Oh, what a tangled web we weave

Aug 04, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
John Da Silva’s attempts to justify nullification of verdicts handed down by juries in criminal trials are patently ridiculous.

There are very sound reasons for the manner in which these rules were structured.
The burden has always been on the state — that is, in civilized democracies — to prove its case beyond a shadow of doubt.

Since the premise is that an accused or defendant is innocent until proven guilty, the inability of the state to do that justifies the acquittal of the accused, regardless of the nature of the charge.

What Mr. Da Silva et al are championing are mechanisms that allow a state to punish its political adversaries beyond the reach of current rules and laws.

Those who are predisposed to constantly shift and move goal posts after each game or event do so solely for narrow partisan gains and reasons; and we should not be swayed or buffaloed by facetious arguments that they are touched by attachment to victims.

Victims come in all kinds, and the capacity to ignore those who are wounded physically or emotionally by the excesses or wrong doings of the state, or state actors, while waxing facetiously about others, is proof positive of how conveniently the influence of principle and morality can be asserted.

But, then again, we are talking about Guyana, where everything relating to right and wrong has to yield to what is partisanly convenient.

Robin Williams