The Oregon initiative process needs fixing, as proposed by Sec. of State Phil Kiesling. The numerous bad laws which have been voted in recently by the public are the result of the failure of legislators to take leadership roles and address controversial issues. Instead of public debate in the Oregon Legislature, the initiatives are marketed to the voters using campaign funds from special interests - many from out of state. These bad laws cost the public dearly by misdirecting funds to prisons instead of schools and requiring lengthy court cases to corrct errors and constitutionalities.
This past week has included a couple of examples of Oregon courts reversing bad iniatives. April Fool's Day was a bad day for Bill Sizemore. M-62, the iniative law which guarantees unions the right to collect political $$ from public employee payroll deductions was OK'd by Oregon Supreme Court. Size had sued to have M-62 declared unconstitutional. Not only did Size's M-59 attack on public employee unions (which would have prohibited the payroll deductions) fail at the ballot box in 1998, this week he lost on M-62 in court.
Then we have Kevin Mannix's tough on crime bill, M-40, which gave prosecutors the right to insist on a jury trial despite the decision of the defendant to opt for trial before a judge. It also was rejected this week by the high court. Mannix wants to give prosecutors more power - in addition to M-11 and in spite of a mass of recent cases of prosecutorial misconduct revealed in the press. The Chicago Tribune series Trial and Error researched hundreds of cases of deliberate use of false testimony and fraud to obtain convictions.
The Dupage Seven is a now-famous Chicago case which charges seven DuPage County detectives and prosecutors of fabricating and withholding evidence in order to convict Rolando Cruz of murdering 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Cruz spent 10 years on death row in Illinois before being exonerated and released. This trial is underway and will have a nationwide impact if the defendants are found guilty.
The recent NYC police brutality cases fit right into the pattern seen in the Chicago Trib. series linked above. The same ethics code rules throughout the law enforcement industry - from dispatchers and guards to detectives and prosecuting attorneys. What the cop does with his nightstick and gun, the DA does with his grand jury indictments and multiple charges and plea bargains with dirty "witnesses" who perjure themselves to get a lighter charge. Sometimes the informant/witness is a former cellmate who has made a deal with the DA,that any "info" he gets which will put time on the other guy will reduce his own load. Once he has learned the other person's story well enough to make up an incriminating statement, he has something to sell.
The Knight and his Apprentice are working to present a coming series on abuse by DA's of the Grand Jury process, victims rights groups, and other areas of prosecutorial misconduct on The Don Quixote Society Website. Stay tuned
For a related piece go to "Crime lobbies and the media"