King of the USA

By Roy D. Follendore III

July 17, 2002

The government of England, like the United States appears to be fearful of the ability of its own legal system and moving back into the dark ages. It has been reported that the Home Secretary, Mr. David Blunkett apparently wants to remove their 800 year old legal principle of double jeopardy. Double jeopardy prevents people from being tried twice for the same crime if they have been acquitted. This essentially means that the British Government can continue to prosecute until they get a conviction as long as there is "compelling new evidence." The dark side is that this means that the English public prosecution system will be able to essentially carry out vendettas during the life of a suspect.

It should no revelation to those that read the news that the United State Government has been moving in exactly the same dark direction. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher has stated that making secret the government's actions in response to the Sept. 11 attacks may very well lead America toward repression. Holding people in secrecy for undetermined amount of time without the civil rights or trial is the same as dictatorial and communist countries making people disappear. Like England American government is fearful of the results of civil and criminal justice by a jury of peers. But in our case, our Justice Department may be fearful "another O.J. Simpson trial" if accused are tried in public.

Let us assume for a moment that the Government is right. Assume the Government has the right to put people in prison without a right to a fair trial. Why have a Justice Department at all? Military tribunals can carry out the wishes of our Executive branch.

The fact is that there is that there are reasons for our system of civil justice. The foremost reason is that no one has ever voted for a King of the United States in a public election.

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