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the law is an arse...

strip for the law...
Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest

By ADAM LIPTAK

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs, but also public health and information about gang affiliations.

“Every detainee who will be admitted to the general population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection while undressed,” Justice Kennedy wrote, adding that about 13 million people are admitted each year to the nation’s jails.

The procedures endorsed by the majority are forbidden by statute in at least 10 states and are at odds with the policies of federal authorities. According to a supporting brief filed by the American Bar Association, international human rights treaties also ban the procedures.

The federal appeals courts had been split on the question, though most of them prohibited strip-searches unless they were based on a reasonable suspicion that contraband was present. The Supreme Court did not say that strip-searches of every new arrestee were required; it ruled, rather, that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches did not forbid them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

bloody politicians ....

Hi Gus,

I think you mean the arsehole lawyers who make the laws?

By the way, did you hear that the federal government has passed more than 300 separate pieces of legislation since it was elected?

Talk about over-governed!! What chance do we ordinary citizens have against such a legislative monster?

Do you remember when little johnny's treasurer (what's his name ... you know ... the bloke who everyone thinks is unemployable) was going to rationalise the federal taxation legislation (then more than 10,000 pages in length) but actually increased it volume? I'd hate to think how many trees it would take to print a copy now.

Bloody politicians!!

Cheers,

John.

 

close-range search of a prisoner’s private parts...

According to his complaint, Florence was riding with his wife and 4-year-old child in a BMW sports-utility vehicle when a New Jersey state trooper stopped the family for a traffic offense.

The complaint said the trooper discovered that Florence was wanted on a bench warrant in Essex County. The officer handcuffed Florence and placed him under arrest, allegedly ignoring an official document the man presented to show that he had paid the fine. Florence said he carried the letter because of a tendency of officers to pull over black men driving nice cars.

Florence was driven to the Burlington County Jail, where he said he was taken into a stall with a partially opened curtain, ordered to disrobe and made to lift his tongue, arms and genitals in front of an officer. He said he was transferred to an Essex County facility six days later and strip-searched again, this time along with four other men.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-02/jailhouse-strip-searches-backed-by-u-s-supreme-court.html 

appeal in a court of law...

 


1.2 Reasons for appealing your conviction

The purpose of a conviction appeal is not to retry your case. You can’t ask the court to hear your evidence again to determine whether you should have been found guilty. An appeal court can only set aside your conviction for one of the following three reasons:


the verdict was unreasonable or couldn’t be supported by the evidence;

the judge made an error of law; or there was a miscarriage of justice on any grounds (basis).

Unreasonable verdict


You may appeal your conviction if the verdict was unreasonable, given the evidence presented. Challenging a conviction on the grounds of unreasonable verdict focuses only on the weakness of the evidence. You must persuade the appeal court that the evidence was too weak for reasonable jurors to find you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.


For example, if the only evidence linking an accused person to a bank robbery came from an eyewitness who wasn’t certain she identified the correct person, the appeal court would probably consider changing the conviction.


However, it’s very difficult to succeed on these grounds for appeal. The appeal court is rarely interested in arguments about the credibility of witnesses or the importance given to various pieces of evidence at the trial. For example, you may think the judge was wrong to believe the Crown’s witnesses instead of you or your witnesses. But that kind of appeal rarely succeeds.


Error of law


You may appeal your conviction because errors of law were made at the trial. If you establish that errors of law were indeed made, your conviction may be set aside. Wrongful admission of evidence, a wrong interpretation of a Charter right, or a misdirection (giving the wrong instructions) to the jury on a crucial question of law are all examples of errors of law.


However, if the court thinks that even without the error the verdict would still have been the same, it won’t allow the appeal. Section 686(1)(b)(iii) of the Criminal Code of Canada permits the court to dismiss an appeal when the verdict couldn’t possibly have been different.


Miscarriage of justice


You may appeal your conviction because of a miscarriage of justice. If there are errors of both fact and law that the appeal court considers to be a miscarriage of justice, your conviction will be set aside. Examples of a miscarriage of justice include a jury member being biased or a judge refusing to provide an interpreter for an accused person who doesn’t understand English very well.

 

 

Read more:

https://www.courtofappealbc.ca/appeal-conviction-guidebook/step-1.2-reasons-for-appealing-your-conviction?ct=t(prev-page-link)

 

Note that "claiming a judge was baised" or that "gave rise to an apprehension of bias" does not appear in this list to place an appeal...

 

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