Protecting the rights of the accused

Таблица для определения студентом своего

варианта и номера контрольного задания

(5 лет и 3 года обучения)

Контрольная работа № 1

Variant 1

I. Read the text and answer the following questions.

1. Why was Hugh Boggs worried?

2. Where was his bicycle picked up?

3. When did he leave it?

His name and address was on the wheel

Hugh Boggs was worried all day. In the morning he received a letter from the police. They asked him to call at the station. Hugh couldn't understand why the police wanted him. He didn't do anything wrong. It was perhaps a mistake.

At the police station a policeman told him that his bicycle had been found. It was picked up in the hills in Wales about a hundred miles away. His name and address were written on the wheel.

The bicycle was sent to his home by train. Hugh was very much surprised when he heard the news. He was amused, too, because it was his old broken bicycle he had left behind last summer when returning to town after his holidays. Now when he receives his bike, he will have to think how to get rid of it again.

II. Read and translate the following text.

Protecting the rights of the accused

Dealing with crime and criminals poses a serious challenge to democratic political systems. On the one hand, society must protect itself against criminals. At the same time, individual rights must be preserved. Justice in a democracy means protecting the innocent from government police power as well as punishing the guilty.

To deal with this challenge, the Founders of the US Constitution provided for a system of justice designed to guard the rights of the accused as well as the rights of society. Laws were to be strictly interpreted, trial procedures fair and impartial, and punishments reasonable. Later, the Fourteenth Amendment further protected the rights of the accused.

The police need evidence to accuse people of committing crimes, but getting evidence often requires searching people or their homes, cars, or offices. To protect the innocent, the Fourth Amendment* guarantees the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, and papers, against unreasonable searches and seizures. What constitutes unreasonable searches and seizures? No precise definition has been made, so the courts have dealt with Fourth Amendment issues on a case-by-case basis.

Today the police must state under oath that they have probable cause to suspect someone of committing a crime. Then they must obtain a warrant from a court official before searching for evidence or making an arrest. The warrant must describe the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.

Before 1980, 23 states had search laws that permitted police to enter a home without a warrant if they had probable cause to believe that the occupant had committed a felony, or major crime, but in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that, except in a life-threatening emergency, the Fourth Amendment forbids searching a home without a warrant.

*Fourth Amendment – Ратифицирована 15 декабря 1791г. Поправка гласит: «Право народа на гарантии неприкосновенности личности, жилища, бумаг и имущества от необоснованных обысков и арестов не должно нарушаться. и никакие ордера не должны выдаваться иначе как при достаточных к тому основаниях, подтвержденных присягой или заявлением, и с подробным описанием места, подлежащего обыску, и лиц или предметов, подлежащих аресту».