3 - The Legacy of Freedoms for the Criminally Accused

Summary

A number of other freedoms, besides freedoms of speech and press, also developed out of the conflicts in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England – most notably freedoms for the criminally accused, many of whom were prosecuted for the crime of their religious faith. As Puritans and others were charged with the crimes of preaching and printing dissident religious beliefs, they raised objections to each element of criminal prosecutions: searches, arrests, imprisonments, trials, and punishments. The most vocal objectors were the Levellers, radical "Puritans of the Left," who supplemented their objections with proposed freedoms or rights against unjust elements of prosecutions. Their objections and proposals were mostly in the fervent language of religious speech – religious appeals laden with biblical references – whether in statements at trial, transcripts of proceedings, or pamphlets. The best known Leveller leader, John Lilburne, in his three major criminal trials and in related pamphlets, identified and claimed all thirteen freedoms of the criminally accused that, 150 years later, were collected together in the Fourth through Eighth Amendments of America’s Bill of Rights. Lilburne also sought to legitimate and secure those rights as part of the rights of "free-born Englishmen" or of "the birthright of Englishmen."* Other Levellers advocated those rights.