It is axiomatic that preventing and dealing with crime is much more the business of the Republic than it is of individuals. Under our constitutional system, the primary responsibility for defining crimes, fixing punishments for the commission of these crimes, and establishing procedures for criminal trials rests with the Republic. It is certainly within the general powers of the State to regulate procedures under which its criminal law is enforced, including the law on arrest, investigation of crime, the burden of producing evidence, the burden of persuasion, sentencing and punishment, criminal appeals as well as prison conditions. The State is free to regulate the procedure of its courts in accordance with its own conceptions of fairness, unless in so doing it offends some essential principles of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental. The freedom of the State in establishing its policy in relation to crime is the freedom of a constitutional government and is limited by the requirement of justice and procedural fairness which is at the heart of our legal system. The power to declare a conduct as criminal and the power to punish crime generally appertains to the State as a sovereign body.