IPFS News Link • Criminal Justice System
Take the Fifth -- And Face Life Imprisonment Without a Trial
• http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com,He may spend the rest of his life in that condition as punishment for invoking his unconditional right, supposedly protected by the Fifth Amendment, against self-incrimination.
Apart from the seventeen years he spent as an officer with the Philadelphia Police Department, Rawls has never done anything to threaten the public. He has no criminal record. He is suspected of possessing child pornography, which would evince an unspeakably vile appetite and make him a suitable subject of social ostracism. There is no documented reason to suspect him of committing an act of violence or exploitation against a child, which are among the worst imaginable crimes.
When an estranged sister claimed to have seen child pornography on Rawls's cellphone, police demanded that he provide them with access to the device. Rawls cooperated, and no such material was found.
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1 Comments in Response to Take the Fifth -- And Face Life Imprisonment Without a Trial
Rawls wasn't charged with a crime. The Fifth Amendment is not really technically applicable because there is no criminal prosecution in play, although it is oftentimes erroneously utilized and allowed in situations like this due to judicial interpretation and consequent precedent. . Rawls should be claiming the First Amendment right not to speak and the Fourth Amend right to privacy.. He should be demanding and reminding the judge of both the judge's duty to guarantee these protections in accordance with the judge's oath and the judge's lack of authority to order otherwise, and thereby convert the exercise of his rights into a crime. . This case is prime ground for habeus corpus.