense of poor people is even more recent. Historically in our criminal law there was no formal legal defense at all the only defense afforded the citizen was common law due process.

Reference:

Merver, Grant.2003, http://www.lectlaw.com