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Show Judge Bunnell spoke Tuesday at Chamber of Commerce meeting At the regular Tuesday meeting of the Moab Chamber of Commerce at the SunDowner Restaurant, the guest speaker was District Court Judge Boyd Bunnell who spoke on judicial procedure and new developments devel-opments in the judicial system. Judge Bunnell stated that some trial judges are over-reacting to judicial procedure. As an illustration, illustra-tion, he discussed the application of the Miranda case to all other court cases stating, "Even if Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger had to appear in court, he would have to be given his rights before any legal proceding, under the present law." Bunnell went on to say that the District Court is an instrument of the people; subject to the will of the people. He said that, contrary to the opinion of some, the selection of judges should remain in the political system, though, as he pointed out, the selection of judges is removed from partisan politics. He explained that even though some trial iudees tend to be overly concerned with procedure, legal procedure must be roilowed to insure that each citizen is guaranteed guaran-teed the rights, to which he is entitled by law, even if he is obviously guilty. Judge Bunnell stated that the law must be applied evenly to protect the rights of all citizens. He went on to explain the exclusionary rule, which applies to criminal evidence obtained by illegal means. He said that the rule has been carried to extremes at times, but is still a necessary part of the legal system to prevent the abuse of police powers. Judge Bunnell closed by using a fictitious news article to illustrate the difficulties of sentencing, asking the audience to recommend a sentence for the defendant using only the information included in the article. He pointed out that additional information, such as a parole board report, can have a great effect on the outcome of a sentence hearing, when the sensational sensa-tional aspects of a crime may cloud the facts. |