OT Bush and Canada

From: whdawson <whdawson_at_localisps.net>
Date: Sat Nov 23 15:39:00 2002

> Eric Smith wrote:

> If we don't keep an eye on what Congress is doing, and use the courts to
> ensure that they keep our civil liberties intact, we will eventually find
> that we no longer have them.

For sure.

"If the government, police and prosecutors could always be trusted to do the
right thing,
there would have never been a need for the Bill of Rights."

        Justice Leventhal US v. US District Court for the Central District of
California
        858 F2d 534 (9th Cir. 1988)

As F. Lee Bailey once said, the major flaw in the American justice system is
that appeals
focus only on procedural errors, and ones guilt or innocence is never again
an issue after
the original trial, even if that trial reached the wrong result. To many
prosecutors have the single goal of winning at any cost, regardless of
whether justice is being done, the end result of which places too many
innocent citizens in jail. It's amazing how many "law and order" types
avoid this fate, for if more of their ilk unjustly ended up behind bars
there'd surely be some changes within the justice racket.

Bill

We cannot speak of democracy if we are not ready to play by its rules. The
main aspect of
democracy is the right of people to change a government if they do not like
it.

        Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran, August 28, 2002
Received on Sat Nov 23 2002 - 15:39:00 GMT