Constitutional Criminal Procedure

This Article surveys noteworthy 2000 decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in the field commonly known as Constitutional Criminal Procedure. As in past years, the survey focuses on significant decisions concerning the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination, prohibition against double jeopardy, and guarantees of due process and grand jury screening; and the Sixth Amendment's procedural protections, including the right to counsel and the right of confrontation. Of course, most of these rights, with few exceptions, such as the right to have charges approved by a grand jury, have been held applicable to state criminal justice systems pursuant to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As a very busy appellate court, the Eleventh Circuit hears a large number of direct appeals and collateral proceedings that raise issues of the proper scope of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

This Article endeavors to identify the most significant of those decisions from 2000, summarize the cases and the court's reasoning, and provide a measure of context and commentary as to the issues presented.