American Justice System

[xoxoxoBruce]

Federal Judge Alex Kozinski (9th circuit) has written a scathing indictment of the US justice system. Kozinski starts out discussing a number of myths such as that eyewitness testimony or forensic evidence is highly reliable. Business Insider gives a quick rundown of this part of the paper but they clearly didn’t read very far because the incendiary material comes later.
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Did Justice Department lawyers rend their garments and place ashes on their head to mourn this violation of their most fundamental duty of candor and fairness? No way, no how. Instead, the government argued strenuously that its ill-gotten conviction should stand because boys will be boys and the evidence wasn’t material to the case anyway. …Instead of contrition, what we have seen is Justice Department officials of the highest rank suffering torn glenoid labrums from furiously patting themselves on the back for having “done the right thing.”
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Under Imbler, prosecutors cannot be held liable, no matter how badly they misbehave, for actions such as withholding exculpatory evidence, introducing fabricated evidence, knowingly presenting perjured testimony and bringing charges for which there is no credible evidence. All are immune from liability. A defense lawyer who did any such things (or their equivalents) would soon find himself disbarred and playing house with Bubba. The Imbler majority seemed reassured by the possibility that rogue prosecutors will be subject to other constraints.
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What kind of signal does this send to young prosecutors who are out to make a name for themselves? I think it signals that they can be as reckless and self-serving as they want, and if they get caught, nothing bad will happen to them. Imbler and Van de Kamp should be overruled. It makes no sense to give police, who often have to act in high pressure situations where their lives may be in danger, only qualified immunity while giving prosecutors absolute immunity. It is a disparity that can only be explained by the fact that prosecutors and judges are all part of the legal profession and it’s natural enough to empathize with people who are just like you. If the Supreme Court won’t overrule Imbler and Van de Kamp, Congress is free to do it by amending 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The article I quoted is here.
The whole 42 page pfd is here.

[Gravdigr]

A lawyer actually said these words to me:

The reliable eyewitness is a creature that does not exist in nature.

[Happy Monkey]

Judge sends kids to juvenile detention for refusing to go to lunch with their father after they claim he hit their mother.

[glatt]

I don't envy her position. Why anyone would want to put themselves in the middle of nasty family disputes is beyond me.

Either the dad is an abuser and actually beat the mom. Or the mom is an abuser and is brainwashing her children against the dad.

Either way, I don't see how sending the kids to Juvenile Detention and keeping them from seeing each other is going to help them. I guess she thinks it will cleanse their palates and undo their brainwashing from mom. But if she really thinks the mom is the bad guy here, then why didn't she just give the dad custody instead of sending the kids to jail?

[Gravdigr]

Because judges are people, and, people are stupid.

[xoxoxoBruce]

We had a couple of judges like him that PA.

[Happy Monkey]

"Her" in this case.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

We had a couple of judges like him that PA.

What the fuck? Did I write that sentence?

[Clodfobble]

Here's the father's side of the story.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I still don't buy separating and jailing the kids is the right solution.

[DanaC]

Christ on a bike, what a fucking mess.

[monster]

I don't give a fuck what the parents did and which one is right, why are the children being treated as the villains? If they have been "brainwashed" that doesn't make it ok to force them to spend time with someone they fear. First, treat them. And treat them kindly.

[Happy Monkey]

The father's side is like Wolfcastle's goggles. It does absolutely nothing to alleviate the insanity of the judge's order, let alone the way the order was given - you're like Manson? You're gonna go to the bathroom in public?

[IamSam]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The article I quoted is here.
The whole 42 page pfd is here.

I glanced through the 42 page pdf and that thing is a shocker! The problem is that no one wants to read even 42 words these days - never mind pages. Some hack for some poorly written rag races through the material (apparently after having a few drinks or a few too many hits or whatever, and comes up with a "Reader's Digest Condensed Story" that would put even that sorry publication to shame. Here is one actual quote from the REAL pdf that dismayed me - probably because I seem to keep reading and hearing the same following facts and wishing they were false. They don't appear to be so far:

By any measure, the United States leads the world in incarceration. In absolute terms, it has more prisoners than any other country. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we have almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. China, with nearly 20
percent of the world’s population, has 16 percent of the world’s prisoners. Incarceration rates were not always this high in the United States. For the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, the rate was well under 250 per 100,000.88 Then, starting around 1980, incarceration rates started rising sharply with the advent of the war on drugs, mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws.
The difference in incarceration rates cannot be explained by higher crime rates in the United States. Crime rates here are roughly equivalent to Canada and in many categories lower than other countries. And the crime rate has been dropping in the
United States, as in many other industrialized nations. Yet, U.S. sentences are vastly, shockingly longer than just about anywhere else in the world.

The War on Drugs has had had more ill effects on this country than just about anything else except slavery and it's on-going legacy of racism. But that's for another post. Folks who are interested and have a little time should take a look at that shocking pdf. Thank you Bruce for providing it.

[BigV]

Another contributing factor to this kind of corruption is our system of for-profit prison systems. I think this is directly contrary to the public interest. A for-profit outfit will strive to maintain and increase their profit situation, and when it comes to prisons, that doesn't mean anything except keeping more prisoners longer. How is that in the public interest?