Friday

When you know the judge...

So here's something hilarious: Judge "Sic" Ric Howard who I've attacked repeatedly on this blog as a pro-prosecution nut has his hands full with a high-profile case in which there is a confession that is absolutely clearly a violation of Miranda.According to this report, he's just delayed his ruling on the issue.

I don't know why he bothered. I'll tell you what he'll do: He'll supress, and he'll insure that the supression doesn't hurt the prosecution. Mark my words. Whatever he does, this will not be a dispositive issue. He'll do only what he absolutely has to while crossing the street to insure a conviction. If I wind up being wrong about this--I'll do something nice for Tom.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

He ended up supressing the confession, but leaving the evidence. I don't know the particulars, so I can't say for a certain if this is right or how much of a shill for the prosecution he is being.

Anonymous said...

Good for you on calling him out.

Anonymous said...

oh, c'mon, Feige.

If you were him, you'd probably do the same thing.

There's so much pressure on him to make this guy fry, he's gotta make sure it'll happen.

WHich, i dare say, is what all people in the justice system (cause of it's many flaws) do.

Try to work the system, to get what we believe to be justice as best we can get it.

Tom McKenna said...

I guess "shill for the prosecution" means strictly construing the law. He suppressed the statement (which sounds like it was the right call), but ruled that other evidence was subject to inevitable discovery, so is admissible. An unremarkable ruling all in all, and hardly an indication of knee-jerk bias for the state.

So the judge did the correct thing, which is what Feige seemed to predict he would. What's the beef? Probably nothing short of springing this monster who molests and kills children would satisfy some folks.

Tullamore Dew is the ticket if you wanna do something nice.