No More Secret Evidence

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 26 Jun 2003 12:00:00 GMT
From scopeny:
"The underlying moral principle of [the states' tobacco] lawsuits was: 'You are knowingly selling a product that kills tens of thousands of our citizens each year. We want a piece of that action!'" -- Dave Barry

From smith2004:

Everybody at Hogwarts is equipped with a device that's fully the equal of any .44 Magnum, which he or she whips out at the slightest sign of danger, and nobody thinks anything about it.

A wanded society is a polite society.

-- L. Neil Smith

From Chuck Muth's News & Views (I finished reading the book last night):

"Early reports are now in. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made U.S. publishing history for the biggest opening sales ever. Five million copies flew out of stores Saturday alone, U.S. publisher Scholastic says." -- USA Today, 6/23/03

Fred on Everything - Ethnic Purgation, Academic Disaster - some highly politically incorrect discussion of a "Whiteness Studies" course at the University of Massachusetts. Why Tyrone can't get a bank loan. And it ain't got nuthin' to do with the color of his skin.

Armed Liberal - Why Be an Armed Liberal? - for the same reason that you should be an armed conservative, of course. Self-defense is a bipartisan issue.

Dale Russakoff at The Washington Post - N.J. Judge Unseals Transcript In Controversial Terror Case BugMeNot - why we should never allow secret evidence to be used against anyone for any reason. [smith2004]

Mohamed Atriss spent six months here in the Passaic County Jail based on accusations by county prosecutors that he had ties to terrorism -- allegations prosecutors called so sensitive that they had to be kept secret from Atriss despite his constitutional right to confront evidence against him.

Today, the superior court judge who took the secret evidence last November unsealed the hearing transcript, revealing that the allegations were based largely on inaccurate information that Atriss and his lawyer said they could have rebutted, if only they had been allowed to see it.

"We are glad to expose these transcripts for what they are -- slanderous, hearsay, double- and triple-hearsay, unsubstantiated allegations," said attorney Miles Feinstein, with Atriss at his side in his law office. "It illustrates the dangers and irreparable harm that comes from secret evidence."

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