Easily accessible to undergraduates, Significant Cases in Criminal Procedure, Second Edition, offers a clear, comprehensive introduction to criminal procedure. Rather than providing complete opinions, which may overwhelm students, the authors present case briefs, along with analyses, explanations, and short excerpts. In addition to the case summaries, the book includes lists of all of the cases it covers, both in alphabetical order and grouped by topic; a short introduction to each topic; and an index. CRIMINAL JUSTICE CASE BRIEFS SERIES Significant Cases in Criminal Procedure, Second Edition Craig Hemmens, Alan Thompson, and Lisa S. Nored (978-0-19-995791-0) Significant Cases in Corrections, Second Edition Craig Hemmens, Barbara Belbot, and Katherine Bennett (978-0-19-994858-1) Significant Cases in Juvenile Justice, Second Edition Craig Hemmens, Benjamin Steiner, and David Mueller (978-0-19-995841-2)

Providing a complete view of U.S. legal principles, this book addresses distinct issues as well as the overlays and connections between them. It presents as a cohesive whole the interrelationships between constitutional principles, statutory criminal laws, procedural law, and common-law evidentiary doctrines. This fully revised and updated new edition also includes discussion questions and hypothetical scenarios to check learning. Constitutional principles are the foundation upon which substantive criminal law, criminal procedure law, and evidence laws rely. The concepts of due process, legality, specificity, notice, equality, and fairness are intrinsic to these three disciplines, and a firm understanding of their implications is necessary for a thorough comprehension of the topic. This book examines the tensions produced by balancing the ideals of individual liberty embodied in the Constitution against society’s need to enforce criminal laws as a means of achieving social control, order, and safety. Relying on his first-hand experience as a law enforcement official and criminal defense attorney, the author presents issues that highlight the difficulties in applying constitutional principles to specific criminal justice situations. Each chapter of the text contains a realistic problem in the form of a fact pattern that focuses on one or more classic criminal justice issues to which readers can relate. These problems are presented from the points of view of citizens caught up in a police investigation and of police officers attempting to enforce the law within the framework of constitutional protections. This book is ideal for courses in criminal law and procedure that seek to focus on the philosophical underpinnings of the system.

The strength of this casebook is the uniformity of each chapter's structure, which makes it easier to approach the chapter's topic systematically. Each chapter begins with several sections that discuss the applicable law, followed by a separate section that discusses the Model Penal Code's approach to the topic. This is then followed by a "Comparative Perspectives" section that encourages students to think about alternative ways of approaching the topic. The richness of the comparative materials used in the casebook is unmatched by its competitors, as many of the materials have been translated by the author. Finally, each chapter ends with a section titled "Scholarly Debates" that introduces the student to some of the philosophical discussions related to the topic.