Tipping evidence scales

Article Abstract:

The critical factor in Dr. Jack Kevorkian's guilty verdict in the death of Lou Gehrig's disease sufferer Thomas Youk was the pretrial evidentiary ruling that testimony in defense of only the assisted suicide charge, but not the murder charge could be presented. The prosecutors then decided to drop the assisted suicide charge, so Youk's survivors could not testify. Criminal case law shows this increasing tendency to allow trial judges to limit trial evidence so as to deprive jurors of a rounded view of the defendant's deciding to commit the acts charged.

United States, Murder, Criminal justice, Administration of, Administration of criminal justice, Kevorkian, Jack

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'Race profiling' inflicts injustice on individuals

Article Abstract:

There are two sides to using race profiling in criminal justice administration, with critics failing to recognize that crime occurs disproportionately among minority groups, while supporters of the status quo sometimes deny the phenomenon totally. The Constitutions's Due Process Clause protects the right of police officers to hold whatever views they wise, while the Equal Protection clause states that those exercising state power must enforce the laws on people as individuals, not as statistical representatives of their perceived groups.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration, Criminal justice discrimination

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Net ignorance is bliss

Article Abstract:

Telecommunications carriers and especially computer service providers should avoid all knowledge of the content of the messages they distribute, in the wake of a recent court ruling. The judge in Stratton Oakmont v Prodigy Services held Prodigy liable for defamation posted by a customer because the service had established sufficient editorial control to be a publisher rather that just a distributor. Some reports have poorly analyzed the decision and suggested services will exercise stricter control.

Computer networks, Libel and slander, New York (State), Bulletin board services (BBS), Computer bulletin boards

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