The Law As If It Belonged To the People

The Declaration of Independence – It’s way past time to read it again.
#1 of several in a series

[A discussion of all the ideas contained in the complete document is way beyond the scope of my remarks here. This is a huge topic. I do believe that the whole document is worthy of discussion in our current political/legal environment, but I’ll leave that to you and other forums. The italicized text, below, is all I want to comment on, at this time.]

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”

The above quote includes only the first paragraph and the beginning of the second paragraph of one of the most important documents related to our nation’s founding. I believe that it has pertinence to our nation’s current situation, politically, morally and legally.

My observation and the questions that arise in my mind come from this idea: that the primary writer of the “Declaration”, Thomas Jefferson, and those others who were involved in the production of this revolutionary statement, directed at King George, expressed the belief that the foundation of our law is natural law and the purpose of government is not to grant, define or establish “certain inalienable rights” but to protect them. In other words, our most fundamental rights derive from our humanity, not government itself, not citizenship in our country, not our body of written law.

Set aside the fact that our history is full of evidence that “all men” who “are created equal” have been mostly wealthy, white males. Consider the words of the Declaration. Study the controversial concepts of natural law and “certain inalienable rights” (see links below) and see if you, as do I, see the beginnings of a way to make sense of our divisive contemporary situation and a possible path to a solution to the problem of being trapped in the “divided they fall” predicament.

More on this in the next blog posting.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/natlaw.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09076a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-theories/
http://jim.com/rights.html
http://jim.com/spooner.htm
http://www.zetetics.com/mac/natlaw.htm
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Locke.htm#TOC

BLOG #7

Old weather? What? Why should anyone care?

Do you need to know the weather for a particular day at a particular location in the past? Is the weather pertinent to a legal case? Or do you just want to settle an argument with your spouse?

The Weather Underground site at http://www.wunderground.com/ will tell you the weather at the closest data collection points for dates back through the early 70’s.

First fill in the search box in the upper left corner of the home page to identify the location for which you are searching for weather data. Hit “enter”.

Then go to the “History and Almanac” box on the page that comes up for the location you selected. Fill in the date of interest and hit the “Go” button. You get a page showing a summary of weather details for that location.

Some pages will give you more detailed data (hourly observations and seasonal weather averages) for that date and location; be sure to scroll down to get the extra data when provided.

Remember that the data you get is specific to the location and date you selected. Click on “View Current Conditions” to get the latitude, longitude and elevation for the data collection point.

Microclimates matter. Weather varies over time and, for a specific time, over geographic location and elevation, so, unless the data collection point is your real point of interest, you can only make inferences about the data being true for some other location, even close by.

You can triangulate by getting data from surrounding data collection points. For a recent case, I collected data for Boeing Field, Everett and Bothell to allow more reliable inferences about road conditions for a location near to, but outside of, Bothell.

Be sure to play with the site; it offers a considerable amount of interesting and educational information.

Blog #6

Because justice requires it

Justice doesn’t find the accused guilty or innocent until the trial is over, and maybe not even then. Has anyone ever been accused of a crime he or she did not commit? Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, with no contact with the outside world, you know the answer to that question.

Even before the advent of DNA testing, it was not unusual to hear about a person tried and convicted of a crime who was later released after new evidence was presented or original evidence was refuted.

I’ve often wondered how many innocent people have been executed or have been left to serve out their terms in prison because they didn’t have the resources or the good luck to prove their innocence.

Why are innocent people sometimes convicted?

Because of the fallibility of juries of usually well-meaning citizens

Because of bigoted, bad-intentioned juries

Because of the errors, intended or unintended, of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges

Because no system of justice is perfect

Because… Because… Because…

While our system of justice isn’t perfect, it is arguably the best in the world, if…

…if all players in the process are competent and do their best to fulfill their roles.

I firmly believe that if I do my job as the defense investigator and the police, the prosecutor, the defense attorney, the judge and the jury do theirs to the best of their abilities and with the best intentions, then justice has the best chance to be served.

For me the presumption of innocence is the critical underlying principle setting the tone for the process.

Anybody can accuse you of a crime, but for you to be held accountable for the alleged crime your guilt must proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a public court of law. It is my duty to play my role as the defense investigator competently and to the best of my ability because justice requires it.