Monday, January 26, 2009

Better Policies on Torturing of Prisoners

We are very proud of our new President. We are very optimistic also that he will help America improve its image across the world. One of President Obama's first moves was taking a stand against the torturing of prisoners.

We understand that we can learn a lot of intelligence from Prisoners; however, we do not believe in the inhumane treatment used to achieve this goals. Kudos to President Obama for this move and prohibiting some of these techniques by signing an executive order on his second day in office.

Some may argue that the new policy toward interrogations does not go far enough. I say that we have already made progress considering where we were under the Bush regime.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

City of Oakland Fires Officers Who Falsified Arrest Warrants

Earlier this week the U.S. Supreme Court struck a blow against the Constitution . The court determined that evidence seized in a unlawful arrest may be used against defendants in some instances.

Well luckily, the U.S. Constitution has not been completely been disregarded. The City of Oakland fired 11 officers for falsifying search warrants . Officers had lied about drugs having been confirmed as drugs through laboratory tests. Lawsuits had been filed alleging constiutional rights had been violated.

Regardless of how Oakland got to this point, they are willing to remedy the violations by terminating the officers. That does show integrity and faith that our constitution despite being eroded does still exist to serve a purpose.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Supreme Court Rules Evidence in Improper Arrest Can be Used

Add another tool to the Prosecution's ever growing toolbox. The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that evidence seized in a bad arrest will not have to automatically be thrown out by the courts.

I agree with the dissent that this extremely weakens the exclusionary rule. I also have a major concern that someone wrongfully arrested on a technicality will not be protected. Imagine how many oops mistakes we will now see by the police.

In this particular case, a drug and gun-possession conviction of an Alabama man was upheld when a man was arrested only because of a computer mistake.