I believe wisdom to be a personal attribute and quite rare. I don't believe it can be related to society in general and specifically not to the judicial system. In a sense, the rarity of wisdom could be described as a good thing, because if everybody was wise, people would not have much to say to each other. [Just kidding, I know you are all wise and have a lot to say :-]
On Jul 13, 4:56 am, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > I mentioned the case of Nico Bento in another thread. My academic > career is over and I'm hoping to get on with something worthwhile. I > feel wisdom has deserted the system of our society almost entirely and > that we might glean some understanding of what wisdom might be by > looking at what it clearly isn't in practice. One of the categories > I'm looking at is miscarriages of justice. > > Nico Bento is a Portuguese man living in England. He was convicted of > the murder of his girlfriend four years ago and is now a free man. > She drowned in a lake and was a Polish woman of 26. The most > interesting facts are these: > > 1. There was no forensic evidence of murder. She was not strangled, > there were no signs of any struggle and her clothes were neatly piled > up on the lakeside, causing a passer-by to phone police. > 2. Bento called police to report her missing and try to get them to do > something. > 3. Her white handbag with a shoulder strap was in Bento's flat. > 4. She was depressive, working as a cleaner and had given up her > college course. > 5. There is CCTV footage of her walking along the river footpath > towards the lake just before she died. No one is with her, and to the > layman's eye it is obvious she is not carrying the said bag. This has > been shown on the BBC Newsnight programme. I could not see the bag. > 6. Bedfordshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service produced an > expert witness, Casey Cordell from Los Angeles tom prove she was > carrying the white bag in the CCTV footage. He said it could be > evidenced from a shadow on the ground. > 7. Bento was convicted on the grounds that the bag was in his flat > and the implication he must have been at the scene of the death and > carried it back. > 8. British forensic scientists, including John Kennedy, then of our > official Forensic Science Service, a world-renowned expert all > concluded there was no evidence of the bag in the CCTV footage. This > evidence was not disclosed to the defence and suppressed at the trial. > 9. Cordell, the US "expert" was a known fantacist and has since > topped himself. When asked to write-up his findings by other experts > he clammed-up and tried to character assassinate other experts. > 10. A reconstruction clearly demonstrates the "shadow" of the bag > claimed by Cordell is present without the bag being carried (it's of a > park bench) and the bag can be clearly seen in footage from the same > camera in similar conditions anyway. The CCTV footage of the night in > question is actually evidence of the non-presence of the bag. > 11. There is substantial evidence of a suicide risk despite police > ruling this out. > 12. There is no real evidence at all against Bento. What should have > been evidence of the eye in his support was turned, perversely, to > evidence against him, cops and prosecutors choosing to bend the case > against him. > > We not only convicted an innocent man, but persist in covering-up the > miscarriage of justice. Kennedy is subject to a 'gagging order'. > Cops claim the reconstruction is 'bollocks'. There is no explanation > of why vital evidence was not disclosed to the defence or why the > defence was so bad. In short, all the evidence in this case > demonstrates a massive cock-up and a conspiracy to pervert the course > of justice (even if a conspiracy of idiots) that should have been > prevented by fair play and adherence to the rules. Murder enquiries > of this kind usually involve a designated police officer handling > 'disclosure'. It should be utterly impossible to suppress evidence > relevant to the defence. There is a long history of similar cases, > including utterly fatuous 'ritual abuse' cases and dismal police > actions against 'terrorists' (classic ones of 'being Irish in the > wrong place' and 'shooting innocent Brazilians'). > > What I believe cases like this exemplify is a lack of wisdom and > integrity and the presence of some kind of 'dirty hands philosophy' > used to justify what is, in fact, an idiot ideology of power. I fear, > perhaps at the extreme, that this is "why" we are in Iraq and > Afghanistan and even that some "nightmare tyranny" is involved. It is > as though we dare not put the facts to public scrutiny and must > instead present a skewed case because the crooks and "evil" will > somehow triumph if "we" try to use open means and do not match their > secret cunning with ours. Virtue somehow becomes an 'idiot ploy'. > > What we need is for our system to be open to clear and patient public > scrutiny in order that we can act in trust. However difficult these > matters are, what is clear is that this is precisely what we don't > do. I suggest wisdom has lapsed to Machiavelli with the sad rider > that even he might well have been a satirist trying to open up dark > practices to public scrutiny. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
