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[edit] July 2006
Miranda v. Arizona , was a landmark 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court which was argued February 28–March 1, 1966 and decided June 13, 1966. The Court held that criminal suspects must be informed of their right to consult with an attorney and of their right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police. During the 1960s, a movement to provide indigent defendants with legal aid emerged from the collective efforts of various public interest groups. In the civil realm, it led to the creation of the ancestor of the Legal Services Corporation under the Great Society program of President Lyndon B. Johnson (although Supreme Court, in Escobedo v. Illinois, , a case which closely foreshadowed Miranda, held that defendants in custody had a right to consult with their attorneys, even before they were indicted). This reform impulse extended to a concern over police interrogation practices, which were considered by many to be barbaric and unjust. Coercive interrogation tactics were known in period slang as the "third degree." (read more...)
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[edit] June 2006
Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (or the Marchese de Beccaria-Bonesana) (March 11, 1738 - November 28, 1794) was an Italian philosopher and politician. He was born in Milan, and educated in the Jesuit college at Parma. In 1764 Beccaria published a brief but justly celebrated treatise Dei Delitti e delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), which marked the high point of the Milan Enlightenment. In it, Beccaria put forth the first arguments ever made against the death penalty. His treatise was also the first full work of penology, advocating reform of the criminal law system. The book was the first full-scale work to tackle criminal reform and to suggest that criminal justice should conform to rational principles. It is a less theoretical work than the writings of Grotius, Pufendorf and other comparable thinkers, and as much a work of advocacy as of theory. In this, Beccaria reflected the convictions of the Il Caffe group, who sought to cause reform through Enlightenment discourse. The book's serious message is put across in a clear and animated style, based in particular upon a deep sense of humanity and of urgency at unjust suffering. This humane sentiment is what makes Beccaria appeal for rationality in the laws. (read more...)
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