Law in the US is based on Old English Common Law. It is called common law because it applies only to common people. While being rich does not necessarily place one above the law, being an official does.
Much of my criminal knowledge comes from Court TV’s Forensic Files.
“All suspects are guilty until proven innocent”, is for TV. In reality, it is – You are guilty until proven innocent. Cops will go to the forensic lab and say, we know we have our man, now give us the results that befit our conclusion.
“Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” is often heard of in criminal cases. It’s another thing that sounds good. In fact, if anything, civil cases require better evidence to proceed than criminal cases. It’s because the system is over-loaded, and judges love to drop civil cases like hot potatoes.
The reason the system is so over-loaded, aside from bad economy, is that attorneys, prosecuting attorneys and judges love frequent and lengthy vacations. Guess, they can afford them; while for many working class Americans, vacation, which in the US means no more than 2 weeks a year off, means spending time relaxing at home because you can’t afford to go afar.
No body, no crime. That’s generally the way it has been. Not in the US. Under pressure from victim’s family, they’ll take it to trial anyway, and the rest simply will depend on what the jury believes. With you, of course, you won’t have any jury of your peers.
A man is questioned redundantly about a murder, and 4 hours into it, he begins admitting, but he can’t name the murder weapon (because he didn’t do it). He kept guessing on one object after the other, until they told him what it was, and he finally named it.
A man’s wife is murdered. He doesn’t say a word to cops, and goes out and hires an attorney. It turned out at the end that he had nothing to do with it, but had he talked to them, one answer would have led to another, and before you know it, he’d be charged, and once he was charged, search for real killer would have ended.
Often you hear about terror suspects, and say, my goodness, these men are in there for 3 years without being charged. The truth is, the only difference with criminal cases is that you would have some formal charges filed (now a days upwards of 3 counts for a single offense), but you could be in there for years until you either post ever ridiculouly high bail, or plea bargain yourself to prison, or pay dearly for an attorney who plays golf with the prosecuting attorney and judge, or are finally tried.
It’s better to be born a dog than to live in an inner city in the US, constantly under police scrutiny. Most traffic stops are just a way for cities to make money.
There is a comon misunderstanding that in the US, you can sue the government. State and federal government are protected by sovereign immunity; which leaves city governments only without any such protection. But if you sue the city government, you’ll find yourself in county jail on 200,000 bond.
Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, you could report local corruption to federal authorities, but since the American hero Ronald Reagan’s presidency, all levels and branches of the government have merged together. Today, a few in the US Congress is all that remains of Forefathers’ vision of America they founded.
“Aware of the tendency of power to degenerate into abuse, the worthies of our country have secured its independence by the establishment of a Constitution and form of government for our nation, calculated to prevent as well as to correct abuse.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1809.