Amendment 5

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

This amendment has a lot of words in it, and I get it. There are many important things to consider when someone is on trial. The first part explains that no one will be punished for a crime unless they are given a a fair trail; this is important because then people will be able to defend themselves if they are innocent, vs being accused and put in prison. 

As the run on sentence of an amendment continues, it states that no one will be punished for the same crime twice, unless of course they commit the crime twice. This is has created some controversy, because of mistrials, meaning that someone was not given the correct amount of punishment and people think they deserve a worse sentence. Unfortunately and fortunately, once someone serves their sentence, they cannot be tried for that crime again. 

As people have seen, there are many times where people “Plead the 5th”. This amendment implies that no one will be a witness against themselves meaning that there should be no questions to the defendant that will cause them to prove that they are guilty. This tends to be confusing and over-used by defendants, in my opinion because when put on trial, people have to be honest in court, and pleading the 5th does not make you exempt from answering a judge. 

The next part of amendment 5 explains that no one will be convicted without “due process of law” which means that they will have a fair trial before being deemed guilty for a crime. This is very important so that a person is able to defend themselves if they are innocent.

At the end, it states that “private property will not be taken for public use without just compensation”; unfortunately that doesn’t mean market price, the government will give whatever amount they deem worthy for property that will be used for public use. 

Can you believe there are actually people in the world who go through their lives without hearts and now respect for other human beings? Well if you don't, here is proof. Martin Shkreli had a hearing with congress earlier this year for his unexplainably insane increase in price for a life saving drug. He is seen in this video "pleading the 5th" so that he does not incriminate himself, when in reality, there were little to no questions that could even be considered self-incriminating. As you can see, congress has enough and ejects him from the house floor. 

This is a funny comic that implies that the boy tried to plead the 5th while taking his spelling test, which obviously wouldn't apply. The term take the 5th amendment means that someone is invoking the rights that are given to them in the 5th.