CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PRETRIAL DETENTION

• NCJ Number: 147761
• Journal: Georgetown Law Journal Volume: 60 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1972) Pages: 1381-1474
• Author(s): H H Meyer
• Date Published: 1972
• Length: 94 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprint of part two of a two-part article. Part one appeared in Volume 60, Number 5 of The Georgetown Law Journal and examined the historical origins of bail, its development in English law, its subsequent introduction into American law in the colonial period, and into the Constitution.

Annotation

The role of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments on pretrial detention is discussed.

Abstract

This article examines the constitutionality of the pretrial detention provisions of the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970. Tracing the historical development of the concept of due process in England and the United States, the author of this article concludes that the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments properly apply to procedural safeguards only and that the expansive interpretation of due process to embrace substantive rights is unwarranted. Also considered are the arguments that pretrial detention runs afoul of equal protection and the so-called presumption of innocence accorded a criminally accused individual. In an appendix to the article, the author examines the bail provisions of several European countries.