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... Drug Enforcement Administration. National Drug Control Policy Director William Bennett has declared that some indoor lighting and hydroponic equipment is purchased by marijuana growers, so retailers and wholesalers of such equipment are drug profiteers and co-conspirators. Bjornson was not charged with any crime, nor subpoenaed, issued a warrant, or arrested. No illegal substances were found on his premises. Federal officials were unable to convince grand juries to indict Bjornson.
By February, they had called scores of witnesses and recalled many two or three times, but none of the grand juries they convened decided there was reason to criminally prosecute Bjornson. In spite of that, as of March, his bank accounts were still frozen and none of the inventories or records had been returned. Grand juries refused to indict Bjornson, but the government is still penalizing him. TWICE PUT IN JEOPARDY OF LIFE OR LIMB: Members of the Mc Martin family in California have been tried two or three times for child abuse. Anthony Barnaby was tried for murder (without evidence linking him to the crime) three times before New Hampshire let him go. COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Oliver North was forced to testify against himself.
Congress granted him immunity from having anything he said to them being used as evidence against him, and then they required him to talk. After he did so, what he said was used to find other evidence which was used against him. The courts also play games where you can be required to testify against yourself if you testify at all. COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: In the New York Central Park assault case, three people were found guilty of assault. But there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime; semen did not match any of the defendants. The only evidence the state had was confessions.
To obtain these confessions, the police questioned a 15 -year old without a parent present -- which is illegal under New York state law. Police also refused to let the subject's Big Brother, an attorney for the Federal government, see him during questioning. Police screamed "You better tell us what we want to hear and cooperate or you are going to jail, " at 14 -year-old Antron McCray, according to Bobby McCray, his father. Antron McCray "confessed" after his father told him to, so that police would release him.
These people were coerced into bearing witness against themselves, and those confessions were used to convict them. COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Your answers to Census questions are required by law, with a $ 100 penalty for each question not answered. But people have been evicted for giving honest Census answers. According to the General Accounting Office, one of the most frequent ways city governments use census information is to detect illegal two-family dwellings. This has happened in Montgomery County, Maryland; Pullman, Washington; and Long Island, New York. The August 8, 1989, Wall Street Journal reports this and other ways Census answers have been used against the answerers.
COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Drug tests are being required from more and more people, even when there is no probable cause, no accident, and no suspicion of drug use. Requiring people to take drug tests compels them to provide evidence against themselves. DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERTY, OR PROPERTY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW: This clause is violated on each of the items life, liberty, and property. Incidents including such violations are described elsewhere in this article. Here are two more: On March 26, 1987, in Jefferson town, Kentucky, Jeffrey Miles was killed by police officer John Rucker, who was looking for a suspected drug dealer.
Rucker had been sent to the wrong house; Miles was not wanted by police. He received no due process. In Detroit, $ 4, 834 was seized from a grocery store after dogs detected traces of cocaine on three one-dollar bills in a cash register. PRIVATE PROPERTY TAKEN FOR PUBLIC USE WITHOUT JUST COMPENSATION: RICO is shredding this aspect of the Bill of Rights. The money confiscated by Sheriff Vogel goes directly into Vogel's budget; it is not regulated by the legislature. Federal and local governments seize and auction boats, buildings, and other property.
Under RICO, the government is seizing property without due process. The victims are required to prove not only that they are not guilty of a crime, but that they are entitled to their property. Otherwise, the government auctions off the property and keeps the proceeds. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining Witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. THE RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Surprisingly, the right to a public trial is under attack. When Marion Barry was being tried, the prosecution attempted to bar Louis Farrakhan and George Stallings from the gallery.
This request was based on an allegation that they would send silent and "impermissible messages" to the jurors. The judge initially granted this request. One might argue that the whole point of a public trial is to send a message to all the participants: The message is that the public is watching; the trial had better be fair. BY AN IMPARTIAL JURY: The government does not even honor the right to trial by an impartial jury. US District Judge Edward Rafeedie is investigating improper influence on jurors by US marshals in the Enrique Camarena case. US marshals apparently illegally communicated with jurors during deliberations.
