From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Nov 26 2001 - 17:15:02 MST
> > Sorry, Mike, but when trials are closed, it's too easy to accuse
> > anyone of being anything, whether they are or not. PUBLIC trials
> > for all offenses are a fundamental human right everywhere, under
> > all conditions, without exception. Anyone who proposes closed
> > trials for any reason is an enemy of freedom and justice.
> Ah, public trials for all offenses, provided the accused agrees to
> surrender for trial with no caveats. If someone refuses to be captured
> and remains a threat, how far should others risk their lives just so
> they can have their trial whether they want it or not?
What does apprehension of the accused have to do with anything? If
the charge is sufficiently serious, and a judge has issued an arrest
warrant, then by all means an accused should be hunted down, physically
seized, and brought to trial whether he likes it or not, and if he is
killed in the attempt by a cop or citizen acting in self-defense, well,
that's OK too, though certainly less desirable. I've never said
anything different. Please stay on topic.
> > There are certainly some aspects of the American judicial system
> > that can be changed: jury selection, rules of evidence, many
> > procedural details. But openness isn't one of them: if anything,
> > American trials should be _more_ open: ALL of them, including
> > those for suspected foreign terrorists.
>
> Ah, so you think that jury members identities should be public knowledge
> for terrorism trials? How naive.
Yes, but I also think that (a) jury service should be voluntary, and (b)
conviction doesn't necessarily have to be unanimous. Given both of
those reforms the risk of retribution is minimized. In reality, though,
even under the present system criminals rarely target prosecutors, judges,
and juries; typically a criminal defendent who loses will blame his own
counsel, and occasionally one or more witnesses.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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