The last 20 years have witnessed an enormous increase in the amount of litigation concerning the procedural rights of the criminally accused. This upsurge has been the direct result of Supreme Court activism. The Warren era produced a dramatic expansion of the defendant's federally protected constitutional rights and a widening of access to the Federal courts as a means of vindicating those rights. In contrast, the Burger Court can be characterized by its emphasis on prosecution rather than on the defendant's rights; the fourth and fifth amendments have rarely been interpreted in the accused's favor by this Court. The cases and principles discussed in the text clarify these basic themes. Topics addressed include search and seizure law, the fifth amendment's privilege against self-incrimination, the pretrial process, constitutional issues associated with the trial, the role of the lawyer under the sixth amendment, entrapment, and the relationship between the Federal and State courts. Each chapter includes extensive footnotes, case citations, and a bibliography; the book provides appendixes, an index, and a table of cases with page references.