Fifth Amendment - (Contributions in Legal Studies) by Alfredo Garcia (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Fifth Amendment is typically equated in both popular and legal discourse with the privilege against self-incrimination. This concept, Garcia reminds us, represents an incomplete view of the amendment. Often forgotten are the other two criminal clauses embodied in the text of the amendment: the right to a grand jury indictment for a serious crime and the freedom from double jeopardy for the same offense.

Garcia emphasizes the relationship among these criminal protections. Historical developments suggest that these seemingly disparate provisions have common threads: to provide constitutional protection for all trial-related rights. Underlying these constitutional provisions is the need to check the potential abuse of governmental power over the individual. Indeed, this theme permeated the historical backdrop to the Fifth Amendment. Finally, Garcia examples the practical ties of these clauses. The right to a grand jury indictment, the privilege against self-incrimination and the protection against double-jeopardy represent points in the continuum of the criminal justice process. An important resource for scholars and students involved with Amerian constitutional law, criminal justice, and criminology.

Book Synopsis

The Fifth Amendment is typically equated in both popular and legal discourse with the privilege against self-incrimination. This concept, Garcia reminds us, represents an incomplete view of the amendment. Often forgotten are the other two criminal clauses embodied in the text of the amendment: the right to a grand jury indictment for a serious crime and the freedom from double jeopardy for the same offense.

Garcia emphasizes the relationship among these criminal protections. Historical developments suggest that these seemingly disparate provisions have common threads: to provide constitutional protection for all trial-related rights. Underlying these constitutional provisions is the need to check the potential abuse of governmental power over the individual. Indeed, this theme permeated the historical backdrop to the Fifth Amendment. Finally, Garcia examples the practical ties of these clauses. The right to a grand jury indictment, the privilege against self-incrimination and the protection against double-jeopardy represent points in the continuum of the criminal justice process. An important resource for scholars and students involved with Amerian constitutional law, criminal justice, and criminology.

Review Quotes

"A fresh and sweeping examination of the Fifth Amendment criminal provisions, blending history, doctrine, and theory. Original and impressive."-George C. Thomas III Professor of Law Rutgers University School of Law

"An ambitious, provocative, and illuminating book that time and again underscores what the author calls the "cognitive dissonance between the Court's opinions and reality." Garcia writes crisply, forcefully, and with gusto. Although the "Fifth Amendment" is often treated as a synonym for the privilege against self-incrimination, the Amendment also has two other important criminal procedure safeguards: the right to a grand jury indictment for infamous crimes and the prohibition against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. Garcia argues persuasively that these three clauses have important historical, conceptual, and pragmatic links and that they should be viewed as a whole rather than as discrete entities."-Yale Kamisar Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan Law School

"An interesting and incisive book, Garcia demonstrates that the grand jury, self-incrimination, and double jeopardy clauses of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be viewed not as distinct and discrete, but rather as being integrally related. Whether reviewing the historical evidence, engaging in careful analysis of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, or discerning the impact of legal rules on law enforcement, Garcia is thoughtful, critical, and challenging. He makes an important contribution to the growing debate over the U.S. criminal justice system."-Paul Marcus Haynes Chair, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary

"Professor Garcia has written the first book that tries to tie the seemingly disparate strands of the fifth amendment's criminal law provisions together into a coherent whole. He succeeds not only in accomplishing that feat, but also in explicating the often confusing judicial interpretations of the amendment's self-incrimination, grand jury and double jeopardy clauses, and in providing trenchant criticism of much of that caselaw."-Christopher Slobogin Stephen C. O'Connell Professor of Law University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law

?[P]rovocative and informative. The force of the analysis requires one to confront the problems created by the Court's decisions and to begin the difficult process of re-assessment.?-The Law and Politics Book Review

?Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.?-Choice

"ÝP¨rovocative and informative. The force of the analysis requires one to confront the problems created by the Court's decisions and to begin the difficult process of re-assessment."-The Law and Politics Book Review

"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."-Choice

"[P]rovocative and informative. The force of the analysis requires one to confront the problems created by the Court's decisions and to begin the difficult process of re-assessment."-The Law and Politics Book Review

About the Author

ALFREDO GARCIA is Professor of Law, St. Thomas University, School of Law. In addition to teaching criminal law and procedure, he has served as an Assistant State Attorney in Florida and as a criminal defense attorney at both the state and federal levels. He is the author of The Sixth Amendment in Modern American Jurisprudence (Greenwood, 1992) and has published numerous articles in the field of constitutional criminal procedure.