On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 8:24 PM, Sheldon Rampton <sheldon(a)prwatch.org> wrote:
Todd Allen wrote:
In any jurisdiction which guarantees the right to
non-secret trials,
they actually sure do. I happen to like the idea that I cannot be
tried in secret if I'm accused of a crime, and that an accuser must be
confident enough of his/her accusation to actually come forward by
name. It would be a poor society indeed that allowed people to be
imprisoned on the basis of secret accusations by anonymous people at
closed trials.
It depends somewhat on the nature of the crime. For example, courts do
not disclose the identities of children who are sexually molested,
even though those children may be called upon to testify in court. In
some such cases, pains are taken to ensure that the victims do not
have to face the accused directly in court (for example, by using
videotaped testimony, or by using third-party testimony rather than
the testimony of the victim at trial).
--------------------------------
| Sheldon Rampton
| Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (
www.prwatch.org)
| Author of books including:
| Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities
| Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
| Mad Cow USA
| Trust Us, We're Experts
| Weapons of Mass Deception
| Banana Republicans
| The Best War Ever
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All of those things, as stated earlier, reflect poorly. Convicting
someone of a crime should be on the basis of an accusation by a named,
identifiable accuser who can be confronted by the accused (subject to
observation in the courtroom, of course, and intimidation and the like
should be strictly disallowed), not something else. One should never
be convicted or imprisoned on a basis like this: "Well who said I did
something wrong?" "Well we can't tell you that, but here's a scrambled
videotape of their accusation." "Well that's not true, I want to
cross-examine them! And I want to know who they are, what if it's
someone who has a grudge against me?" "Sorry, won't be possible."
</offtopic>
--
Freedom is the right to say that 2+2=4. From this all else follows.