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This amendment is easier to understand to me if it is broken down into different pieces
*No person shall be subject for the same offense twice:
This part of the amendment pretty much explains itself. A person can not be tried for the
same crime twice, or it would be considered double jeopardy
*Compelled to witness against himself:
People do not have to testify against themselves when being accused of a crime, they can
"plead the 5th"
*Deprived of life, Liberty, or property, without due process of law:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and property unless is found guilty of a crime where
those rights are removed
*Private property be taken for public Use:
The government can not not take your property from you, you control it.
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10/06/2009
Suspect in Yale killing appears in court, enters no plea
- Story Highlights
- NEW: Yale employee Raymond Clark defers plea, attorney says
- NEW: Deferring plea is common practice in similar cases, lawyer says
- Clark and victim Annie Le were co-workers at university laboratory
- Le's body was found in wall of lab building on day she was to be married
(CNN) -- The suspect in the killing of Yale pharmacology graduate student Annie Le appeared in court in New Haven, Connecticut, Tuesday, but did not enter a plea, his attorney told CNN.
Raymond Clark III, 24, a lab technician at Yale, is charged with murder in Le's death. Tuesday's scheduled hearing was continued until October 20.
It is standard procedure for defendants in murder cases not to enter a plea until a later stage in the case, public defender Beth Merkin told CNN. Clark eventually will plead not guilty, she said.
Clark, of Branford, Connecticut, is being held in lieu of $3 million bail.
The body of Le, 24, was found inside a wall of a Yale lab building on September 12 -- the day she was to be married. She had been strangled, the Connecticut medical examiner's office determined.
Clark is not a Yale student, but has worked as a lab technician at the university since 2004. He lived with his girlfriend, who also is a Yale lab technician, according to New Haven police.
A Yale faculty member described Clark's job as maintaining colonies for animals used in research. The lab is in the basement of the building where Le's body was found.
A motive in Le's killing was unclear, but police said they were treating the case as workplace violence.
Yale has announced a memorial service for Le on October 12. The university is also establishing a scholarship in her memory.
Le was buried in California on September 26.
"You were born in my loving embrace," said Le's mother, Vivian Van Le, reading a poem she'd written in Vietnamese to those gathered for the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills.
Her son and Annie Le's brother, Chris Le, provided a translation.
"The most wonderful gift that God had sent to me. ... You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things. All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place," Vivian Van Le said, according to her sonhttp://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/06/yale.student.killing/index.html
Thoughts:
This article represents a person who is not testifying against themselves. The accused does not have to witness against himself, he has hired a lawyer to speak for him. It says specifically his attorney says he is not entering a plea.
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10/06/2009
Second grand jury does not constitute double jeopardy for Clinton
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The seating of a second grand jury to hear evidence in the scandal involving President Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky does not constitute double jeopardy, a concept barred by the Fifth Amendment, constitutional experts said Thursday.
Double jeopardy, which holds that people cannot be tried twice for the same crime, only applies in jury trials, experts said. They said there is no bar against prosecutors seating more than one grand jury.
A grand jury, which usually contains 23 members, does not convict or acquit individuals. A prosecutor presents evidence to the jurors in a secret proceeding and the jurors then decide if there is enough evidence to indict someone. It is the trial jury that convicts or acquits.
Clinton "hasn't been tried, he hasn't been indicted, he hasn't been accused," said Richard Fallon, a constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School. "A grand jury is more like an investigation than a formal accusation. ... (It is) very clear that the president, after he has left office, can be indicted and tried."
In the Clinton case, the grand jury seated by former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr more than two years ago was presented with evidence that Starr said proved Clinton had lied under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate, a move that allowed him to serve out his term. He will leave office January 20, after finishing the maximum of two terms in the White House.
On Thursday, CNN learned that Robert Ray, who succeeded Starr, seated a second grand jury in July to determine whether to indict Clinton on criminal charges stemming from his testimony regarding Lewinsky during the Paula Jones case. It is not certain if Ray will get --or even seek -- to indict Clinton on criminal charges.
William Van Alstyne, who teaches constitutional law at Duke University's law school, said the courts have not definitively answered the question of whether a sitting president can be indicted.
He said in the Watergate case, President Nixon was not indicted by a grand jury, but named as a co-conspirator to allow prosecutors to avoid having to wrestle with the question of whether a sitting president can be indicted.
So, hypothetically, if Ray does seek -- and receive -- an indictment, the president's lawyers could seek to quash the indictment as constitutionally invalid, he said.
Under the scenario of Clinton being indicted after he leaves office, he may still be able to escape penalties if convicted.
The next president could pardon Clinton. President Ford pardoned then-private citizen Richard Nixon even before Nixon was indicted, Fallon said.
Van Alstyne said he believes Clinton could issue a pardon for himself before he leaves office, thus eliminating any chance of going to prisonhttp://archives.cnn.com/2000/LAW/08/17/clinton.lewinsky/index.html
Thoughts:
This article applies to the 5th amendment because it explains why double jeopardy did not apply in Clinton's case. The 5th amendment protects American citizens against double jeopardy.
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