What Are Sixth Amendment Rights?
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 defense.
It's easy to take certain things for granted, such the right to a jury trial if charged with committing a crime, the right to be represented by an attorney and the right to be informed of the charges against you, but those rights did not always exist. The Sixth Amendment, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, is the result the denial of those rights to citizens of the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War.
Background and historical perspective
The king controlled English courts in the 18th century and decided who would be charged and when and how those accused of wrongdoing would have their day in court. The Sixth Amendment was an effort by James Madison and the other framers of the Constitution to ensure fairness in criminal proceedings, specifically with regard to the following:
- Right to a speedy and public trial
- Right to a trial with an impartial jury
- Right to know the nature of the charges
- Right to confront adverse witnesses
- Right to an attorney in criminal proceedings
- Right to subpoena witnesses
The Sixth Amendment originally applied only to proceedings in federal courts, but the Supreme Court has extended many of its protections to individuals facing charges in state courts.
Supreme Court and incorporation of the Sixth Amendment
Through rulings it made in cases it has heard in the more than two centuries the amendment has existed, the Supreme Court has incorporated or extended Sixth Amendment rights to include state proceedings with some limitations. For example, the right to a trial by jury in state courts is required only when the sentence includes imprisonment for six months or more. The court left it up to the states to decide if a jury trial is offered when a criminal charge carries with it a sentence of confinement for six months or less.
Whenever the court extends a portion of the Bill of Rights to apply to the states, there can be variations between how they are applied at the state and federal level. The Sixth Amendment is a perfect illustration of this. A person on trial for committing a federal crime cannot be convicted in a jury trial unless all jurors vote to convict. Forty-eight out of 50 states follow this rule, but Oregon and Louisiana allow less than unanimous verdicts after a 1972 decision in which the Supreme Court refused to impose the unanimous verdict rule on the states.
How the amendments of the Bill of Rights complement each other
The right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment and the right to counsel granted by the Sixth Amendment frequently work together. Under the Fifth Amendment and court rulings applying it, police must advise individuals they arrest of their right to have an attorney present before questioning them, but a person may waive the right. If, however, the person being questioned is represented by an attorney on a pending charge, the courts have held that the waiver of counsel can only be done in the presence of the attorney.