It's not the usual political subject, but for lovers of liberty it's important. As a former criminal defense lawyer, permit me a word about the arrest of a suspect in the Jon Benet Ramsey case.
When Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered, the Bolder CO. Sheriff's office quickly concluded that it was an inside job, and that someone in the family was responsible. It wasn't that there was any real evidence - just that they couldn't find evidence to the contrary. Soon the pressure for a solution in a high profile case and the well known tunnel vision complex afflicted law enforcement. They, and of course the tabloid press, concluded that one or the other of the victim's parents or family members were responsible, and when the family hired a first class criminal defense lawyer and followed his advice not to talk to the police except through him, newspapers, tabloids, tv reporters and millions of American's concluded that they must be guilty - otherwise, why wouldn't they cooperate?
If they had cooperated, one of them, probably Mrs. Ramsey, would have been charged, and possibly convicted, for the worst of all possible crimes, infanticide.Any factual mistake these emotionally wrecked people made in an effort to help would have been seized on,shown to be wrong, and presented as evidence of lying, and thus guilt.Fortuately they hired a good lawyer and took his advice. Ten years later a real suspect has been arrested and a new DA, freed from both the pressure to solve the case and the evil of tunnel vision which accompanies such cases has stated that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that anyone in the Ramsey family had anything to do with the crime.
Nice, but a little late. Mrs. Ramsey died last week.
Lesson: If someone close to you is murdered you are an automatic suspect. If you are innocent, don't talk to the police without a good criminal defense lawyer. If you are guilty, don't talk to the police without a good criminal defense lawyer. If you can't afford to hire a good criminal defense lawyer, don't talk to the police. Ask for one.