> > Justin,
> >Were you there during the uproar over Judge Baer's decision a few years
> >back? If so, what di the judge's think of the decision and the public
> >flogging he took (I think Lott led the charge)?
> > Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>Remind me. jks
The story: Judge Baer is the New York federal judge who is catching a lot of flak right now for having thrown out the police seizure of eighty pounds of coke and heroin for lack of probable cause.
Oh, yeah, that was 1996. I was in law school. Baer backed down later, too bad. If that's the best the the right wing can do for denouncing liberal federal judges who let loose bad guys on technicalities, it's not very common.
I know of a case in which guys who was busted in an illegal search with a moderate quantity of narcotics had the evidence suppressed by a state court judge. (He's suing the cops for violations of his civil rights in conducting the search.) (This is all public information, and I'm not saying whose case this is or how it might come out.) So maybe it happens more in state courts. I hear people get acquitted there too. Doesn't happen here.
jks
>
> >
> >
> > >
> > >How many cases are there really of serious criminals being released on
> > >technicalities?
> >
> >You mean because of constitutional violations? In the federal courts, as
> >near to none as you like. I read one Seventh Circuit case a few years
>back
> >that quashed an indictment of a real bad guy because of of 4A violation.
> >It;s the only one like that I know of. But basically the rule is, if he's
> >guilty, we'll find a way to keep him in jail. And we are a
> >defendant-friendly chambers, judge and law clerks all!
> >
> >And, analagously, how many "ticking bomb" cases
> > >are there of the sort used to justify torture?
> >
> >I've never heard a real life one.
> >
> >Both sounds like
> > >instances of pseudo-plausible but extreme examples used to justify the
> > >erosion of normal rights.
> > >
> > >Doug
> >
> >Yes indeed.
> >
> >jks
> >
> >
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