![]() The Fourth Amendment requires that warrants be specific about the person and place to be searched. The Founders wanted to stop this type of abuse with the Fourth Amendment. Any official who held a general warrant could search for anything he wanted, and British officers often used these warrants to unjustly search colonists. These warrants were easy to get and did not list a particular person or place to be searched. One of the most common ways the British violated the rights of American colonists was the use of “general” search warrants. Gathering Evidence: What Does the Fourth Amendment Protect? The idea was that it was better for guilty people to go free than for the judicial system to wrongly punish even one innocent person. The Founders knew from history and experience that if there were not protections for citizens who are accused of crimes and clear rules of due process for the government to follow, then the government would have unlimited power and citizens could not live freely. Five amendments in the Bill of Rights deal with some aspect of criminal procedure-the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments. ![]() People are often surprised to find how much of the Bill of Rights involves protections for those who have been accused of a crime. If you lived in such a society, would you be free? If government could do these kinds of things, would there be any real limit on its powers? Why Did the Founders Include So Many Provisions Regarding the Rights of the Accused?
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