New Legal News

 The system known as “voir dire” is the process lawyers  use to select jurors. Both sides have a chance to interview the jurors to determine those who would be a poor choice based on certain prejudices.

State and federal courts differ a bit on how they do this.

Federal courts, voir dire is performed by the judge presiding on the case.

State courts allow attorneys to interview the potential jurors for a period of time. After voir dire,  the counsel will use “for cause” to remove jurors who may deliver a verdict based on a personal bias.

If theres a rape case, one wouldnt want a juror whose wife had been raped because its highly likely that he couldnt differentiate between his wifes rape and that of the defendant. In this case the attorney would ask for his dismissal.

It can get  rather complicated, each side have challenges and rebuttals, but thats the gyst of it.

A newer form of technology works like this, with some minute differences between systems.

A special car is driven along the city, with a camera that scans license plates, and a radar type device that connects to gps satellites. When a target vehicle is found, the exact location is marked, and a towing service is dispatched via automated computers. At this point your car was stolen, by the police.

Thats the most extreme set up. Most are handled without the automated computer. Basically whats being deployed is a system capable of scanning 1500 plates a day, compared with the old numbers of 40. However, this service isnt just used byt the police, and the police themselves are using it for rather petty reasons.

In san fransisco, police unit drive around and scan for plates that have recieved parking tickets. Upon a match they pull over and attach a “boot” to the car preventing it from being driven. You must then go pay the amount and wait for the authorities to remove the boot before life may progress.

The problem with it is abuse. A rather extreme case was the Illinois women who had her car towed for 1.85 in library fines.

In recent years technology has blossom faster than ever previous in our nation and the world over. While it has proven useful to things like national defense, and medical science, its my fear that these tools will be turned against us.

One example is these nifty “recognition camera” systems deployed at major transportation areas. Places like airports, grand central station, etc. These cameras are able to scan the crowd and match the face to known terrorists.

Fantastic!! But if I know this, and you know this, does not the terrorist mastermind know this? Of course he does.

Yet you would be a fool to think that the government is going to let go to waste the billions of dollars in deployed technology. No, in fact I think its a fair assumption to believe they will lower the caliber of bad guy they seek. Perhaps add the facial data of some drug kingpins types, some murderers, arms traffickers and the like.

Before long that wont be enough…

One day you will be flying to your family’s emergency function and prior to boarding, be apprehended by police units. In the end, you will discover you owed on a parking ticket… Its not so far fetched.

In fact, the 2001 Super bowl game was completely scanned. Every person there was scanned as they went in the stadium, and matched against a database held by Washington.

How long before the technology is everyday common? Its at that point that the commercial industry will enter the fray, and records of our every movement will be available to the public for a price.

Scary.

Perhaps if the USA made prisons less “comfy”, we would have less crime and even less re-offenders. Many countries don’t have nearly the crime issues  we have. You could cite the Arab style laws in which a thief has his hands removed, thats one hell of a deterrent!

On a more humane note, we can review our ally, the Japanese.

In Japanese prisons you get 8 ounces of rice, and 18 ounces of tea per day. These prisoners stay locked up in small cells for 22 hours a day, and have oppurtunity to shower just 3 times a week. They dont possess televisions, or games. There is no festivities, no movie night, no swimming pool, etc. The shedule allows for just one visit per week.

In Japan, NOONE wants to be jailed. Its plain torturous.  However, their crime rate is very low,  especially for violent crimes.  Whats lower than that is their reoffense rate.  Ha, people who been to a Japanese  prison dont wanna go back… A system that works!

Perhaps America could learn a lesson here, tougher jails, shorter sentences, less burden on taxpayers, and a system with reform in mind.