The Fifth Amendment A Comprehensive Approach

Subjects:

• Law » Constitutional Law
• Political Science » Civil/Political/Human Rights

Reviews:

• Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
  —Choice July/August 2003
• [P]rovocative and informative. The force of the analysis requires one to confront the problems created by the Court's decisions and to begin the difficult process of re-assessment.
  —The Law and Politics Book Review March 2003

• Endorsement From Yale Kamisar
  Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan Law School: An ambitious, provocative, and illuminating book that time and again underscores what the author calls the "cognitive dissonance between the Court's opinions and reality." Garcia writes crisply, forcefully, and with gusto. Although the "Fifth Amendment" is often treated as a synonym for the privilege against self-incrimination, the Amendment also has two other important criminal procedure safeguards: the right to a grand jury indictment for infamous crimes and the prohibition against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. Garcia argues persuasively that these three clauses have important historical, conceptual, and pragmatic links and that they should be viewed as a whole rather than as discrete entities.
• Endorsement From Christopher Slobogin
  Stephen C. O'Connell Professor of Law
  University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law: Professor Garcia has written the first book that tries to tie the seemingly disparate strands of the fifth amendment's criminal law provisions together into a coherent whole. He succeeds not only in accomplishing that feat, but also in explicating the often confusing judicial interpretations of the amendment's self-incrimination, grand jury and double jeopardy clauses, and in providing trenchant criticism of much of that caselaw.
• Endorsement From Paul Marcus
  Haynes Chair, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary: An interesting and incisive book, Garcia demonstrates that the grand jury, self-incrimination, and double jeopardy clauses of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be viewed not as distinct and discrete, but rather as being integrally related. Whether reviewing the historical evidence, engaging in careful analysis of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, or discerning the impact of legal rules on law enforcement, Garcia is thoughtful, critical, and challenging. He makes an important contribution to the growing debate over the U.S. criminal justice system.
• Endorsement From George C. Thomas III
  Professor of Law
  Rutgers University School of Law: A fresh and sweeping examination of the Fifth Amendment criminal provisions, blending history, doctrine, and theory. Original and impressive.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction
• The Fifth Amendment: A Comprehensive Approach
• What is a "Voluntary" Confession?
• Miranda Redux: Or How the Court Attempted to Revive a Dead Patient
• The Grand Jury: A Modern-Day Dinosaur
• Double Jeopardy: Have We Ever Known What it Means?
• Epilogue
• Bibliography