Procedural Due Process and Victims Rights

Current and Future State of Criminal Law

The 5th and 14th Amendments procedural due process provides the standard to determine whether someone has been treated fairly by the judicial system. The amendments created a model of strict compliance with regular procedures in order to protect citizens against tyranny. Procedural due process has been viewed as flexible and adaptable to changing situations (Parkin, 2019). However, in recent years, courts have become less interested in ordering alternative or extra procedural safeguards, which has represented a change in how procedural due process is viewed. Currently, procedural due process has been characterized by procedural innovations as government agencies and court systems are reforming procedures. As bottom-up procedural experimentation continues to increase, procedural due process is likely to evolve in the coming years to include procedural innovations. Procedural due process will be characterized by experimentation with new and varying procedural safeguards at federal, state, and local levels.

The Bill of Rights primarily focuses on the rights of the criminally accused or convicted. Today’s American law is increasingly taking into consideration the rights of victims, and some jurisdictions have adopted a “Victim’s Bill of Rights.” Such laws have been enacted to increase the rights of the victim and provide him/her a substantive role in the criminal justice system (Gewurz & Mercurio, 2000). However, a Victim’s Bill of Rights could potentially conflict with the Bill of Rights and generate challenges in the criminal justice system. It could conflict with the Bill of Rights by running counter to the idea of innocent until proven guilty, curtailing the due process, and obstructing justice (American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.). For example, allowing victims to be heard prior to the determination of a case would contaminate the jury deliberation process. It could result in a biased trial and wrongful conviction if a suspected offender is innocent but the victim pleads with the jury to return a guilty verdict.