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Thanks Izzy for the added info.  I totally agree that our drug laws are overkill (can't even get the old  actifed formula anymore because of the controls on pseudoefedrine hydrochloride) and the mandatory minimum sentencing aspects for some offenses need to be tweaked quite a bit.  It is tragic that the laws can be used to destroy an innocent life, especially one that's already being lived in misery.  I blame the prosecutor for pursuing the case.  He must have been desperate for a conviction to boost his record.  This day and age there's no need to take on the innocent to make one's self look good.  There's plenty of real criminal activity going on but of course it usually requires some work to prove the case.

I'll write the Gov. and Commissioners.  

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sat Jun 30th, 2007 at 12:32:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks, Gringo, for taking the time to write.

I have a theory that sometimes it's not so much conviction rates as they have so much time and trouble invested they don't want to look stupid -- they'd interviewed everyone, involved the DEA, travelled to New Jersey, and done months of surviellance -- I think after all that, they just feel it's impossible to drop the whole thing or they'd look like assholes, so they convince themselves more and more as it goes along, each action justifying all the previous ones.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jun 30th, 2007 at 01:24:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You could be right. By the time they/he realized there was nothing to the case, they had invested too much time and political capital (their thinking) to just drop it.  May have been the police and DEA pushing the prosecutor.

This case kind of reminds me of the Peter Reilly murder conviction. Reilly, a teenager convicted of killing his mother in the 70s, was basically brainwashed into making a false confession by the state police who were so convinced they had the right person that it caused a rift between the police and prosecutor's office for years when the conviction was overturned and the new prosecutor refused to retry the case.  I happened to see the Reilly case profiled on one of the TV justice programs a day or so ago.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Sat Jun 30th, 2007 at 03:32:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
False confessions are another of those really problematic areas.  To the regular person, they think it's a no-brainer, that they wouldn't confess to something they didn't do so why would anyone else?  It doesn't make any "logical" sense to people.  Whereas the reality is, false confessions are really, really common.  People "break" far more easily than we'd expect.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jun 30th, 2007 at 03:49:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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