Justice

I'm sure some jurist wag somewhere once wrote that the criminal justice
system is to revenge as the institution of marriage is to male sexual
desire - it formalises, and brings some sense of order to an innate desire
for something (righting a perceived wrong/propagating one's genes) while
curbing its potential excesses (mob rule/mass rape). I can't find the
reference though, as my copy of "the secret key to life" is at home.

FWIW I object to the death penalty, but only because I believe that "beyond
reasonable doubt" isn't a strong enough standard of proof to take someone's
life. If there were a way of determining absolute proof of guilt or
innocence (and DNA evidence isn't that), I'd be ambivalent, but I suspect
the number of cases in a year where this level of certainty is even
approached is vanishingly small - certainly not enough to warrant any
cost-saving argument

 

Hmm how about post a capital sentence the accused, now dead man walking,
is subject to some Mossad style interrogation to try and re-establish
innocence/or not. Mossad claim that they can have the truth from anyone
without removing body parts.

'Hog

 

I can see the problem in complex admissions. I wouldn't class interrogation
as torture though? has to be some dividing line.

 

I don't believe that 'torture' has anything to do with it, and that the
quite justifiable _habeas corpus_ traditions stretching as far back as the
Magna Carta in 1215, do. It's generally considered a Bad Thing that the
deprivation of liberty be allowed to continue without good reason (the
reason being thus 'demonstrated' by the accused answering in open court to
the charges laid before him). If it were just a question of not wanting to
be accused of torture, then the authorities would be able to just detain,
but not question. I predict that your country's moves to do just that will
be hammered by the European Courts.

 

Of course your "are" is edging closer to a "were" all of the time. Why
doesn't the government realise we could catch all of those terrorist easily
if only we'd untie the polices hands and let them kick in some doors at 3am
and use a bit of sleep deprevation / drugging / moderate physical torture in
order to extract confessions.

We could even have trials afterwards where all of the suspects always
pleaded guilty and said how sorry they were.

Oh how I wish I wasn't going to live in that country.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Well for a start, I don't consider the UK a particulary 'democratic'
country, but before you get on your high horse, know that neither do I
think that our own system is any great shakes either. Having said that,
I'd take a republican system of government over a 'constitutional
monarchy' any day.

The problem is that democracy itself is based on the myth of equality.
We're not 'all equal', and it's naïveté at its most ludicrous. I'm not
talking about divisions based on race, sex, gender, sexual orientation
&c. &c. &c.

I reckon that in the last ten years the work that changed my entire
outlook on life was _The Republic_ by Plato, and I'd recommend it to
anyone.