{"id":2286,"date":"2010-07-17T01:41:07","date_gmt":"2010-07-17T08:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2010-07-17T01:41:07","modified_gmt":"2010-07-17T08:41:07","slug":"constitutional-amendments-article-vi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/17\/constitutional-amendments-article-vi\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Amendments: Article VI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"constitution\"<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

We have been covering the US Constitution line by line.  When Republicans wave their paper props and parrot their vile machinations, we will be prepared to expose the lies.  We have finished the main body of the Constitution.  Now we continue with the Amendments.  You can find the last article on the main body of the Constitution<\/font> here<\/a>. It has links to all the others.  The text comes from<\/font> The US Constitution<\/a>.  Previous articles in the Amendment series:<\/font><\/p>\n

Article I<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Articles II and III<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Article IV<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Article V<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article [VI]<\/h3>\n
\n

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Sixth Amendment deals with defendants’ rights.<\/font><\/p>\n

First we have the right to a speedy trial.  But Bush and the GOP held defendants incommunicado for months with no trial and pushed for secret trials.<\/font><\/p>\n

Next we have the right to a an impartial jury.  Nevertheless prosecutors, especially in red states, frequently manage to empanel all white juries in areas that are predominantly African American.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have the right to know with what and we are accused, a right regularly denied terrorism related defendants by Bush and the GOP.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have the right to confront witnesses against us, usually, but not always upheld.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have the right to obtain witnesses on our defense.  Today, many cases hinge on highly specialized expert witnesses.  Prosecutors can obtain them at will, but only very rich defendants can afford them.  Public defenders typically operate on a small fraction of the budget provided for prosecution.<\/font><\/p>\n

We have the right to counsel.  There are some highly motivated and skillful defense attorneys doing pro bono work, but for the most part, public defenders are overworked and underpaid.  Success as a prosecutor is the most stepping-stone to a successful political career, so prosecution attracts the best lawyers.  As a result, the conviction rate for cases taken to trial is over 90%.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Sixth Amendment has become so undermined that our criminal justice system is broken.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been covering the US Constitution line by line.  When Republicans wave their paper props and parrot their vile machinations, we will be prepared to expose the lies.  We have finished the main body of the Constitution.  Now we continue with the Amendments.  You can find the last article on the main body of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-19-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}