Due Process

2 Pages 393 Words

Due process is best defined in one word-fairness. Throughout the history of the United States, its constitutions, statues and case law have provided standards for fair treatment of citizens by federal, state and local governments. These standards are known as due process.
Due process of law is administered through courts of justice in accordance with established and sanctioned legal principles and procedures, and the safeguards for the protection of individual rights. When or if at anytime a person is treated unfairly by the government, the criminal justice system (to include the courts), that person is said to have been deprived of or denied his/her due process. it is often referred to in such terms as the "law of the land" and "legal judgement of his peers." The first time these expressions were used in the sense of due process was in the great charter of English liberty, the Magna Carter.
In the United States, the phrase due process first appears in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified December 15, 1791. the amendment refers specifically to federal and not state actions, therefore another amendment was necessary to include the states. this was accomplished by the 14th Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868. As a result of the ratification, it was established at both federal and state levels that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."
Recently, the United States Supreme Court has placed emphasis on procedural safeguards in the administration of criminal justice in federal and state cours. As determined by custom and law, due process has become a guarantee of civil as well as criminal rights. Through interpretation of the law, due process has grown to include, among other things, provision for ensuring an accused person a fair and public trial before a competent tribunal, the right to be present at the trial, and the right ot be heard in his/her own defe...