'Safe'
Discussion of episodes currently airing in Un-American locations (anything that's aired in Australia is fair game), as well as anything else the Un-Americans feel like talking about or we feel like asking them. Please use the show discussion threads for any current-season discussion.
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I've always wondered about Miranda ("Anything you say can and will be used against you") -- WILL? No it won't I bet. Just odd.
I'm sad to see that the UK version is even less about the accused. Interestingly, this was brought to mind from watching an episode of Waking The Dead where they did something patently illegal (and would have gotten busted if this were CSI or L&O) as part of their investigation. But the dude got read his rights.
Waking the Dead is pretty damn good, isn't it? And they're always doing illegal stuff.
Waking the Dead is pretty damn good, isn't it?
Love it. It's like CSI without the glam. And with more protective clothing. And the sexual tension, though the platonic interactions are also great.
There's different wording in Scotland, Scots Law being different from English.
One of the parts I always liked about Homicide was that the detectives could and did lie to suspects, pull all sorts of shock and intimidation techniques, be annoying or mean or ghastly -- anything that did not physically harm the suspect for a confession. Sometimes even after the suspect had asked for a lawyer, the detective would be like, "Do you really want a lawyer mucking all this up? I'm sure you and I can work it out."
It was all in the way of proving the thesis that 99.99% of the time, criminals are truly dumb, and conversely that people will go along with a person in authority for a really long way before objecting. There was a first season episode (I think) where, to prove a point, Pembleton induced a person he knew to be innocent to confess to a cop-killing, purely by force of personality and rhetoric. (And then tore up the confession; he was just proving out his own cynicism to his boss.)
I notice the UK version of Miranda doesn't even mention asking for a legal representative (barrister? solicitor? Those guys who wear the funny wigs).
We have terrible problems with this kind of thing over here - not having a constitution makes it relatively easy to nibble away at civil rights.
London's antique "sus" law, used to arrest anyone they didn't like in the Thatcher years....man, that makes me nuts.
Jim, the US has a constitution. It isn't stopping John Ashcroft, so far as i can see.
I'm with Cindy on SMG. I can't imagine anyone else as Buffy; I think the role has her stamp all over it. But I also agree that the role hasn't been written very well recently.
You ask for a solicitor (no funny wig). The solicitor then briefs a barrister (funny wig) who represents you in court (if it gets that far).
You ask for a solicitor (no funny wig). The solicitor then briefs a barrister (funny wig) who represents you in court (if it gets that far).
Really? That seems convoluted! Why?
Paper I read made the case with the supreme court sound way more gray area--that they'd started to read the guy his rights, and he stopped them , and so then they asked if he had guns, and he said yes. (or something along those lines). And then he said because they stopped reading the rights when he stopped them, he wasn't properly mirandized. Ew. (Of course, at this point, who the hell DOESN"T know their Miranda rights?? Not that that's an excuse for cops to be evil, but...)
What if your solicitor is a transvestite? Then does he get to wear a funny wig?
Really? That seems convoluted! Why?
It is convoluted, but it's Her Majesty's law! (Which Australia has also inherited.) There probably is a reason for it somewhere in the dim past.