American Court System U3IP - Research Paper Example

Certain provisions included in the Bill Of Rights also provide protection to criminal offenders in the United States in terms of providing them with certain lawful rights (National Archives, n.d.). However, there are certain protections that are available to criminal offenders through the Bill of Rights that do not currently apply to the states. In this regard, these protections include protection from excessive bail or fines, protection from unusual or cruel punishment and protection from indictment by grand jury among others.

Amongst these protections mentioned, the excerpt from the law or the 5th Amendment guarantees that criminal trial will only be conducted on a grand jury indictment. However, this protection of criminal offenders will not be incorporated in the states as per the ‘Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment’. Furthermore, 8th Amendment of the Bill Of Rights depicts that criminals will be protected from unkind or unusual punishments that are provided to them in accordance with the law. The amendment also deals with safeguarding the criminal offenders from extreme fines and bail imposed over them. . It further determines about how a particular proceeding will be enforced towards a substantive law.

Procedural based protections for criminal offenders in the Bill of Rights are also depicted as the principles considered by the Constitution, while conducting trial for criminal offenders in the court of law ([2] UMKC, 2013). On the other hand, substantive law deals with safeguarding the fundamental rights and liberties of any citizen. This provision of the law depicts that any citizen in the United States will be equally protected relating to their fundamental rights and will be liable to obtain fair and reasonable treatments from the law in accordance with the fundamental rights possess by the citizens.

In precise, it can be stated that substantive law are those general rights of any citizen that reserves the power of an individual to conduct certain specific activities (Stanford University, n.d.). Q. 3. Which of the protections available to criminal offenders in the Bill of Rights are procedural, and which are substantive? The ‘Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment’ of the U.S. Supreme Court has divided the Bill of Rights into two parts, which comprised procedural and substantive. In this regard, the protections that are available to criminal offenders in the Bill of Rights can be viewed to be procedural along with substantive.

Gaining a comprehensive understanding with regard to the division of criminal protections amid the two parts will be a vital concern. In this regard, according the due process of the 14th amendment, a few of the criminal protections depicted in the Bill Of Rights that are included in the procedural section, will comprise the following. An unbiased tribunal The