Know Your Rights. Featured today: Excerpts from Constitution of the State of Illinois
BILL OF RIGHTS
SECTION 5. RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AND PETITION. The people have the right to assemble in a peaceable manner, to consult for the common good, to make known their opinions to their representatives and to apply for redress of grievances.
SECTION 6. SEARCHES, SEIZURES, PRIVACY AND INTERCEPTIONS. The people shall have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and other possessions against unreasonable searches, seizures, invasions of privacy or interceptions of communications by eavesdropping devices or other means. No warrant shall issue without probable cause, supported by affidavit particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
SECTION 7. INDICTMENT AND PRELIMINARY HEARING. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense unless on indictment of a grand jury, except in cases in which the punishment is by fine or by imprisonment other than in the penitentiary, in cases of impeachment, and in cases arising in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger. The General Assembly by law may abolish the grand jury or further limit its use. No person shall be held to answer for a crime punishable
by death or by imprisonment in the penitentiary unless either the initial charge has been brought by indictment of a grand
jury or the person has been given a prompt preliminary hearing to establish probable cause.
SECTION 8. RIGHTS AFTER INDICTMENT. In criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation and have a copy thereof; to be confronted with the witnesses against him or her and to have process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his or her behalf; and to have a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.
|
