Rights of the Accused

Although I have not handled a criminal law case in more than 20 years, your reports concerning the Los Angeles Police Department controversy have brought back to mind some basic tenants of Constitutional law.

We must continue to bear in mind that a criminal is someone who has been legally convicted of committing a crime. Those who decry what they describe as “the rights of criminals” are usually talking about the rights extended not to criminals but to persons who are merely accused of committing a crime and are awaiting or undergoing trial.

Although rogue police officers are, fortunately, in the minority, whenever one considers legislation or a ballot measure aimed at reducing the procedural rights of persons accused of a crime, one should ask the question, “If I were to be victimized by a police officer who lied or planted evidence, and arrested and tried for a crime I did not commit, what rights would I want to have so that I could protect myself?”

We must deal with this issue on two fronts. We must provide police departments with enough money to hire, train and equip the most intelligent, hard-working and ethical police officers possible, so that they are given better than a fighting chance to prevent crimes in the first place and, when crimes occur, to solve them and bring the perpetrators to justice.

At the same time, never forgetting that the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution came about because of abuses by British colonial authorities during the 17th and 18th centuries, abuses that, very sadly, are still being committed by some of those we trust to protect our freedom, we must remain zealous in protecting the rights of the accused so that the instances of innocent persons losing their freedom or their lives for crimes they did not commit are reduced to the absolute minimum.

ROBERT M. SAWYER

Ventura

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