From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Sat Sep 07 2002 - 11:24:16 MDT
I am greatly disturbed by the two trails just completed this week in
Florida for the same crime. The prosecutor says that they weren't sure
who did it, so they charged both the adult suspect and the two boys in
separate trials. They then proceeded to present different theories in
the two trials. They let the juries decide whether each case was valid
or not. Luckily, they got a consistent set of verdicts with one
innocent and one guilty. Note that it was the same person prosecuting
both cases simultaneously, arguing different theories of guilt in each
case.
What disturbs me is the possibility that trials could have ended up with
a guilty verdict for the same crime using mutually exclusive theories.
It also seems wrong for a prosecutor to proceed with a case when they
are not sure who is guilty. This seems to set a bad precedent of
indicting people just in case they might be guilty and letting the
juries release the innocent ones later. It also seems that the
prosecutors didn't present the same arguments or evidence in both
cases. They selectively presented evidence for each trial as desired.
This implies that they lied about the evidence or suppressed evidence in
each case that might have helped the other. (For example, they
introduced the boy's confession in one trial, but not the other. They
introduced the man's alibi in one trial, but not the other.) It seems
obvious that he could believe in "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" in
both cases since he was arguing against his own theory in the other
trial.
This is a question that has come up here recently in response to
terrorism. If we aren't sure who is guilty, do we err on the side of
letting some guilty people go free, or do we err on the side of
convicting innocent people to life imprisonment or death?
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> Principal Security Consultant <www.Newstaff.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:49 MST