Tag: judge

The Use and Misuse of the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment and Canada’s Section 13 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

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Although Canada does not have a 5th Amendment like the U.S., it does have the ability to invoke Section 13 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that “a witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence”. Although the 5th Amendment does not exist in Canada, a collection of laws that function as the same purpose do exist affording both Canadian and U.S. citizens the right to make no statement so as not to incriminate themselves when being questioned. An individual cannot use the 5th Amendment or Section 13 as an absolute and unwavering protectionary device from any statement however. Discretion is provided dependent upon whether or not the person being questioned reasonably believes that disclosure of information could be utilized in a criminal prosecution or that it could lead to other evidence that may be used against that person in the future. In the US, an individual who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced cannot invoke the 5th Amendment. When an individual is able to leverage the 5th Amendment, their silence or refusal to answer questions cannot be used against them in a criminal case meaning a prosecutor cannot argue to a judge or jury that the defendant’s silence implies guilt. In Canada, Section 13 only protects against the use to incriminate prior compelled testimony and is not valid against the use of testimony previously voluntarily supplied

The Scientific Reason Conspiracy Theories are Subscribed to

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Conspiracy theories are adopted because those who believe them, produce an alternate frame of reality which tends to make sense out of a scenario in a manner which coincides with the world view of the person believing the propaganda. Within the discipline of cognitive psychology, a phenomenon referred to as the “Illusory Truth Effect” exists in which hearing a statement repeatedly, makes the statement appear more plausible. Scientists have examined this principle by having subjects read news stories, then distracting the subjects with unrelated material (e.g random surveys), then once again exposing the subjects to more news stories. Scientists found that when subjects are asked to rate the accuracy of news stories read during the second round, they are much more likely to rate information as credible if having seen it once before. For a news article or headline which has not been observed before, these snippets of information are only rated as true 18% of the time but for a news article or headline which has been observed before (e.g. prior to the intermission random poll), subjects are more likely to identify this information as factual 24% of the time. Social media is a great example of this principal being exploited. It’s not that logic and reason are being hijacked when people utilize social media to obtain news, it’s that participants within the social media ecosystem are not bothering to apply logic and reason in the first place, applying intuitive gut responses to news consumed. Surprisingly, scientists have found that when subjects stop judging intuitively, and begin using logic and reason, with evidence based argument and rationales, they become substantially better at determining truth from misinformation

The First Use of Forensic Science to Resolve a Murder

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Sun Tzu’s text the “Washing Away of Wrongs”, written in 1235 A.D., is the first text which records forensic analysis being used to resolve a criminal case. The murder of a farmer prompted a local judge to demand that everyone in the village lay down their sickle before him. While every cythe appeared to be clean, the judge watched for insects as he understood that insects would be attracted to and by consequence fly around within proximity of a blade with fresh blood still attached to it, even if the blood was physically removed to the point at which it could no longer be observed by the human eye. This innovative technique allowed the judge to figure out which member of the community committed the homicide with forensic certainty

The Advent of the Worlds First Parliament in Iceland

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When the Vikings settled Iceland, no monarch was installed, which forced these settlers to find a new system of government; democracy. The early decades of settlement were effectively without structured law, but after 2 generations, 36 leading farmer Vikings banded together to develop the concept of an assembly to govern Iceland referred to as the “Alþingi” (written “Althingi” in English) (pronounced “all-thing-ee”) in 930 A.D.. The council met once every year for 2 weeks to create laws, preside over and judge disputes, and appoint a legal speaker, whose responsibility it was to remember and recite the law. The Althingi convened at Þingvellir (written “Thingvellir” in English) (pronounced “thing-vet-lear”) which is a unique location as it is a gorge where 2 of the Earth’s tectonic plates meet and 45 kilometers east of what later became the capital city of Reykjavík, Iceland (pronounced “rake-yah-veek”). The term “Althingi” means “thing field” or “assembly field” in the Icelandic language. This form of government met for the next 800 years at this exact spot, even after merging with Norway in 1262, with the location eventually moved to Reykjavík in 1800. The Althingi is the oldest parliament in the world, which is astonishing as it is still functioning and currently running the country of Iceland as a whole