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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Twisted Legal System
Message-ID: <349@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 2-Sep-83 15:02:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.349
Posted: Fri Sep  2 15:02:21 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Sep-83 22:52:46 EDT
References: <2164@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M, Toronto, Canada
Lines: 34

=====================
I don't have any personal experience with the police system, but
my understanding is that police see convicting the criminal as
their goal (quite reasonable). If the criminal gets off, they
have "lost".
Dave Sherman
======================
I surmise Dave meant "suspect" where he wrote "criminal".
The police often seem to make this confusion, but I wouldn't have
expected a lawyer to do so.
The whole point about rules of evidence is to make sure that when a suspect is
finally convicted, it is BECAUSE s/he is a criminal. A person on trial
is often assumed by the public to be a criminal, just because the
police say so, and if too many "criminals" are acquitted, this would
ruin the police reputation of infallibility in this matter. We don't
allow torture :-( in the dealings of our police with suspects, because
it leads to easy confessions obtained from the wrong people. Nevertheless,
disturbing but believable reports come about even the "good" Toronto
police that they do use torture to extract confessions (in 52 Division,
at least). Rules of evidence can be carried too far, and result in
the acquittal of the truly guilty who then commit the same kind of
crime again. But I'd rather have that than find myself in the position
of trying to prove my innocence in the face of weighted and illegally
obtained evidence.

Just imagine yourself in the dock for something you haven't done, and
then think about your position on the admissibility of evidence. Are
you a "criminal" because you are there? And don't think it can't happen
to you -- you can't get hit by a car, either, can you?

Defending freedom means defending it for everyone, not just those you
like at the moment.

Martin Taylor