The Sixth Amendment: Providing Justice for Everyone

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The 6th Amendment: Providing Justice for Everyone Prior to the Revolutionary War, if the British accused a colonist of a crime, he would most likely receive an unfair trial and a prison sentence. When the Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights, they believed that all Americans deserved rights which the British had not given them. The 6th Amendment provides many legal rights to United States citizens that protect them from being wrongly convicted of crimes. The 6th Amendment is the most important amendment in the Constitution of the United States. The 6th Amendment guarantees a person accused of a crime compulsory process, the right to present witnesses in his defense. The importance of compulsory process is illustrated in the case Washington vs. Texas, where Jackie Washington was tried for murder. A state court ruled that Washington could not have an accomplice in the crime testify in his defense. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s refusal to allow the defendant a capable witness violated the 6th Amendment. Therefore, the Supreme Court overruled the court’s c...

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