US vs Comstock – Life imprisonment without a trial?
The Supreme Court recently decided a case that subjects a person in prison to the potential of an unlimited stay behind bars. Using a unique argument the court voted 7-2 to allow civil commitments past the original prison sentence. This in effect makes every sex offender case a potential life imprisonment case!
As the present state of the law, this ruling now makes every sex offender case of this type a full knock down fight from the beginning. Anyone even under investigation on such a charge has to position themselves in such a way as to deny cooperation with the police at the earilest opportunity and to thereafter assume, because of social pressures, that the case will go forward toward the result listed above unless derailed by a criminal defense attorney. This is certainly not fair but just fact.
A skillful criminal defense attorney retained early in the process can increase the difficulty of the prosecution to piece together a case. In addition, the criminal attorney may also be able to expose the unreliability of witnesses or lack of supporting evidence so that the prosecution will fail to move forward on the case. What is this worth? Maybe everything if it’s your life that is in the balance!
Some thoughts from Anthony Partipilo, Supervising Attorney for America’s Criminal Defense Group.
