Comments on: Thought Experiment

By: zenpundit

zenpundit — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:25:58 +0000

Point taken, Jonathan. Ambition however, I think, manifests itself differently in appointive positions where the prosecutor is aiming at, perhaps, a Federal judgeship down the road, instead of elective office. Demonstrating sound legal reasoning and a moderate temperment would weigh more heavily in encouraging restraint there.

Perhaps Law schools should devote greater time to teaching ethics ?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:38:34 +0000

When have they not abused their power? The ambitious ones have always used big prosecutions — justified or not — as stepping stones to higher office. Giuliani and Spitzer are merely two recent examples.

By: zenpundit

zenpundit — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:29:31 +0000

Setting aside Mr. Nifong’s ethical deficits and deficiencies of character and judgment for the moment I have a brief observation. Mixing the stridently adversarial culture of the American legal system – which prosecutors are professionally obligated to rise above – with our anything goes local-level partisan politics, is a prescription for tempting DA’s to abuse their power.

By: EnlightenedDuck

EnlightenedDuck — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:30:36 +0000

Having voted in the last election in Durham, let me assure you that Durham counts as having an entrenched party – there were *very* few elections that were contested.

Last I checked, NC was a Red State, though Durham is a Blue County.

By: Ginny

Ginny — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:11:45 +0000

Jonathan & Reynolds are right. This turns on its head a long tradition (that was not without some basis) in which we see the justice system chew up the less powerful; in Twelve Angry Men the divisions were on class & ethnic lines rather than racial ones.

But some of our interest arose because we were long suspicious of the ideas of the Duke 88; this case demonstrated how pernicious ideas that seemed witty, speculative, interesting, could be when taken seriously. And we realized that some people actually did take these positions seriously – even when it meant a clear miscarriage of justice. It was just another of many jolts that brought home reality in the last few years.