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Show UTAH VOICES:Confessionsofa recovering homophobic. AA3 OPINION SUNDAY APRIL 6, 2003 Inside Drawn & Quartered AA2 Public Forum AA2 Russian View AA3 WWWSLTRIB.COM aNe OurV!IEW Good for the Soul he case was abouta man whofell down a hole. Or maybe he didn’t. Either way, a 400-yearold rule that was supposed to makeit harderto convictthe innocenthas fallen outoffavor in Utah.It is now for judges, attorneys,the public they serve and the press that watches them to make sure justice doesn't disappear down the samehole. The Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that there are other, better, safeguards againstusing bogus confessions against the innocent. So the court has,like the federal courts and those of several otherstates, dispensed with the “corpus delicti” rule. Latin for “body of the crime,” that rule held that evenif a person confessed to a crime, there could be no convictionunless the state cameup with independentevidence that there had indeed been acrimeto confessto. Likea lot of Americanlaw,the old rule cameto us from the British courts. This one, our court noted, was apparently created after three people were executed for the murder of a man wholater turtied up alive. The Utah case involved a much less serious crime.In 1995, a man said he had fallen down a Salt Lake City manhole that was missing its cover. Hefiled a claim againstthe city’s insurance and received compensation for his injuries. Six monthslater, with no apparent motivation other than an attack of the Furies, the man confessed that he had madeit all up. He was convicted oftheft and fraud, but appealed on the grounds thatthe only evidence againsthim, his own confession, wasn't enough. The Utah Supreme Court agreed that that was what the rule said and voided the convic- tion. But the court also decided thatthe old rule was a badidea, more likely to protect the guilty than to free the innocent. So now Utah courts will be guided by the more understandably named “trustworthiness rule.” Judges may now admit a confession into evidenceif it appears reasonable and unforced, in keeping with various U.S, Supreme Court rulings. When such a confession is in evidence,it will still be up to the jury to decide how muchweightto give it in lightofall the other evidence — if any. So the rule has changed. But the need for seriousjudicial skepticism ofall confessions, indeed all evidence, has not. Last year, five young men convicted in the notorious 1989 Central Park jogger case were cleared —after serving prison terms ranging from six to 13 years — whentheir pressured confessions were trumped by the confession of another convicted rapist whose DNAactually matched crime scene evidence.Earlier this year, evidence that confessions had been beaten out of murder suspects by Chicagopolice was a major factor in the outgoing Illinois governor’s mass commutation of death sentences. Andlast week,the convictions of 39 peoplein tiny Tulia, Texas, wereset aside when it becameapparent the drug cases against them were the cruelfantasy of one unethical and unsupervised nare, The corpus delicti rule wouldn't have helped any ofthose people. There were real crimes in New York and Chicago. There were no confessions — though there were somecoerced guilty pleas — in Texas. One fact cannotbe dropped down a hole. Justice cannot take anything onface value. Even confessions. Mercyfor Bears eddy Roosevelt knew whento spare a bear. Nowthe Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is tryingto followT.R.’s example. The story goes that the 26th presidentof the United States was out on a bear hunt. Things had not gonewell, and for days the prey eluded the hunter. Finally, in exasperation, the guides broughtan old bear to bay with hounds. Theytethered it and summoned T.R.to shootit. But Roosevelt did not think that was sporting. The president would not shoot it, but because the bear was injured, he ordered it put down. Thestory got back to the press, and a newspapercartoon inspired an enterprising toymakerto come up with thefirst Teddy Bear. Thevastpopularity of those stuffed toys ever since probably helps to explain the outrage that erupted last October when a DWR officer shot a droughtweakened bear cub outof a tree. Though theofficer was following departmentpolicy and orders from superiorsto kill the orphaned cub,heprolonged its suffering unnecessarily by failing to endits life quickly with a second shot. In response to an avalancheof public complaints,the state wildlife board this week adopted a newbear policy. No orphaned or starving cubswill be killed, and only the mostaggressive adult bears that attack livestock, pets or humanswill be shot without first attempting some other means to managethe animals. There