More Death of Freedom

I’d forgotten that the bastards had done this:

The 800-year-old "double jeopardy" rule, which prevented anyone being tried twice for the same crime, has been largely abolished for serious cases under changes taking effect in England and Wales today.

In effect, you are no longer found innocent of an offense. Only not guilty yet. What a superb addition to the freedoms we enjoy, eh?

The list of offences now excluded from the double jeopardy rule under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 includes 30 different crimes, such as those involving Class A drugs offences, war crimes and hijacking.

Now don’t forget that this applies retroactively, to verdicts that have already been handed down. I would also suspect that under the Act, extentions to the list of crimes it applies to are simply a matter of a statutory instrument, meaning that a government of the future could play to the gallery (shocking thought eh?) by adding a new crime in 30 days, in response to some well known trial or other.

If you really want to get depressed, try skimming through the Act itself. The entire thing seems to be based on the idea that anything is justified if it increases conviction rates. The old idea that the rules, double jeopardy, hearsay evidence, previous convictions, jury trial, were there to protect us from them, has been thrown out of the window. It is very difficult to read the Act and then conclude that we still live in a free country. The thumb on the scales of justice is now firmly on the State’s side of the balance.