If the ban on double jeopardy were removed from the Constitution, what might be the effect on the criminal justice system?
Explain your answer!! I really want to learn!
Tags: Constitution, Criminal Justice System, Double Jeopardy, Jeopardy
what might be the effect on the criminal justice system?
If the ban on double jeopardy were removed from the Constitution, what might be the effect on the criminal justice system?
I think that we’re in double jeopardy with the unwholesome Clintons trying get back into the White House, which appears to be skirting the Consitutition.
I think the effect might be very dangerous.
Here in the UK there are proposals to do just that. The premise being that with the advances in forensic science, DNA etc., new evidence may come to light possibly years after someone has been acquitted.
It could lead to all sorts of repercussions, malicious and vindictive prosecutions, presumably, without limit.
Or, worse still, the offender never being quite sure if they’ve really got away with their crime, lessening the odds of a later prosecution by lessening the amount of witnesses.
I can see the advantages in the removal of “double jeopardy” but the alternative seems less risky.
One answer may be to go only for cases of murder, which I think is what is initially envisaged here, but I do find the notion a little unsettling, and I’m one of the good guys.
The double jeopardy ban prevents a person from being tried for the same crime twice.
If double jeopardy were allowed, then people who “got away” with crimes and were suspected later would be tried again with new evidence, and they would go to jail, a good thing. BUT the negative part would be that innocent people could get tried again and again, and this would waste a lot of their time. In our justice system, we would rather release 10 real criminals than wrongfully punish an innocent person, and forcing an innocent person to continually attend trials would be like punishment.
A compromise could be that we can un-ban double jeopardy only for extreme cases, and this must be approved through the Supreme Court and could only occur once per case.