is no question that the death of thelittle bear last October was outrageous. But neither do wildlife managers have an easy job acting as referees between humansandlarge wildlife, especially carnivores, as people encroach on wildlife habitat. The DWR should get credit for learning from oneofficer's mistake andtailoringits policy to err on the side of mercy. T.R. would approve. Uran's Inperenpent Voice Since 1871 TheSaltLakeTribune MuchIs Ridingon Revolutionary War CAIRO, Egypt — To read the Arab press is to think that the entire Arab world is enraged with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and to someextentthat’s true. But here’s what you don't read: underneath the rage, there is also a grudging, skeptical curiosity —a curiosity about whether the Americanswill actually do whattheyclaim and build anew,more liberal Iraq. While they maynot be | | | W1iitam Dean Sincueron ‘The Salt Lake Tribune ternoon with the American studies class at Cairo University. The profes. sor, Mohamed Kamel, summed up the before —the revolutionary own which mood:“In 1975, Richard Nixon cameto side of U.S. power. Let me explain: For Arabs, American culture has always been revolutionary — from blue jeans to “Baywatch” says the United States is upsetting the status quo Egypt and the government turned out huge crowds. Some Americans made — but American power, since the Cold War, has orily been used to preserve majority. They recognize | Lg Main St. Salt Laer Clty, Utah srt THOMAS FRIEDMAN fended himself by saying, ‘You can force people to go out and welcomea dominant theme in the steady oil supplies and a safe Israel, America continued to support the sta- resident and the biographer ofthe nov- tus quo and any Arab governmentthat “People here, particularly the chatter- preserved it. Indeed, Gulf War I simply elist fun of Nixon for this, and Nixon de- up, but rather to put it down so it will submit to whatever America and Israel demand. That's the edhe status quo here, keeps THE NEW YORK TIMES Arab media: This war is ing th place friendiy.Arab kings and simply another version of colonialism autocrats, . and imperialism. Al-Jazeera uses the Even after the Cold War ended and sameterms for U.S. actions in Iraq as it America supported, and celebrated, the does for Israeli actions in the West flowering of democracy from Eastern Iraq is under US. Europe to Latin America, the Arab “occupatior * and Iraqis killed are world was excluded. In this neighbor“martyrs.” hood, because of America's desire for As Raymond Stock, a longtime Cairo Naguib Mahfouz, remarked, foreign leader, but you can't farce them to smile.’ Maybe the Iraqis will eventu: allystop resisting you. But that will not makethis warlegitimate, What theU.S. needs to do is maketheIraqis smile. If you do that, people will consider this a ‘SUCCESS, Thereis a lot riding on that smile, Kamel added, because this is the first “Arab-American war.” This is not about Arabs andIsraelis, This is about America getting inside the Arab world —notjust with its power or culture, but with its ideals. It-is a war for what America stands for. “If it backfires Kamel concluded,“if you don’t deliver, sought to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait to restore the Kuwaiti monar- ing classes whowatchthe Arabsatellite channels, are so much better misin. formed than you think. The Arab media chy and the flow ofoil. Once that was generally tells them what they want to done,Saddam wasleft alone. but that your ideas are a fake, you don’t hear and shows them whattheywantto see. There is a narrative thatis deeply embedded, and no amountofembedded reaily believe them.or you don't know howto implement them.” And that is whyGulf WarIl is sucha shock to the Arab system, on par with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt or the Six-Day War. But different people are shocked in different ways. reporting from the other side will change it. Only a different Iraq can do that.” it will really have a big impact. People will not just say your policies are bad, In short, we need tofinish the peace betterthan westarted the war. NewYork Times News Service Bush’s Advisers Spar on War Approach The president and his war council did not expect so much heavyguerrilla resistance in Iraq. Andtheyreally did not expect 80 much heavy guerrilla re- sistance at home, But you can’t have transformation without provocation. This was a war de- that there had to be a wayto get rid of Saddam without making everyone on the planet despise America. The Washington Post reported on Monday that moderate Republicans were trying to do an intervention with the president to show him that hawks were giving him “bum advice.” signed to change the na. ture of American foreign The article was clearly referring to the Bush