State Constitutional Protection for Defendants in Criminal Prosecutions

Abstract

A great debate has been raging in recent years concerning the application of state constitutional law in state criminal prosecutions. For many years, state constitutional provisions were essentially ignored with the entire emphasis placed on federal applications of the United States Constitution. Today, however, many state judges have looked to their own state constitutions to determine if sufficient protection has been given to criminal defendants. In this article, the author looks at this important development, and focuses on the debate about the propriety of the expanding scope of the state constitutional law.

Keywords: defendants, criminal prosecutions, state constitutions, constitutional law, judge