Safeguards for the Criminally Accused
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Status Quo Option: Keep the Existing Plank. For all platform categories
we have the option of doing nothing; that is accepting what the LP already
has.
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The LP Platform Currently Reads
The Issue: Instant-punishment policies deprive
the accused of important checks on government power -- juries and the judicial
process.
The Principle: Until such time as persons are
proved guilty of crimes, they should be accorded full respect for their individual
rights. We oppose any concept that some individuals are by nature second-class
citizens who only understand instant punishment and any claim that the police
possess special insight into recognizing persons in need of punishment.
We oppose reduction of constitutional safeguards of the rights of the criminally
accused.
Solutions: Cases must no longer be treated
as "civil" strictly to avoid the due process protections of criminal law.
Government must no longer be allowed to seize property for criminal offenses,
prior to civil or criminal proceedings. Full restitution must be made for
all loss suffered by persons arrested, indicted, tried, imprisoned, or otherwise
injured in the course of criminal proceedings against them that do not result
in their conviction. When they are responsible, government police employees
or agents must be liable for this restitution.
Transitional Action: Police officers must be
prohibited from using excessive force on the disorderly or the criminally
accused, handing out what they may consider to be instant punishments on the
streets, or using preventive detention and no-knock laws. The judicial system
must be reformed to allow criminal defendants and civil parties to a court
action a reasonable number of peremptory challenges to proposed judges,
similar to their right under the present system to challenge a proposed juror.
[If you think the current LP position on this subject is acceptable, then
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