14th Amendment Right to Due Process

Question 1

What is the 14th Amendment?

Answer 1

The 14th Amendment provides the right to due process and a fair trial.

Question 2

How does the 14th Amendment apply to Confessions?

Answer 2

Due Process requires that a self-incriminating statement must be knowingly and voluntarily to be admissible. Confessions cannot be coerced.

Question 3

How does the 14th Amendment apply to identification of the defendant?

Answer 3

If a pre-trial identification technique is so unnecessarily suggestive and so substantially likely to produce misidentification that it denies the due process of law, the remedy is to exclude the identification.

Question 4

What is the rule of Exculpatory Evidence?

Answer 4

A prosecutor’s failure to disclose evidence, whether willful or inadvertent, violates due process and may be grounds for reversal if

(1) the evidence is favorable to the defendant and
(2) prejudice has resulted (i.e., there is a reasonable probability the result would have been different).

Question 5

What does Due Process require for Plea Bargains?

Answer 5

A plea bargain must be voluntarily and intelligently made.

When accepting a plea bargain, the judge must advise the defendant personally, and on the record, of:

(1) nature of the charge,
(2) critical elements of the offense,
(3) maximum possible penalty and whether there are any mandatory minimum penalty,
(4) right to plead not guilty, and that by pleading guilty defendant waives right to a trial.