Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/07

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Re: Current Events
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 22:07:57 -0400

At 06:09 PM 9/7/1999 -0700, Roger Beamon wrote:
>Boy, this is the stuff that grates on the lay public. Most would 
>agree that, if adjudicated 'not guilty' of the charges, then, dammit, 
>the defendant is innocent! What you seem to be saying is that, 
>once charged, you will forever have your innocence open to 
>question,  even when the judge or jury says 'not guilty'! If that's 
>the way it is, it stinks! I'm sure that my simplistic point of view is 
>laughed at by the barristers, but as far as I'm concerned, they 
>have made the law so convoluted that it is easy to corrupt, and 
>get away with the corruption by virtue of our 'dumbed down' 
>public.

Uh ... Roger, this is the way it's been since 3 SEP 1189.  You often speak
for the "old" ways.  A tradition more than 800 years old IS one worthy of
respect.

This is not a new finagling by current folks.  It is the way it has been
for a long time.  Around here, in any event, the folk are more cynical than
you:  being acquitted doesn't mean you're not guilty, it just means the
government couldn't prove their case.  You get the respect due a smart
crook by the public, but no more.

I understand from friends there that this attitude is more pronounced in
Philadelphia, incidentally.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!