Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Caylee's Law

Several states are attempting to pass versions of "Caylee's Law," which makes it a felony to not report the disappearance or death of a child.  On the surface, the claim is to protect children and to better enable law enforcement to find a missing child and/or determine cause of death.  In reality, it's an attempt to punish someone a jury has acquitted.

If Scott Peterson had been acquitted, I imagine there would have been a move to make going fishing on Christmas Eve a felony, or leaving a 7 1/2 month pregnant wife home alone to take care of herself.  Or perhaps it should be a felony not to advise the in-laws when you buy a boat.  And of course, why not make adultery a felony?  I'm sure those are some of the reactions that would have resulted from the public condemnation of an acquittal.  As it was, we did get Conner's law, which was a totally unnecessary law in Conner's case but it did make politicians feel like they were doing something useful.

I'll not be surprised if someone suggests professional juries made up of people like Nancy Grace who know how to put circumstantial evidence together, no matter how irrelevant it is, to get that conviction.  I'm sure she'd readily accept an appointment as Secretary of Juries, with her cabinet-level agency responsible for appointing jurors who now how to understand evidence.  No more idiots who think the earth is flat serving on juries anywhere in America.  No sirree.

But I think what the American public wants is to simply do away with the trial -- after all, if the cops say the person is guilty, who are we to doubt?  We'd only need Judges to rubber-stamp warrants and subpoenas -- the cops can do all the rest.  Or maybe we'd still require them to have a DA sign off on their conclusion; after all, that would be a lot of layoffs, with all those defense attorneys being put out of work to add all the DA's to the unemployment numbers might not be a good idea getting this close to the election.

And no appeals.  God forbid anyone question the conclusion of a cop confirmed by a DA.  Besides, without appeals, no one would ever know they made a mistake.  No mistakes -- that would certainly promote faith in our justice system.

So, let's revise the system by totally doing away with not only juries but all trials, defense attorneys (such a bunch of scumbags, anyway), and appeals.

4 comments:

Bruce Dombrowski said...

I detect the presence of sour grapes here....:)

lsmith510 said...

I think it SHOULD be against the law not to report your child missing for 31 days. Not reporting a missing child and going fishing are just not the same thing in my opinion.

The guy next door said...

Who needs a law based on hours? what we need is training and certification.

Anyone wanting to give birth to a human being should be held to a higher standard than we require for other positions of responsiblity. This should take years of study, training, and certification. There are thousands of traffic laws,however it all boils down to the basic rule...to be Safe,Reasonable,Prudent.

Caylee is a victim of someone with no reguard to the basic rule.

Bruce Dombrowski said...

training and certification would be great, but then would we see the return of the chastity belt? good luck trying to keep young kids from screwing in the back seat of moms buick.....lol