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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Professor Walsh, who organised the Police Governance and Accountability: Challenges and Outlook, said he had issues with the confidential Garda Code, said he had issues with the confidential Garda Code, how individual garda use their discretion and Freedom of Information which does not apply to the force.?WHY?
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  1. encourage changeFebruary 26, 2019 at 1:19 PM

    Damaging to the very fabric of our society': Higgins criticises Ireland's unequal justice system
    Higgins was speaking at the opening of Flac’s new Dublin office.
    Monday 25 February 2019 18:03 19,391 38
    PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has said that Ireland should not be satisfied with its current system of justice which is dependent on the ability to pay for it.

    Speaking at the official opening of Free Legal Advice Centres’ (Flac) new office in Dublin, Higgins said that effective access to justice is a basic human right arguing that access to legal aid is a crucial requirement of that.

    “A nation that aspires towards true equality, could not be satisfied with a system of justice that is reliant on the earning power of those who seek to access it, or accept a situation where those who cannot afford to pay for justice can be more easily deprived of their liberty, or for a view that a fair trial is a commodity is a right limited to one’s capacity to purchase it,” he said.

    There can be no doubt that those who are most vulnerable and marginalised in our society are also those citizens who are most at risk of encountering legal difficulties and most in need of a justice system that is accessible and that operates in the best interests of all.
    Flac was established in 1969 by four students who wanted to use their skills and knowledge to provide legal advice to those who could not afford to pay for it – an organisation Higgins says has contributed “so much to the achievement of a rights-based legal system in Ireland”.


    Speaking at the opening of Flac’s new office, the first in a series of events to mark its 50th anniversary, Flac’s chief executive, Eilis Barry, said that five decades later, justice continues to be unattainable for some groups in society.

    “We are proud of the work that FLAC and its squad of volunteers have done for the last 50 years in seeking to establish a comprehensive system of civil legal aid. However, Flac and its volunteers cannot begin to meet the current legal need it encounters on a daily basis.”

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    Last year Flac dealt with over 25,000 requests for legal information and advice to its telephone information line and advice clinics.

    It recently urged the government to make free legal aid available in proceedings involving the repossession of a home.

    “It is simply not acceptable, in a state that claims to be a democracy, that the most vulnerable section of our society is unable to access our legal system or is prevented from doing so in a timely manner. That is a situation which damages the very fabric of our society, entrenching and exacerbating inequality,” Higgins said.

    The homeless, the poor, those with a disability or who suffer from mental illness, immigrants, lone parents and those living or growing up in disadvantaged communities encounter many more legal problems than the rest of our population.
    Higgins added that when vulnerable citizens are abandoned to navigate a complex legal system alone, they are experiencing a grave injustice.

    “It is, indeed, worrying to know that figures released last year by the Irish Penal Reform Trust to the Oireachtas Education Committee showed that the majority of those currently in Irish prisons have never sat a State exam, with over half having left school before the age of 15.

    “It is also revealing that prisoners in Ireland are 25 times more likely to come from deprived communities, indicating a very clear link between social disadvantage and crime and punishment,” he said.

    FLAC’s new premises on Upper Dorset Street has a special historical significance as the playwright Sean O’Casey was born on the original site in 1880.

    O’Casey’s daughter, Shivaun, was in attendance today for the opening.

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  2. encourage changeJune 2, 2019 at 3:15 PM

    A Massachusetts man who served 32 years in prison before his conviction was overturned two years ago will be put on trial again, after a judge denied defense attorneys' attempts to throw out what they argued was faulty evidence.

    In a 39-page decision, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove denied Darrell Jones' attempt to suppress witness identifications from the 1985 Brockton murder of Guillermo Rodrigues.

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    Defense attorney Paul Rudof claimed police intimidated and coerced five eyewitnesses and used improper techniques when showing them photo lineups. He also argued that some of the witnesses were high on cocaine and intoxicated at the scene of the crime.

    Cosgrove ruled that despite using outmoded methods of photo identification that would not be permitted as evidence in court today, the police did not violate due process or prejudice witnesses into identifying Jones as the shooter.

    "Eye witness identification is an invaluable law enforcement tool in obtaining accurate convictions, but also the greatest source of wrongful conviction," the judge wrote.

    The judge said Jones' attempt to suppress the evidence "did not meet his burden that the identifications were suggestive or conducive to irreparable misidentification."

    The day of the murder, Nov. 11, 1985, Brockton police detectives interviewed five people who were in a parking lot on the rainy, near moonless night when Rodrigues was shot and killed.

    All of the witnesses described the killer as being several inches shorter than the victim. Jones was just an inch shorter.

    The eyewitnesses' testimony before a grand jury frequently contradicted each other and what they would later testify at trial. In the 1986 trial, none of the witnesses could identify Jones in court.

    Jones conviction was overturned in 2017 when another judge found the lead investigator had falsely testified in the original trial about a key piece of video evidence, a recording of a witness interview that had been edited. The judge also ruled that Jones had been denied a fair trial because the all-white jury was racially prejudiced against Jones. An investigation by WBUR into Jones' conviction led to a juror testifying that two other jurors said they thought Jones was guilty because he was black.

    Rudof, the defense attorney, called Judge Cosgrove's ruling "shocking and wrong," and that the decision "is based on testimony of a detective who three judges have now said intentionally lied at the first trial."

    The ruling demonstrates "that it's fine for the police to pressure witnesses to make an ID as long as the police themselves think they're doing the right thing," he said.

    The Plymouth County district attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, issued a short statement repeating the facts of the case.

    "Judge Cosgrove has issued a ruling denying the defendant’s motion [to suppress witness identification] and, as a result, the Commonwealth may now present those prior identifications in evidence at the re-trial of the defendant," the statement read.

    Jones has been out on bail since 2017, pending a new trial. He declined to comment, saying he wanted his attorney to speak on his behalf. Jones is attending a conference in Atlanta being held by the Innocence Network, an organization that provides pro bono legal and investigative services to those seeking to overturn their convictions. The meeting includes 200 people wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.

    Jones' new trial for the 1985 murder is scheduled for May 20, in Brockton Superior Court.

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