In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
The Sixth Amendment’s guarantee to a speedy trial is intended to protect defendants against lengthy incarceration prior to trial and to facilitate a fair trial, the impartiality of which might be impossible if postponed. However, good intentions are not always well executed. Under the United States constitutional juridical system, “speedy” is arbitrary and usually not speedy at all:
The Sixth Amendment speedy trial guarantee has been before the Supreme Court a number of times. The Court has spoken eloquently about its importance as a fundamental right and in Klopfer v. North Carolina (1967) incorporated it into the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Despite the applicability of the speedy trial doctrine to notoriously overcrowded state courts, the Court has rarely found the right to have been violated. For instance, in Barker v. Wingo (1972), it held that despite a five-year delay between indictment and trial, there was no violation of the right. Observing that circumstances vary in each case, the Court rejected a hard and fast time-limit rule in favor of a balancing test that considers length of delay, reason for delay, prejudice to the defendant, and the defendant’s timely assertion of rights. However, when balancing these factors, the Court almost invariably has ruled in favor of the prosecution.1Despite the strictures of the Speedy Trial Clause, criminal justice has not always moved swiftly in the United States. During the 1970s federal courts had backlogs of thousands of cases on their dockets. Lengthy pretrial delays clogged local jails at great expense to taxpayers. Increasing numbers of defendants were jumping bail while free during extended pretrial release. 2
…the contemporary legal reality is more messy, and rather depressing to contemplate. A great many suspects in today’s world are subject to considerable pretrial detention, notwithstanding the letter and spirit of the Sixth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment bail clause. Dejected and demoralized, many poor defendants may end up pleading guilty, even to crimes that they may not have committed, so that they can be released on the basis of time already served. (With no damage remedy awaiting them upon acquittal for their overlong pretrial detention, many have little incentive indeed to put the prosecution to its ultimate proof at trial.) The result is a system that in reality falls short of vindicating the noble principles of the Constitution.3
Whereas Ezra 7:26 and Ecclesiastes 8:11 refer to speedy judgment, the Bible does not mention timely trials. Nevertheless, they are intrinsic in Yahweh’s4 juridical system. The fact that Yahweh’s law does not provide for jails or prisons, except as the means to hold suspects for trial (Leviticus 24:12, Numbers 15:34), is an inherent demand for swift litigation.
Entitlement to a quick trial originates with Yahweh and is seldom attainable under non-biblical juridical systems, even as provided by the United States Constitution. The United States court system is a vicious cycle that cannot be remedied.
Because America is awash with “laws” (“More than 40,000 laws have been enacted by state legislatures in the past year [2009] … according to the National Conference of State Legislatures ... which provides an annual round-up of such laws.”5), criminalizing nearly everyone, and because today’s non-biblical judicial system provides, at best, inconsistent deterrents to criminals and perjurers, the courts are flooded with cases, making it impossible for expeditious adjudication. When justice is not carried out quickly, criminals are encouraged in their villainy:
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them [given fully, NASB] to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)6
The combination of countless laws, minimal deterrence, and delayed and protracted trials means more criminals. The more criminals,7 the more burdened the courts, and the more burdened the courts, the slower justice, and the slower justice, the less deterrence, and the less deterrence, the more criminals, and the more criminals, the more flooded the courts.... It is a never-ending degenerative cycle, which also provides for bail and plea-bargaining opportunities, both of which put even more criminals back on the streets. (See Chapter 17, which addresses Amendment 8, for more regarding the unbiblical provision for bail.)
Today’s appellate system, which allows criminals’ numerous appeals, sometimes spanning years, exacerbates the problem. For example, it took ten years to finally put Ted Bundy,8 arguably America’s most notorious serial sexual murderer, to death. By the time a criminal like Bundy is put to death, the deterrent is all but lost upon the generation most familiar with the case. Thus more criminals, more court cases, more delayed justice, less deterrence, more criminals – and society morally collapses.
