This provision of the Constitution may be very important to an innocent person sometimes. The importance of it may never appear to us until unfortunately we be wrongfully accused of a crime, and our life or liberty in danger.
Then the Constitution further provides:
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the [pg 124] right ... to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.”[69]
This is also very important. “Compulsory process” means an order of the court, commonly called “subpoena”, which is served upon witnesses by the marshal, or the sheriff, or other authorized person, commanding them to appear in court for examination before the court and jury as to the truth of matters involved in the accusation against a person on trial.
Here I wish you to recall the unfortunate fact that every little while somebody is complaining about our government as “a rich man's government”. It is often claimed that the poor have no chance for justice. The truth is that the rich and the poor stand equal in the courts. In creating the Constitution, it is known of course that someone might be brought before the court who was poor, without money, possibly without friends. He might be innocent, but in order that his innocence might be established it would be necessary for him to have witnesses who might live many miles away, who would not come into court to testify of their own free will. Therefore, there was inserted in the Constitution this provision, that every defendant shall have the right to compulsory process, commanding witnesses to appear, and there is no one so poor that he cannot have this privilege, because the United States—and in most of the States we have a like provision—not only issues subpoenas and compels the officers to serve them, but it pays the expense of serving, and pays the witness fees and mileage, so that the poor man has all of the rights in getting the truth before the court and jury that the richest may have.
Furthermore, in the same American spirit, when persons accused of an offense are too poor to employ counsel, the government will furnish counsel. The Constitution provides:
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall ... have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”[70]
There is no person so poor, or obscure, or friendless, that when he is charged with a crime which might affect his liberty or his life, he shall not have the right to a full, fair trial. Not only are his witnesses produced and paid by the government, but an attorney is appointed by the government to represent him, and help him establish his innocence.
This is a wonderful illustration of the paternal care which is manifested for those who may be unfortunate, and this is all because under our Constitution, liberty is a sacred thing, and it shall not be taken away except in punishment for a crime which has been proven in open court in a public trial before a jury, where the party has been confronted with the witnesses against him, where he has had a chance to furnish witnesses in his behalf and the aid of counsel in his trial.
Then the people who brought the Constitution into being, feeling that so far as practicable they should have control of the enforcement of law not only in criminal cases, but in civil cases, included a guaranty in the Constitution that: