Vicinage Clause
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Vicinage Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law . . . ." The Clause has its roots in medieval English criminal procedure, the perceived abuses of criminal vicinage and venue during the colonial period, and Anti-federalist objections to the United States Constitution.
The Clause is one of the few constitutional criminal procedure provisions that has not been incorporated to apply to proceedings in state courts, along with the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment and (maybe) the Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The Vicinage Clause limits the geography of criminal jury selection to both the state and federal judicial district where a crime is committed.
The Clause has led to very little litigation, in part because of its overlap (as a practical matter) with the venue provision of Article Three of the United States Constitution and Rule 18 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Further, with the exception of the District of Wyoming, which includes the portions of Yellowstone National Park in Idaho and Montana (see below), no federal judicial district has ever included the territory of two or more states.
