Monday, July 09, 2007
Utopian Ideals
One thing I want to make clear about C.A.P.S. I am not doing this to be anti-American... on the contrary. This web blog is meant to send up a warning signal. We have the greatest country on this Earth and the greatest society in the history of civilization. I just don't want us to lose track of our utopian ideals. You look at Justice systems in other countries. Without critiquing them individually let's just say there are certain nations who are similar and on par with us here in the U.S. whereas there are literally dozens of republics whereby their systems of Injustice make me cringe.
I watched a Special on TV the other night about a successful American entrepenuer in Nicaraugua who has gotten himself a scary dose of Third World Injustice. Eric Volk got convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend despite having 10 credible witnesses that put him hours away from the scene. He had additional corroborating evidence of computer instant messages and cell phone triangulation records that made it physically impossible for him to commit the murder.
However, the judge threw out all that evidence and ruled that it was inadmissable. She reasoned that the IMs didn't prove that Eric was the one sending messages from the computer nor that he was the one actually making cell phone calls from those areas near the relay towers along the route.
Not only that, but by throwing out the testimony of 10 sworn witnesses, she dismissed them all as liars. Instead she relied upon the one and only eye-witness testimony - that of a career criminal who was making a plea bargain to defray this murder charge from himself. He said he saw Volk's vehicle parked in front of the murder scene at the time of the murder. Not only was this absolutely appalling but it was totally ridiculous.
Eric Volk is serving 30 years in a Latin American hellhole because the politics of the region were stacked against him. His case was a public spectical so now his life is in danger because hits have been taken out on his life in prison and there is nothing the U.S. Consultate can do for him. I'm hoping that our Embassy will be able to negotiate either a release for Eric Volk or at least a fair Trial.
I take comfort in the fact that I don't believe something that outrageous could take place in our country - I'm not suggesting that America has become a Police State like Nazi Germany. I simply want to put a check on the trends that are in place.
Everyone around the world knows the United States is where the best opportunities are for achieving success. With that should also be the knowledge that Justice exists here above anywhere else in the world.
I watched a Special on TV the other night about a successful American entrepenuer in Nicaraugua who has gotten himself a scary dose of Third World Injustice. Eric Volk got convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend despite having 10 credible witnesses that put him hours away from the scene. He had additional corroborating evidence of computer instant messages and cell phone triangulation records that made it physically impossible for him to commit the murder.
However, the judge threw out all that evidence and ruled that it was inadmissable. She reasoned that the IMs didn't prove that Eric was the one sending messages from the computer nor that he was the one actually making cell phone calls from those areas near the relay towers along the route.
Not only that, but by throwing out the testimony of 10 sworn witnesses, she dismissed them all as liars. Instead she relied upon the one and only eye-witness testimony - that of a career criminal who was making a plea bargain to defray this murder charge from himself. He said he saw Volk's vehicle parked in front of the murder scene at the time of the murder. Not only was this absolutely appalling but it was totally ridiculous.
Eric Volk is serving 30 years in a Latin American hellhole because the politics of the region were stacked against him. His case was a public spectical so now his life is in danger because hits have been taken out on his life in prison and there is nothing the U.S. Consultate can do for him. I'm hoping that our Embassy will be able to negotiate either a release for Eric Volk or at least a fair Trial.
I take comfort in the fact that I don't believe something that outrageous could take place in our country - I'm not suggesting that America has become a Police State like Nazi Germany. I simply want to put a check on the trends that are in place.
Everyone around the world knows the United States is where the best opportunities are for achieving success. With that should also be the knowledge that Justice exists here above anywhere else in the world.
# posted by kidovid @ 11:10 PM 
