The country is broken because the system is fixed.
Seen on a T-shirt of Occupy Wall Street protester on Bill Moyers,7 PM, Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
Second topic: Gabe Watson the Honeymoon Killer, was featured on “20/20” (ABC, 10 PM Fri, Mar 2, 2012). The newlywed couple went on their honeymoon to Australia and went on a scuba diving expedition. At 50 feet down, she began to sink deeper, and Gabe failed to help her. The Australian legal system has an obscure law, negligent manslaughter, to which he pleaded guilty. and served 18 months in prison.
He got out of prison and came back to the U.S., where the state of Alabama arrested him for manslaughter. The prosecutor claimed the motive was to collect her life insurance. It so happened that the beneficiary of the life insurance was not Gabe, and it was for only $35,000 dollars. Gabe had spent $10,000 on the diving honeymoon, and $3,500 for her wedding ring.
The judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence. More can be found about Watson here or just do a search for honeymoon killer.
I cannot understand how this came to trial here in the U.S. First off, he was convicted and served his sentence in Australia, so retrying him in the U.S. is a violation of the Fifth Amendment prohibition against being tried twice for the same crime. Second, the crime occurred in Australia, so the U.S. legal system does not have jurisdiction over the crime.
But the newsmedia has had a field day with this one, at the expense of Gabe Watson. It seems to me that he will never be free of the stigma of something that he claimed was an accident.