[WikiEN-l] Violent threats and Armed Blowfish

[Sheldon Rampton]

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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