Posted on 04/09/2008 11:29:55 AM PDT by antioscar
The Iowa Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of a man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a toddler at the Des Moines Public Library. James Effler was found guilty of first-degree kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison for the October 2005 abduction and assault. Testimony showed that Effler lured the girl away from her baby sitter and stripped her naked inside a locked bathroom. Library employees found Effler and the girl and held him until police arrived. The court ruled on Wednesday that police ignored Effler's request for an attorney and that the district court should have suppressed statements Effler made to investigators. The court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
He wouldnt be requesting an attorney...
This is one of those cases where we don’t need the courts. We need Judge Dredd on the job.
Door gets opened, CCW holder looks into the room. “Stop”... I said “STOP”, BANG BANG.
[later]
Yes officer, I saw him in that room molesting that child and tried to get him to stop, when he wouldn't I had to act.
[Officer]
Thank you for your statement and thank you for saving the state thousands of dollars. Take this perv to the morgue boys, we are done here.
I hate sloppy cops.
However, it is even more important for citizens to be well-armed, so they can empty the brain pan of someone caught in such an act, in the perfectly legal defense of another.
“If it were my daughter, I’d definately want the guy on the street, hell I’d post bond if possible...”
Amen to that!
No shooting is too good, you step into bathroom and commence to beating this POS to death ( because he tries to attack you to escape ) then hold his head in the commode.
Happened just this way at our local Wal-Mart a couple years back when a pervert was caught molesting a boy in the john by a man shopper. Perv was saved by the cops who arrived 10 minutes into the beat down. Citizen was not charged nor sued by perv.
This AP/MSNBC story is a poor rewrite. Read the Des Moines Register's story on this. The cops weren't that sloppy. This is a bunch of liberal idiot judges giving a sexual predator another chance to ply his trade again.
WTF do you think Miranda is about?
"You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney..."
Law Enforcement 101, and the cops blew it.
yet the judges hurry off to their country clubs or wine tasting parties without a thought of the damage they have done to society.
__________________________
I do not know about this specific case but if there were a clear cut violation of Miranda rights, I would think the trial judge would have caught it, certainly the defense attorney would have brought it up then if it were valid.
What I fear is that like some other cases I have read about, if all the detectives swear under oath that they read the defendant his Miranda rights, if the defendant years later suddenly claims they all were lying and he suddenly recalls he asked for a lawyer then unless the police have some additional proof like a tape, the judges will take the word of the defendant over the police(just to be on the safe side).___________________
A young inlaw of mine is now a lawyer, but a few years back, I asked him if there was any responsibility on the part of the system when a guilty person goes free and harms more people.
He claimed there wasn’t, and that it was far more harmful if an innocent person is wrongfully convicted.
Let’s see - we can possibly wrongfully incarcerate someone, and that is worse, than letting someone go that brutally harms others.
At issue was whether Effler requested an attorney prior to his confession.
Effler’s attorney argued that he had, and that his statements made after that request should not have been used in court. Attorneys for the state countered that Effler’s request was “conditioned upon his going to jail,” which had not yet happened.
According to the ruling:
During an interview with a police detective, Effler requested a court-appointed lawyer “if I go to jail.”
The detective responded by saying, “Let me finish this and we’ll talk.”
The detective finished reading Effler his Miranda rights, and briefly left the room. When he returned, he asked Effler if he remembered his rights.
Effler said, “I already know them” and later admitted the sexual abuse.
The appeals court rejected prosecution claims that Effler had waived his right to an attorney until he actually had arrived in jail.
“The officer’s attempt to avoid telling Effler he was not going to be released does not change the fact that he was detained and would not be released in the foreseeable future,” according to the ruling. “The only reason he was not in jail at that moment was because he was being interrogated by this detective.”
***********
The cops did nothing wrong and they didn’t forget Miranda.
Just another liberal judge, imo.
yep
It's such a nuisance to follow the law.
If his request for a lawyer was conditioned upon going to jail, the condition as he meant it has been fulfilled... he went to jail... they should have given him a lawyer.
The cops thought they could pull a fast one, and they lost.
That's why I LOVE this place!~
He was read and indicated that he understood, his Miranda rights, of course.
He was provided with a lawyer, of course.
No one denied him a lawyer at any time, of course.
No one denied him access to a phone, of course.
He was free to call his lawyer at any time, of course.
This is obvious from the news reports, and he will just be re-convicted.
Just more liberal nonsense wasting our tax money to re-try a confessed child molester, who should have still been in jail from his previous record anyway.
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