The Fifth Amendment - "thats all I have to say"

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"

 Well there sure is a lot to be said here, lets see we have the first part which talks about the fact that a person cannot be held/arrested for a capital crime without the indictment of a grand jury.  On this regard the crime being a capital or infamous crime is on the nature of the punishment to be imposed for the crime, not the actual punishment itself.  Grand juries are also something that has not been incorporated to the states, which means the states do not have to abide by the law of having a grand jury, although most states have replaced these with preliminary hearings.  The act of a grand jury does not apply in the military or time of war in the military as the Uniform Code of Military Justice has different perameters which are followed such as article 32 hearings and such.  This safeguard into making evidence apparent for a crime before an actual arrest is a benefit to wrongful imprisonment by the police forces and the government.  Otherwise very many of us could be locked up under pure suspiscion.

The second part of the fifth amendment is the double jeopardy clause in which a person cannot be tried for the same offense twice.  Thus if a person is found innocent of a crime they cannot be tried for the same crime again.  Although a person can be tried by both a state and federal court for the same crime the decision of an acquittal cannot be overturned in most instances and the person not retried in any manner.  This however does not bode well as there are many different ways in which criminal and civil trials move around this, as in the OJ Simpson case.  The fact that he was acquitted for the murder, yet tried again for wrongful death is crazy.  The supreme court has ruled in cases such as Ashe v. Swenson (1970) that if acquitted of one crime the same evidence cannot be used in another, and that the same defense has to stand in the other.  Meaning if an alibi stood before it has to stand again and thus there cannot be "new evidence against that.

The third, and most talked about part of the fifth amendment is the self incrimination aspect of the amendment.  the "pleading the fifth" if you could say.  This prevents a person from incriminating themselves in any instance and that evidence and decision on that evidence is still required for conviction of the crime.  This protects the people who would, take the "rap" for someone else, as the evidence would not fit and that person be found innocent.  This is also used by people who wish not to speak until represented by a lawyer or other legal defense.

The fourth and shortest part of the amendment which is the most straight forward of the five is the fact that a person cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.  These are the basic freedoms afforded to us which cannot be taken away regardless.

The fifth and final part of the amendment is the fact that private property cannot be taken for public use without compensation.  This is a provision called emmenint domain.  A person can have their land apportioned and taken away by the government for public/government use if compensated fairly by said government.  This is a rediculous nature of the government in that if they can prove that the benefit of taking your land will benefit more people than not taking it you have lost.  You may be provided compensation but this is never really the same as monetary value cannot take the place of inherent personal value.

Video

Although this video is complemented by another, the fact of the matter remains that the defendants are exercising their rights to counsel and plead the fifth to prevent self indicment.  Hilarious as it may be it comes later that he wont even say if he is here that day, continuing to plead his fifth amendment rights.  What is even more shocking is the fact that this was about him and his wife entering a White House dinner uninvited through security, and no one has a picture or anything.  Crazy!!


Another Video




This is about how it is, the battle of appraisers for property, but what is the value of the work that is put into the house, the value lost in the years spent cultivating the land etc.  What price is there to these homeowners, not in monetary value but the value lost to them as people, and ultimately the taxpayers that the school district is looking out for.  Its kind of hard to believe that the school district needs almost 36 acres for an elementary school and middle school.  Sure they should be able to take some of the land, not being used or as the video shows, being used for farming or whatnot, but to take it all, thats just wrong in my opinion, eminent domain is something that should not be.  The government should have to purchase the land just like anyone else, if available for sale.  Heck the government pays $15 for a hammer because they NEED it, why not extra for land they think they NEED.