http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/17/btsc.rowlands/index.html


How can this possibly be allowed to happen? The boyfriend was acquitted due to lack of evidence and since his girlfriend did not know if it was him, no one could know, so the jury let him go free. Completely understandable.

But, 15 years later, he tells police he DID kill the baby to get it off his chest and was willing to pay the price of murder or manslaughter, he walks free because of a "double jeopardy" clause? This is certainly a case where the Constitution would need to be looked at differently. The double jeopardy clause in the Constitution was not written to apply to this kind of scenario. It was written so that a person acquitted was not repeatedly tried for the same crime. But when the person acquitted turns up and then CONFESSES TO THE CRIME, then it's a whole different ball game. During the time that the Constitution was written, had you asked the authors of of it about this scenario, they would certainly not agree with letting him walk.


And secondly, this raises another question about the "double jeopardy" law and its reverse. If someone is convicted of a crime and new evidence emerges showing the person is not guilty or deserving of a new trial, according to the thought process on this situation, why let the person go free? They've already been convicted, who cares if they are later foun innocent. If a confessed murderer cannot be tried again for a crime, why should a convicted person be freed or given a new trial for a crime? Does anyone see where I'm going here?

Apparently, the law and due process procedures in this country are in major need of overhaul or revisions!



OttoPylit

You get one shot a crime. I wonder of they could charge him with obstruction of justice or perjury?

Sometimes life is not fair. Something we don't know is what was the quality of the police investigation. But in the end I suppose its better to let one get off, than convict an innocent person, which apparently has happen. One report that I read was that estimated 1/3 of the individuals on death row in Illinois was wrongly convicted.