Under biblical government, because of fewer laws and greater deterrence, far fewer criminals exist. Furthermore, all apprehended capital criminals are immediately brought to trial and, if found guilty, immediately and publically executed.9 If a person is found guilty of a non-capital crime, he is required to immediately pay two to five times restitution to the injured party, depending on the nature of the offense. If the convicted criminal cannot pay the required restitution, he is immediately put into indentured servitude until his debt has been paid off.10 (See Chapter 22, which addresses Amendment 13, for more regarding the biblical requirement for indentured servitude.) Under Yahweh’s judicial system, there would be virtually no one to imprison, eliminating the need for a tax-subsidized prison complex.11 Ironically, many Christians still prefer man’s government over Yahweh’s. When will Christians12 accept that Yahweh knows best and that His laws are perfect for all facets of life?
The “right” to a public trial has roots in the Bible. In ancient Israel, trials were held at the main entrance of every city and town:
Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which YHWH13 thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. (Deuteronomy 16:18)Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment [justice, NASB] in the gate…. (Amos 5:15)
These are the things that ye shall do … execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. (Zechariah 8:16)
The public trials provided by the Sixth Amendment are not absolute. Public access can be overruled by a motion of closure. For a variety of reasons, including the “omnipresent” and commanding influence of the media by which a jury can be unduly prejudiced, judges can rule a case closed to the public. This is not an option under Yahweh’s laws. Therefore, rather than limiting the public, today’s runaway and often abusive media should be limited instead.
Although the Sixth Amendment’s provision for public trials is biblical and, as the constitutional framers intended, helps curb judicial abuse, it falls short because it is not paired with public executions. Under Yahweh’s laws, not only were trials held publically, so were executions:
Bring forth him that hath cursed [blasphemed Yahweh] without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. (Leviticus 24:14)And YHWH said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. (Numbers 15:35)
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which YHWH thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of YHWH thy God…. Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5)
The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. (Proverbs 14:19)
The Apostle Paul emphasized the importance of public discipline:
Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. (1 Timothy 5:20)
Winston Churchill expressed to his son Randall his reasons for endorsing capital punishment and public executions:
“Is it [capital punishment] a great deterrent?” he asked. “I think so. Perhaps it is because the sentence is irrevocable….” … Referring to the recent substitution of public executions by private executions he added: “No difficulties should be placed in the way of any … who may wish to see the sentence carried out. Justice in every form should not shrink from publicity. The last expiation which she exacts from man should not be hidden from the eyes of his fellow creatures.”14In Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus, Gary North condemns private executions as criminal acts in themselves:
…most people, including Christians, … prefer to assign to distant unknown executioners the grim task of carrying out God’s judgment in private. This privatization of execution is immoral; it is itself criminal. It is unjust to the convicted criminal, and it is unjust to the surviving victims, who do not see God’s justice done in public. The systematic impersonalism of capital punishment is the problem, not capital punishment as such. This deliberate impersonalism has corrupted the entire penal system today.The growth of impersonalism has been a problem for the West from the beginning. Even in the days of public executions, several centuries ago, the axeman wore a face mask. The Bible does not allow the establishment of a professional, taxpayer-financed guild of faceless executioners who, over time, inevitably grow callous and impersonal toward their awful … task, or else grow sadistic. Instead, the Bible imposes personal responsibility on members of society at large for enforcing this ultimate sanction. But people in the Christian West have always refused to accept this God-imposed personal responsibility. They prefer to make a lone executioner psychologically responsible for carrying out the sentence rather than participate in this covenantal responsibility, as God requires.15
As Yahweh’s principal means of execution, stoning mandates not only public exposure but also public participation, which provides for the greatest possible deterrent and, therefore, fewer criminals.16 (See Chapter 17, which addresses Amendment 8, for more regarding capital punishment.)
Amendment 6 attempts to guarantee the impossible – impartial juries. An impartial jury implies a jury consisting of people who have no preconceived notions regarding the guilt or innocence of the defendant and who will decide the case based solely upon the evidence provided. Not only is this impossible to guarantee, but once the trial begins, it becomes utterly impossible. All humans have biases and are usually prone to peer pressure and politically correct ideologies. Consequently, juries are capricious and, therefore, their justice is, at best, unpredictable.
The USInfo.org web page inadvertently admitted to flaws inherent in the jury system:
…juries are notoriously fickle, and can ignore the law when they decide that a defendant had good reason to do whatever was done, or they can be manipulated by crafty attorneys.17
By “law,” the USInfo.org web page is, of course, referring to constitutional, federal, and state “laws.” It is even more likely that juries will disregard Yahweh’s law. In fact, should a question regarding Yahweh’s law arise, judges instruct juries that the Bible is has no bearing on court procedures.