OF THE STATE AND DISTRICT WHEREIN THE CRIME SHALL HAVE BEEN COMMITTED: This is incredible, but Manuel Noriega is being tried so far away from the place where he is alleged to have committed crimes that the United States had to invade another country and overturn a government to get him. Nor is this a unique occurrence; in a matter separate from the Camarena case, Judge Rafeedie was asked to dismiss charges against Mexican gynecologist Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machine on the grounds that the doctor was illegally abducted from his Guadalajara office in April and turned over to US authorities. TO BE INFORMED OF THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THE ACCUSATION: Steve Jackson Games, nearly put out of business by the raid described previously, has been stonewalled by the SS. "For the past month or so these guys have been insisting the book wasn't the target of the raid, but they don't say what the target was, or why they were critical of the book, or why they won't give it back, " Steve Jackson says. "They have repeatedly denied we " re targets but don't explain why we " ve been made victims. " Attorneys for SJG tried to find out the basis for the search warrant that led to the raid on SJG. But the application for that warrant was sealed by order of the court and remained sealed at last report, in July. Not only has the SS taken property and nearly destroyed a publisher, it will not even explain the nature and cause of the accusations that led to the raid.
TO BE CONFRONTED WITH THE WITNESSES AGAINST HIM: The courts are beginning to play fast and loose with the right to confront witnesses. Watch out for anonymous witnesses and videotaped testimony. TO HAVE COMPULSORY PROCESS FOR OBTAINING WITNESSES: Ronald Reagan resisted submitting to subpoena and answering questions about Irangate, claiming matters of national security and executive privilege. A judge had to dismiss some charges against Irangate participants because the government refused to provide information subpoenaed by the defendants.
And one wonders if the government would go to the same lengths to obtain witnesses for Manuel Noriega as it did to capture him. TO HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL: The right to assistance of counsel took a hit recently. Connecticut Judge Joseph Sylvester is refusing to assign public defenders to people ACCUSED of drug-related crimes, including drunk driving. TO HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL: RICO is also affecting the right to have the assistance of counsel.
The government confiscates the money of an accused person, which leaves them unable to hire attorneys. The IRS has served summonses nationwide to defense attorneys, demanding the names of clients who paid cash for fees exceeding $ 10, 000. Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of common law. RIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY IN SUITS AT COMMON LAW: This is a simple right; so far the government has not felt threatened by it and has not made attacks on it that I am aware of. This is our only remaining safe haven in the Bill of Rights. Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
EXCESSIVE BAIL AND FINES: Tallahatchie County in Mississippi charges ten dollars a day to each person who spends time in the jail, regardless of the length of stay or the outcome of their trial. This means innocent people are forced to pay. Marvin Willis was stuck in jail for 90 days trying to raise $ 2, 500 bail on an assault charge. But after he made that bail, he was kept imprisoned because he could not pay the $ 900 rent Tallahatchie demanded. Nine former inmates are suing the county for this practice. CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: House Resolution 4079 sticks its nose in here too: ."..
a Federal court shall not hold prison or jail crowding unconstitutional under the eighth amendment except to the extent that an individual plaintiff inmate proves that the crowding causes the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment of that inmate. " CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: A life sentence for selling a quarter of a gram of cocaine for $ 20 -- that is what Ricky Isom was sentenced to in February in Cobb County, Georgia. It was Isom's second conviction in two years, and state law imposes a mandatory sentence. Even the judge pronouncing the sentence thinks it is cruel; Judge Tom Cauthorn expressed grave reservations before sentencing Isom and Douglas Rucks (convicted of selling 3. 5 grams of cocaine in a separate but similar case). Judge Cauthorn called the sentences "Draconian. " Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. OTHER RIGHTS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: This amendment is so weak today that I will ask not what infringements there are on it but rather what exercise of it exists at all?
What law can you appeal to a court to find you not guilty of violating because the law denies a right retained by you? Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. POWERS RESERVED TO THE STATES OR THE PEOPLE: This amendment is also weak, although it is not so nonexistent as the ninth amendment. But few states set their own speed limits or drinking age limits.
Today, we mostly think of this country as the -- singular -- United States, rather than a collection of states. This concentration of power detaches laws from the desires of people -- and even of states. House Resolution 4079 crops up again here -- it uses financial incentives to get states to set specific penalties for certain crimes. Making their own laws certainly must be considered a right of the states, and this right is being infringed upon. Out of ten amendments, nine are under attack, most of them under multiple attacks of different natures, and some of them under a barrage. If this much of the Bill of Rights is threatened, how can you be sure your rights are safe?
A right has to be there when you need it. Like insurance, you cannot afford to wait until you need it and then set about procuring it or ensuring it is available. Assurance must be made in advance. The bottom line here is that your rights are not safe.
You do not know when one of your rights will be violated. A number of rights protect accused persons, and you may think it is not important to protect the rights of criminals. But if a right is not there for people accused of crimes, it will not be there when you need it. With the Bill of Rights in the sad condition described above, nobody can be confident they will be able to exercise the rights to which they are justly entitled. To preserve our rights for ourselves in the future, we must defend them for everybody today.
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Research essay sample on Property Without Due Process Trial By Jury
