The Christian Burial Case: An Introduction to Criminal and Judicial Procedure

On December 24, 1968, a 10-year-old girl was murdered and her body left at the side of the road to freeze. Robert Anthony Williams, a criminal with strong religious beliefs, was interrogated by officers who played on his religious belief system. They implored him to confess and identify where the girl's body was so that her parents could give her a proper Christian burial. In the ensuing series of trials, appeals, and reversals, landmark opinions on the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments were pronounced by the Supreme Court.

No modern criminal case better illustrates all the stages of the American legal process from the point of arrest, to the trial, the appellate process, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court. The text clearly and concisely explains criminal and court procedures in the context of the Williams case, paying careful attention to the rights against self-incrimination and to counsel, and to the role of the exclusionary rule in our system of justice. --David M. Nissman, J.D.