Constitutional Accountability Center Constitutional Accountability Center

Criminal Justice

Ensuring that our criminal justice system treats all in America with fairness, dignity, and equality
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Alcatraz Prison | miss_millions, Flickr

Summary

CAC works to ensure that all who interact with the criminal justice system enjoy the rights to which they are entitled and are treated with the dignity and equality promised to them by the Constitution.

Criminal Justice in Brief

Courtroom | Clyde Robinson, Flickr

The Supreme Court has made important progress in certain areas of criminal justice, such as it did in Montgomery v. Louisiana. However, America still has a long way to go, and CAC works to ensure that all who encounter the criminal justice system can exercise their full range of rights.

Featured Case

Criminal Justice January 20, 2022

Hemphill v. New York

The Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against” them.  That “confrontation right” includes the defendant’s right to cross-examine all witnesses who give testimony against them.  Since the drafting of the amendment, the Supreme Court has recognized only two exceptions to this confrontation requirement.  Despite the Court’s insistence that exceptions to the confrontation right be strictly limited, a New York court allowed the prosecution to introduce a testimonial statement from a witness who was not present at Petitioner Darrell Hemphill’s trial and therefore could not be “confronted.”  The jury subsequently convicted Hemphill, and he...

Case Timeline

Current
  • Supreme Court issues its decision
  • Supreme Court hears oral argument
  • CAC files amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court

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