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Liberty Definition Essay

485 Words2 Pages

Liberty - the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one 's way of life, behavior, or political views. Even with a definition what is liberty exactly? And that where the trouble begins because there are dozens of definitions. The problem is we mix the “actual” definition with our own perception but none of them mean the same thing. Since we don’t think the same way and we conceptualized life differently, the definition of liberty is based upon opinion such as beauty standards. In the American culture, liberty is the epitome. Patrick Henry is quoted “Give me liberty or give death”. Do we think of liberty as justice or freedom? Freedom is the power or right to act and justice the process …show more content…

A famous case, Miranda v. Arizona was a taken to the Supreme Court that ended in a majority 5-4 decision from the Justices. This case particularly focused on the fifth amendment right; which is, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in militia". I 'm laymen terms, you don 't have to answer or do anything that can or could possibly incriminate yourself. The defendant in this case was arrested by the FBI, interrogated, and forced to sign statements without any right to counsel. With that, he was held for five days without right to counsel. After reading this case, it made me wonder if plea deals and other tactics law enforcement uses to get defendants to say their guilty violate their fifth amendment. Majority of the prisoners we have in our system are on plea deals and are strongly pushed towards plea deals because "their sentence will be shorter". With that being said majority of our prisons are from low socioeconomic classes with public defenders so they can 't afford a lawyer that will go that extra mile. Maybe this a strong hunch but are plea deals against our fifth amendment? Can our society ever be just or is justice for all possible? Realistically speaking, no because we don’t like in a utopian society. I believe it depends on

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Decision: Three court cases revered, and one court case affirmed. The court reviewed the writ dealing with the Fifth Amendment and suspects rights during interrogation. In order for a confession to be admissible in court a suspect must be advised of their constitutional rights. Comments: Miranda v. Arizona is considered to be a landmark court case. Its final decision came down to a 5-4 majority vote in favor of the suspects.

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The landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ruled that the 6th amendment obligated federal and state government to provide an attorney to anyone who could not afford one. Gideon v Wainwright ruled in favor of public defenders to create a mechanism which limited the government’s power by having them prove their convictions beyond a reasonable doubt. Currently, the Supreme Court ruling has created enormous caseloads that many busy courts struggle to handle. As a solution to the problems of high caseloads, plea bargaining has become the primary method of closing cases. Although achieving greater efficiency for the criminal justice is necessary, overly utilizing plea bargains weakens the criminal justice as it fails to reinforce the principles established in Gideon v Wainwright by foregoing trials.

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Background: Miranda v. Arizona is a very important, and complex supreme court case. It is a summation of four court cases; our focus Miranda v. Arizona , Vignera v. New York, Westover v. United States, and California v. Stewart. In each of these cases, the suspects were interrogated in ways that were not procedure and were not aware of their rights of the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment allows a suspect to remain silent until a lawyer, private or provided, is there to counsel them. Ernesto Miranda, the suspect of Miranda v. Arizona, was interrogated for two hours, recorded and signed a confession without knowing that he could remain silent until a lawyer was present.

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After spending countless hours discussing the criminal court system in class and familiarizing myself with the content of Justice Hands’ quote, I have come to a conclusion that ties together a collection of opinions. The death penalty is an arbitrary and ineffective method of punishment that should only be used under one circumstance; if the defendant has been unequivocally found guilty of the murder he committed and would rather succumb to the death penalty than spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. There have been numerous cases throughout the years that have taken place where a defendant was denied his fifth and sixth amendment right to a lawyer and fair trial, and was left with no choice but to hold himself to deliver his own testimony. These circumstances can dramatically influence the outcome of a trial since it creates an unequal chance for the accused. For example, in both Gideon v. Wainwright and Argersinger v. Hamlin, both defendants were denied their right to a counsel.

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Freedom is the power that allows people to self-determine his or her ideas, it allows people to have the right to act, speak or think without being restraint. The reality of freedom is how individuals see their freedom; for instance, Dr. King got locked in jail for describing his freedom, but others define his freedom differently. Individuals choices, how they want to establish their freedom. One’s person freedom could be someone’s prison. Although people defined that freedom is having unrestricted rights, but limitation create true freedom since it spreads equality to everyone.

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Liberty has the definition of the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views. This means the right to be free in a country. America had trouble with finding how liberty can be a part of the country. The fight for liberty was difficult to obtain because America had the break from Great Britain, needed to build a country from scratch, and come together as a country. America was not always a free country.

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• The Constitution is weakened by the excessive use of plea-bargaining to avoid a trial. Research has shown that criminal defendants who exercise their Sixth Amendment right to trail by jury are more severely punished than those who accept plea bargains (Devers, 2011, p. 2). It is assumed that plea-bargaining weakens the criminal justice system by allowing violent criminals to plea out of serious charges and putting the disadvantaged and potentially innocent or partially innocent in a position where exercising their constitutional right to a trial by jury is too risky of an option. Prosecutors are required by the state to carry the burden and prosecute the accused.

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Plea bargains are growing to resolve many cases. (Shetokas, 2014) According to the legal dictionary the sixth amendment to the U.S. Constitution affords criminal defendants seven discrete personal liberties: (1) the right to a Speedy Trial; (2) a public trial is allowed (3) have the right to have a fair jury; (4) knowledge of charges that are pending; (5) being able to cross-examine and confront the eyewitness; (6) the right to compel favorable witnesses to testify at trial through the subpoena power of the judiciary; and (7) legal rights to have an attorney. ( legaldictionary). With the fourteen

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Freedom within Hills like White Elephants and Story of an Hour Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Many people strive for it, but it is nerveless undefined. Everyone wants to be free,

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Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The foundation of America is freedom. Freedom from Britain. However, the freedom is limited to white males who own property. When colonists started to immigrate to America, they wanted to escape from under the rule of Britain.

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The meaning of liberty is the freedom to act as one chooses as long as your actions do not interfere with the freedom or well being of theirs. Liberty is very special value that settlers from other nations desired since they had never experienced anything of its kind. The ability to be self reliant or to be one’s own master is individualism.

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What is freedom? Is it an absolute right or is it something we can live without it? People born to be free. Throughout history freedom defined differently according to different cultures and different period of time. Freedom shows an alteration cultures to culture.

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Freedom means the power or right to act, speak, or think without restraint, and the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. Freedom is the correction to do what he/she wants, live life, and eat what he/she wants. How do we live free? We live free by not judging other people’s freedom rights. Everyone has their own rights.

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