Warped Incentives

“Prosecutors have more power than anyone, in many respects, over the lives of the average person,” said Daniel Medwed, professor at the Northeastern University School of Law. “But there is almost no accountability, no transparency, and the public isn’t paying attention—that is a very, very combustible concoction.

Senator Rand Paul took a lot of heat from establishment Conservatives and some in the media for his unwavering stand against the Patriot Act.  The party line that emerged said that we are now vulnerable to terrorist attack.  Even Senator Paul, himself, said he was being accused of damaging America’s defenses against such attacks.

The nation's attention turned to Oregon a few years ago when a group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom seized control of part of a federal wildlife refuge.  The citizens were protesting the harsh sentences given to members of the Hammond ranching family.  The Hammonds were accused of allowing fires set on their property to spread onto federal land.

The recent arrest of the chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, of Chinese tech giant Huawei is a classic example of the United States legal system overstepping its bounds.  The CFO was released on bail in Canada, setting her up for a lengthy legal fight over extradition to the United States.  However, her arrest should never have happened in the first place.

Americans who follow the news have seen and heard much about Paul Manafort’s trial.  One of the remarkable takeaways from the trial was the judge’s conduct during the trial.  United States district judge Thomas Ellis II is a 78-year-old senior judge for the eastern district of Virginia appointed by President Ronald Reagan.  His courtroom demeanor is best summarized by what he said at one point: “I am a Caesar in my own Rome.”

When Bethany Webb’s sister, Laura, was killed in a mass shooting in 2011, she couldn’t imagine things getting worse.  But then District Attorney Tony Rackauckas of Orange County, California, took the case.  In his determination to impose the death penalty over Webb’s objection, Rackauckas used jailhouse informants to elicit damning statements from the defendant, Scott Dekraai, while he was in jail.  These informant-defendant interactions violated the constitutional right to counsel since no one is allowed to interrogate defendants without their attorneys present.

The following is the introduction I included in an appellate brief I am filing with the Court of Appeals in the State of Indiana.  My journey stems from a child custody evaluation for my divorce in the Indiana family court system.  On August 19, 2009, Dearborn County Circuit Judge Humphrey stripped me of the ability to see my three- and five-year-old daughters claiming, “The Court is most concerned about [Brewington’s] irrational behavior toward Dr. Connor.”  There were no restraining orders or police reports.  No calls to social services. Nothing.