Page 236 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

Founding Fathers and Framers provided the certainty that would be

the Fifth Amendment (as well as Fourth, and Sixth through Eighth).
High crimes are generally synonymous with felonies. A grand

jury is a body of twelve citizens that is empaneled to hear only the
prosecution present their case against a defendant; the defendant is

most often not entitled to be present or be represented by an
attorney before the grand jury. Should the grand jury return an

indictment, the prosecutor may then file charges to begin the
criminal process. Generally, the whole of the grand jury proceedings

are secret and are not used in the criminal proceeding. Lesser
crimes do not require a grand jury. One of the differentiations

between the two is the sentencing for the crime – local jail versus
state or federal imprisonment, such confinement generally being

greater than one year (sometimes two) and other criteria. The
purpose of this right is to ensure that a defendant is more likely than

not to be appropriately charged with the offense committed based
on the evidence.

The right of protection against self-incrimination includes both
answering questions (as in the Miranda Warning) and testifying. In a

criminal proceeding, a defendant has the right to not testify, and it
cannot be used by the jury in favor of or against the defendant in

their deliberations. In addition, a witness may also ‘take the fifth’
and refuse to answer any questions that may tend to be criminally

incriminating. There are opinions that state a person can invoke this

right at any time, and other opinions that state it must be
immediately upon testifying, or that right is revoked. Historically
this right is essentially unfounded until our Bill of Rights; from the

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