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The Fifth Amendment dates back to the seventeenth century. It was first used in England to protect their citizens. The Fifth Amendment is designed to protect us basically the same way the English used it to protect them. The Fifth Amendment requires indictment by a grand jury on a federal offence unless the person is in the military and they commit a war crime during wartime. An indictment by a grand jury means that the …

…of many rules of evidence that binds trial courts, grand juries are not unrestrained by constitutional consideration. A witness is not entitled to be told that he may be charged for the offence he is being questioned. A basic purpose of the double jeopardy clause is to protect a defendant "against a second prosecution for the same offence after conviction." It is "settled" that "no man can be twice lawfully punished for the same offence."