Friday, November 18, 2005

Double Jeopardy, in Disguise

First it was O.J., now it's Robert Blake: "a civil jury decided Friday the tough-guy actor was behind the slaying, and ordered him to pay her children $30 million in damages." I have no sympathy for either of those low-lifes, but the actions taken against Simpson and Blake strike me as a form of double jeopardy. I thought so at the time of Simpson's civil trial; I still think so, now that the same thing has happened to Blake.

Not coincidentally, here's one of the provisions of my proposed Constitution:
A citizen of the United States of America may not be . . . brought before a criminal or civil court to answer for the same act or acts that had been judged previously, under any rubric of law, by any criminal or civil court of any State or the United States of America.
That provision dates from the first version of the proposed Constitution, which I published in the pre-blog version of Liberty Corner, five or six years ago.