I realpolitik crowd of James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, policy, military policy and even the national character flushing out ambivalence and Lawrence Eagleburger and Powell and his aco- embracing absolutism. Astwo members of the preemptive Bush doc: trine's neo-con brain trust, Bill Kristol and Lawrence Kaplan, argued lytes at State. These pals of Poppy Bush are alarmed that the Hobbesian Dick in a book-length call for MAUREEN Dowp battle, The War Over Iraq: THE NEW YORK TIMES “Well, what is wrong with dominance, in the service of sound Cheney — who has been down in his undisclosed locations reading books about how waris the nat ural state of mankind the flamboyantly belligerent Rummy principles and high ideals?” So it should not be a surprise that and the crusading neo-cons have mes: the troubled opening phase of the war has exacerbated territorial and ideological fissures in the administration schemes, “There is a behind-the-scenes effort and the Republican Party, Democrats are muter than mute. plined Bush crowd into a bunch of Bush | team and the “back of the hand” Tom Prererarnon narrative, nottolift the Arab world Janes B. Stnuiany Editor cause they viewIraq as a congenitally divided, tribal country that can be ruled onlybyan ironfist Whose viewwill be redeemed depends oni howIraq plays out, but, trust me, everyone's watching. | spent an af- side of U.S. power, but they see it through their schismatics: There is internecine war fare between the “hold out a hand” View Arotinsions Secondis the shock of those Arabsin thesilent officials viewthis as a fool's errand be- this is the revolutionary Editor Fditorial Page Editor whole Arab region. Bush team would use its revolutionary powerto try to remake Iraq. Egyptian invasion of Iraq is something they've never seen desert has turned the usually disci Past Publishers real election there would shake the But thereis a third school: Egyptian officials, who are instinctively proAmerican but are shocked that the able to describe it, many Arabsintuit that this 0.S. But a dozen days of real war in the JouF. Rrrararnicn (1024-1960) Jown W. Gaitavan (1960-1989) Saucy O'Bwre (1989-1994) Dommac Waven (194-2008) To begin with, there is the shock of Arab liberals,still a tiny minority, who can't believe that America has finally used its revolutionary power in the Arab world. They are desperate for America to succeed because they think Iraqis too big toignore, and therefore a Bush 1 team. There's a feud between Donald Rumsfeld and someof his gen erals and ex-generals, and animosity between the Pentagon and the State Department. Colin Powell and his dep-utles wince as old alliances shatter and the Arab world seethes, and mutter eine merized the president with their macho by former senior Republican govern: ment officials and partyleaders to con vince President Bush thatthe advice he has received from Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz... has been wrong and even dangerous to long-term U.S. national interests,” the Post said, One former senior Republican off) cial noted: “The only one who can reach the president is his father, But it is not timely yet to talk to him.” This raised the odd specter of the president's being waged off from running a war and , en to Kennebunkport for 6 Metternichianouting inthe family cig arette boat. Scowcroft and Eagleburger could pix: W. down while Bar steered and Poppy explained the facts of inter. nationallife. The Oedipal struggle of the Bushes a father who was an ambassador to the U.N. and an envoy to China, a globe-trotting vice president and an in ternationalist president, and a son who was a Texas governor with little knowledgeof the world was boundto be aggravated by an invasion of Iraq notsanctioned by the United Nations. Here was a son actingto correct his father’s “mistakes” in the first Gulf War, when his father did not think he had madea mistake, but rather a great contributionto history The neo-cons egged on 43 to war in Iraq by writing, as Kristol and Kaplan did, that 41's foreign policy was “defective” and that Bush senior had urged Iragi Shiites and Kurds to revolt and then, afraid that lraq would break up, turned “a blind eye” when they did that after the war and were slaughtered by Saddam. When the Iraqi Shiites did not greet American soldiers with flowers and hugs last week, as the hawks had promised, the stung warriors once more blamed Bush 4) “Webear acertain responsibility for what wedidn't do in 1991,” a senior Americanmilitary commanderat Cen tral Command in Qatar told reporters “Welet them downonce. We're not go: ing to do it again.” Bush 43is busytrying to do some: thing his dad thought he had done. The tile of Bush insformed 41's book: A World New York Times News Service |
