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Being arrested due to a mistake by police is my only reoccurring nightmare ever since I was 13. Usually it is a bank robbery. Sadly one of my friends were arre

by baldfat 11y ago

Being arrested due to a mistake by police is my only reoccurring nightmare ever since I was 13. Usually it is a bank robbery. Sadly one of my friends were arrested and convicted of a crime with not one piece of evidence besides one person saying something about them. They could have plea bargained for 18 months but instead they thought I am innocent so might as well be found not guilty. He got 12 years.

adekok 11y ago
Uncorroborated accomplice testimony is insufficient to convict someone. See https://www.justia.com/criminal/docs/calcrim/500/708.html https://www.justia.com/criminal/docs/calcrim/500/708.html, among others. Why was he convicted? Because the law matters only when it's convenient. I used to believe that "ignorance of the law is no excuse". I no longer do. The people enforcing the laws (prosecutor, judge, police, etc.) are explicitly protected from misapplying the law. There are excuses for them for not knowing the law, or not applying it correctly. I claim the same rights as them. If ignorance of the law is an excuse for them, it's an excuse for me. And yes, on the bare face of it, your friend should have been found not guilty.
leaveyou 11y ago
I don't want to think what will happen to that "witness" after 12 years..
Tomte 11y ago
with not one piece of evidence besides one person saying something about them There's your evidence. Witnesses are evidence.
- venomsnake 11y ago
  No they are not. Humans are too unrealiable. Also some humans lie.
  - Tomte 11y ago
    You're operating with a very idiosyncratic and totally impractical definition of "evidence". So unless you start speaking the same language as everyone else, there's not much use in any discussion.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    That doesn't make their statements not evidence. It makes them evidence that can be refuted or doubted, but that's true of most evidence.
- baldfat 11y ago
  (Sorry Long Story) The witness was 15 years old with a history of making false accusations against both her brothers and two boys at her High School. She was found to have had mutual sex with both boys on the high school campus and those accusations were deemed false. Her brothers were never found to have done anything wrong also false accusations. She than made an accusation against my friend. All this past history that happened in the past year was deemed not applicable to her current accusations. Also what the accusations were changed every time for 6 months with different dates, times and locations and him being re-arrested multiple of times. That didn't matter because my friend couldn't verify where he was at all times the previous 5 months. BTW the accusations were made the Monday before my friends marriage. The state's expert witnesses for IT were the worst pieces of garbage spewing false statements. There was one conversation on Facebook that was of concern which my friend denied having. It wasn't an illegal conversation (This happened at 2 AM after he announced that he was driving two states away to propose to his present day wife) The IP address was not the same IP as my friends DESKTOP computer. My friends IP was the same the day before and the day after the conversation and for a month prior to that ocnversation. Experts stated that IP addresses are dynamic and change all the time so it is no surprise that the IP address was the same the day before and the day after but different for that one conversation on his desktop computer which was the states story, my friend has proven he was at his apartment at that time. Jury just has to believe whoever they are going to believe. Guilty and in the state a 2nd grade teacher forcibly raped two boys got 5 years. This judge gave him 12 years.

by baldfat 11y ago

adekok 11y ago

Uncorroborated accomplice testimony is insufficient to convict someone. See https://www.justia.com/criminal/docs/calcrim/500/708.html https://www.justia.com/criminal/docs/calcrim/500/708.html, among others. Why was he convicted? Because the law matters only when it's convenient. I used to believe that "ignorance of the law is no excuse". I no longer do. The people enforcing the laws (prosecutor, judge, police, etc.) are explicitly protected from misapplying the law. There are excuses for them for not knowing the law, or not applying it correctly. I claim the same rights as them. If ignorance of the law is an excuse for them, it's an excuse for me. And yes, on the bare face of it, your friend should have been found not guilty.

leaveyou 11y ago

I don't want to think what will happen to that "witness" after 12 years..

Tomte 11y ago

with not one piece of evidence besides one person saying something about them There's your evidence. Witnesses are evidence.

venomsnake 11y ago
No they are not. Humans are too unrealiable. Also some humans lie.
- Tomte 11y ago
  You're operating with a very idiosyncratic and totally impractical definition of "evidence". So unless you start speaking the same language as everyone else, there's not much use in any discussion.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  That doesn't make their statements not evidence. It makes them evidence that can be refuted or doubted, but that's true of most evidence.
baldfat 11y ago
(Sorry Long Story) The witness was 15 years old with a history of making false accusations against both her brothers and two boys at her High School. She was found to have had mutual sex with both boys on the high school campus and those accusations were deemed false. Her brothers were never found to have done anything wrong also false accusations. She than made an accusation against my friend. All this past history that happened in the past year was deemed not applicable to her current accusations. Also what the accusations were changed every time for 6 months with different dates, times and locations and him being re-arrested multiple of times. That didn't matter because my friend couldn't verify where he was at all times the previous 5 months. BTW the accusations were made the Monday before my friends marriage. The state's expert witnesses for IT were the worst pieces of garbage spewing false statements. There was one conversation on Facebook that was of concern which my friend denied having. It wasn't an illegal conversation (This happened at 2 AM after he announced that he was driving two states away to propose to his present day wife) The IP address was not the same IP as my friends DESKTOP computer. My friends IP was the same the day before and the day after the conversation and for a month prior to that ocnversation. Experts stated that IP addresses are dynamic and change all the time so it is no surprise that the IP address was the same the day before and the day after but different for that one conversation on his desktop computer which was the states story, my friend has proven he was at his apartment at that time. Jury just has to believe whoever they are going to believe. Guilty and in the state a 2nd grade teacher forcibly raped two boys got 5 years. This judge gave him 12 years.