This engaging and accessible book focuses on high-profile criminal trials and examines the strategy of the lawyers, the reasons for conviction or acquittal, as well as the social importance of these famous cases.

In this Advanced Introduction, Christopher Slobogin covers every significant aspect of U.S. criminal procedure. Focusing on Supreme Court cases and the most important statutory rules that provide the framework for the criminal justice system, he illuminates the nuances of American criminal procedure doctrine and offers factual examples of how it is applied. Chapters cover police practices such as search and seizure, interrogation, and identification procedures, as well as the pretrial, trial and post-conviction process.

The fifth edition of Understanding Criminal Procedure is new in many respects. Most significantly, it has been enlarged to two volumes. The first volume is intended for use in criminal procedure courses focusing primarily or exclusively on police investigatory process. Such courses are variously titled: Criminal Procedure I; Criminal Procedure: Investigation; Criminal Procedure: Police Practices; Constitutional Criminal Procedure; etc. Because some such courses also cover the defendant's right to counsel at trial and appeal, the first volume includes a chapter on this non-police-practice issue. (The latter chapter is also included in Volume Two.) The second volume of Understanding Criminal Procedure covers the criminal process after the police investigation ends, and the adjudicative process commences. This book is useful in criminal procedure courses (variously entitled Criminal Procedure II; Criminal Procedure: Adjudication; etc.) that follow the criminal process through the various stages of adjudication, commencing with pretrial issues — such as charging, pretrial release and discovery — and continuing with the trial itself and then post-conviction proceedings: sentencing and appeals. Understanding Criminal Procedure is primarily designed for law students. The authors have written the Text so that students can use it with confidence that it will assist them in course preparation, and professors can recommend or assign the volumes to students with confidence that they will improve classroom dialogue. Based on comments that the authors received in the past from students and professors alike, they predict that this new, expanded edition of Understanding Criminal Procedure will serve the needs of students and professors even better. Also, based on the experience of prior editions, including citations to this Text in scholarly literature and judicial opinions, we are confident that the two volumes will prove useful to scholars, practicing lawyers, and courts. Understanding Criminal Procedure covers the most important United States Supreme Court cases in the field. Where pertinent, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, federal statutes, and lower federal and state court cases are considered. The broad overarching policy issues of criminal procedure are laid out; and some of the hottest debates in the field are considered in depth and, we think, objectively. Readers should find the Text user-friendly. Students who want a thorough grasp of a topic can and should read the relevant chapter in its entirety. However, each chapter is divided into subsections, so that readers with more refined research needs can find answers to their questions efficiently. The authors also include citations to important scholarship, both classic and recent, into which readers may delve more deeply regarding specific topics. And, because so many of the topics interrelate, cross-referencing footnotes are included, so that readers can easily move from one part of the Text to another, if necessary.

More than most other books about the criminal law, this presentation focuses on "Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument." In each criminal-law topic, it presents in building-block form the limited repertoire of core issues and related arguments so that you can concentrate on learning and practicing those that your professor has stressed in class, in her materials, and on her old exams. You can know the issues on the exam before you go into the exam room.In each criminal-law topic there is a limited repertoire of core issues that must be identified and then resolved with advocacy argument. This pattern of issues and arguments arises from embedded and recurring factual patterns and the resulting criminal law performance of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and trial and appellate judges over decades and even centuries. Your professor presents only some of the core issues and related arguments from these repertoires in her course and on her criminal-law exam. Thus, you can systematically learn the set of core issues and arguments in each topic presented by your and know the issues before you go into the exam room. The exam then presents no surprises.What do you mean by resolving the core issues "with advocacy argument?"Identifying the core issues from your professor?s course is the first critical task. The second critical task is resolving these issues with advocacy argument. Advocacy argument is the lawyer?s single-minded marshalling of the relevant facts and doctrine that are necessary to resolve the identified issues in favor of either the prosecution or defense. This book helps you with both tasks: identifying the exam issues and resolving them.

This supplement brings the principal text current with recent developments in the law.