{"id":269,"date":"2011-11-13T09:53:38","date_gmt":"2011-11-13T09:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2011\/11\/the-sixth-amendment-grants-a-d.html"},"modified":"2011-11-13T09:53:38","modified_gmt":"2011-11-13T09:53:38","slug":"the-sixth-amendment-grants-a-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/the-sixth-amendment-grants-a-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial in response to the Boston Globe special OUI report would be unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In response to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/massachusetts\/articles\/2011\/10\/30\/for_drunk_drivers_a_habit_of_judicial_leniency\/?p1=News_links\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Globe Special Report<\/a> on OUI bench trials in Massachusetts, the Globe reported that prosecutors are seeking legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/opinion\/2011\/11\/12\/drunken-driving-cases-some-judges-are-indefensible\/nVafkbLTCwqRqnx9CKznuJ\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Assuming this report is accurate<\/a>, this legislation would have to apply to every type of criminal case as legislation relating to criminal procedure cannot be crime specific.  This legislation if proposed would be an unconstitutional violation of a defendant&#8217;s right to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment. <\/p>\n<p>The apparent aim of the legislation is to combat the perceived high rate of not guilty verdicts in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/\">Massachusetts OUI bench trials<\/a>.  This legislation would clearly be unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment.  The Sixth Amendment provides that a defendant in a criminal case enjoys certain rights:  These rights include the right to a speedy trial and the defendant enjoys a right to a trial by jury.  The use of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/billofrights\" target=\"_blank\">word &#8220;enjoys&#8221; in the Constitution<\/a> provides strong textual support for the argument that a defendant can waive this right.  <\/p>\n<p>\tThe right to a trial by jury was added to the Bill of Rights because the Framers of the Constitution feared that judges would not be impartial to defendants because their salary depended on the rule of the King.  The original intent of the jury trial was to limit the power of Government and ensure that citizens judged citizens.  The right to a jury trial is not Constitutionally required in all cases; in minor offense, with no possibility of jail time, there is no Constitutional right to a jury trial.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/the-sixth-amendment-grants-a-d\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial in response to the Boston Globe special OUI report would be unconstitutional\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to the Boston Globe Special Report on OUI bench trials in Massachusetts, the Globe reported that prosecutors are seeking legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial. Assuming this report is accurate, this legislation would have to apply to every type of criminal case as legislation relating to criminal procedure cannot be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dui-laws-and-court-cases","category-dui-library"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial in response to the Boston Globe special OUI report would be unconstitutional &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; November 13, 2011<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In response to the Boston Globe Special Report on OUI bench trials in Massachusetts, the Globe reported that prosecutors are seeking legislation requiring &#8212; November 13, 2011\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/the-sixth-amendment-grants-a-d\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial in response to the Boston Globe special OUI report would be unconstitutional &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; November 13, 2011\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In response to the Boston Globe Special Report on OUI bench trials in Massachusetts, the Globe reported that prosecutors are seeking legislation requiring &#8212; November 13, 2011\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Legislation requiring prosecutors to consent to a bench trial in response to the Boston Globe special OUI report would be unconstitutional &#8212; 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