Double Jeopardy!

[CounslerCoffee]

This post is not about Alex Tribec, or that crappy movie with that one chick and Tommy Lee Jones, I think it was called The Bus That Went To Fast.

Anywho, Britain is now years ahead of the United States. They're repeeling that old law that says that you can't be tried for the same crime twice.

LONDON -- The British Parliament on Thursday approved legislation to overturn "double jeopardy" protection for offenses such as murder, rape and armed robbery.

The centuries-old legal rule prevents suspects being tried twice for a crime and is enshrined in the legal codes of many of Britain's former colonies, including the United States.

Article

British rapist, murderers, and others beware: if they find your DNA, you are screwed.

*EDIT* You fiend! You moved my thread! Ah well, it needed to be here anyways, I suppose.

 

[Mystech]

Why exactly does this put the UK ahead of the United States? You are familiar with the actual wording of the Double Jeopardy clause, and not just the contrived plot of that movie, are you? In the US you can't be tried twice for the same crime, without new evidence coming to the table, in other words they can't just keep trying you until they get a conviction, once you're off the hook you're off the hook/once you're convicted you're screwed unless something new comes up that could be used as evidence for or against you.

If you watch Court TV, you'll see that there are plenty of cases in the United States recently in which rapists or murderers or what have you have been finally convicted, or proven innocent and released, after new evidence has been bought to the table years later.

Doubly Jeopardy protects people from being tried over and over by a vengeful state convinced of their guilt until a jury finally says, "Ok he's guilty!"

As for the movie Double Jeopardy, which I've never seen, but as i understand goes something along the lines of a Man frames his wife for his murder by faking his own death, she's tried and convicted, but escapes from prison, or is let out on parole, or something like that, finds her husband who is quite alive and is then free to kill him because she's already been tried for his murder. Double Jeopardy of course wouldn't be applicable in this situation because the first murder and the second are two totally different crimes, one was faked, and wasn't even a crime, and the second is a genuine case of murder which happened at a different time and different place.

EDIT:

DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Being tried twice for the same offense; prohibited by the 5th Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution. '[T]he Double Jeopardy Clause protects against three distinct abuses: [1] a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; [2] a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and [3] multiple punishments for the same offense.' U.S. v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 440 (1989).

I found this helpful little link which describes double jeopardy in America. http://www.lectlaw.com/def/d075.htm

 

[Tiassa]

From the American side of "2J"

• FindLaw: US Constitution - Fifth Amendment, annotations

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. (The Fifth Amendment to the United States of America)

What constitutes "due process" is a huge gray area on our side of the pond.

But such is the nature of "2J" in America.

As for the rest, I'm stuck on the shallow irony that it is the British, who gave Americans cause to resist 2J, are involved with this story. Hell, they are the story.

 

[Mystech]

Couldn't you just say what the hell you mean, or make an effort to be a little more coherent now and again rather than trying to sound so damned clever all the time?