Psychologists retained to guide attorneys in selecting juries further exacerbate the improbability of impartiality. Prospective jurors are profiled to help attorneys choose those with a predisposition toward one side or the other – in other words, jurors who will be partial.
Partiality is much less likely when criminal cases are strictly adjudicated by a biblically qualified judge according to Yahweh’s laws. (See Chapter 5 for the biblical qualifications and for more on biblical judges.)
The USInfo.org web page goes on to admit that “to eliminate trial by jury because of perceived defects in the system would be to strike a blow against democratic government itself.”18 This should be reason enough to abolish the jury system and set up Yahweh’s juridical system in its place. (See Chapter 6 for more concerning Yahweh’s juridical system and the United States Constitutional Republic’s unbiblical jury system.)
1. Malcolm M. Feeley, “U.S. Supreme Court: Speedy Trial,” West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, <http://www.answers.com/topic/speedy-trial>.
2. “Speedy Trial,” The Free Dictionary, <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/speedy+trial>.
3. Akhil Reed Amar, “Speedy Trial – Bibliography, Cases,” <http://law.jrank.org/pages/2137/Speedy-Trial.html>.
4. YHWH (most often pronounced Yahweh) is the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible. For a more thorough explanation concerning the sacred names of God, “The Third Commandment” may be read online, or the book Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for a suggested $4 donation.*
5. Amanda Paulson, “New Laws for 2010: No Texting, Trans Fats or Tanning Beds,” 2 January 2010, ABC News / US, <http://abcnews.go.com/US/laws-2010-texting-trans-fats-tanning-beds/story?id=9461177>.
6. All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted. Portions of Scripture have been omitted for brevity. If there are questions regarding any passage, please open your Bible and study the text to ensure it has been properly used.
7. As of June 2008, there were a total of 2,310,984 prisoners held in federal, state, and local prisons and jails, an increase of more than a million and half since 1985. This is an average of 509 prisoners per 100,000 United States residents. <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm>. “With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. …a rate nearly five times the average worldwide….” <http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html?index=1>.
8. Theodore “Ted” Bundy confessed to twenty-three murders: ten in Washington, five in Colorado, four in Utah, three in Florida, and one in Oregon. He killed his first victim in 1974. He was convicted of two murders in Florida in 1979 and, after several appeals, was finally electrocuted in 1989.
9. For a more thorough explanation concerning capital punishment, “Capital Punishment: Deterrent or Catalyst?” may be read online, or the book may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363 for a suggested $3 donation.*
10. For a more thorough explanation concerning Eighth Commandment restitution, “The Eighth Commandment” may be read online at, or the book Thou shalt not steal may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363 for a suggested $6 donation.*
11. For a more thorough explanation concerning prisons, “Prisons: Shut Them All Down!” may be read online, or the book may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363 for a suggested $3 donation.*
12. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Yeshua and forgiven of your sins. For a more thorough explanation concerning baptism and its relationship to salvation, “Baptism by the Scriptures” and “Fifty Objections to Baptism Answered” may be read online, or the book Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
13. Where the Tetragrammaton YHWH – the four Hebrew characters that represent the personal name of God – has been unlawfully rendered the LORD or GOD in English translations, I have taken the liberty to correct this error by inserting YHWH where appropriate. For a more thorough explanation concerning the sacred names of God, “The Third Commandment” may be read online, or the book, Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363 for a suggested $4 donation.*
14. Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, 21 vols. (Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin, 1966) vol. 1, p. 326.
15. Gary North, Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus (Tyler, TX: The Institute for Christian Economics, 1990, 1997) pp. 44-45.
16. For a more thorough explanation concerning capital punishment, “Capital Punishment: Deterrent or Catalyst?” may be read online, or the book may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363 for a suggested $3 donation.*
17. International Information Programs, USInfo.org, “Trial by Jury,” Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights, <http://usinfo.org/zhtw/DOCS/RightsPeople/jury.html>.
*We are admonished in Matthew 10:8 “freely ye have received, freely give.” Although we have a suggested a price for our books, we do not sell them. In keeping with 2 Corinthians 9:7, this ministry is supported by freewill offerings. If you cannot afford the suggested price, inform us of your situation, and we will be pleased to provide you with whatever you need for whatever you can send