At 11:18 PM 4/2/2001 -0400, Seth Finkelstein wrote:
You appear to think I'm saying "Hey everyone, Declan's a collaborator". No. Rather, I'm asking "Why doesn't Declan get flamingly denounced as a collaborator?". Not because I want to imply you should be. Rather, because I'm trying to understand why it isn't happening.
James A. Donald wrote: Probably because his testimony is not very exciting, and making him testify seems more like an act of harassment against him, than anything very useful to the prosecution.
I'm fascinated that you view it that way. Isn't it clear why his testimony is useful to the prosecution? It's a key part of the Federal Complaint. I was going to ask if you think the prosecution got a subpoena signed by the Attorney General himself just for giggles, but that's actually been answered. It's not "exciting" testimony, but then a lot of trials are very boring ("Where were you on the night of the 12th?" "I was by myself", etc. etc.). Once the prosecution wants him to testify, then exactly because we have functioning Constitutional due-process rights, generally that testimony has to be in open court. And the defense gets a chance to confront the accuser. That's just how it works. Now, the defense could agree not to oppose Declan's testimony, but that would be foolish of them (in my view). Again. people seem to somehow have acquired the idea that the *prosecution* is fishing for something. NO. Their evidence is specified already. They want Declan in and out of court as fast as possible, and wouldn't have him in court at all if they could avoid it. It's exactly the fact that they can't avoid having him in court which is causing the headache. Because the Sixth Amendment says a defendant has certain rights, and those are not being waived here. Again, that is just basic stuff as to how the system functions. If we didn't have Sixth Amendment protections in it, none of this would be happening! __ Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf@mit.edu http://sethf.com