Chillicothe
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- Feb 14, 2021
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In this morning's Washington Post there is a thoughtful opinion piece by a law professor out of university of Iowa --- Maya Stenitz.
She offers a cogent and credible rationale that if the evidence is there in sufficient quantity and quality then putting Don Trump on trial would offer the country the opportunity to heal. Rather than further divisiveness.
Now look, Professor Stenitz ain't some college prof from corn country. She was raised in Israel, served at the Hague and on staffs for trials in Rwanda and in South Sudan. She has seen the international legal system address big and bad actors.
For the United States, at this time in our political zeitgeist....she posits this, in her own words:
"Some 30 years of research in transitional justice — the multidisciplinary study of how societies can constructively emerge from conflict and assert or reassert democratic values — provides evidence that, contrary to the understandable worry that a trial would be divisive, trials can instead help heal. In fact, they are considered one of the main methods to bring about “truth and reconciliation.”
"Examples of such “transitional trials” include the prosecutions of Slobodan Milosevic in the aftermath of the Balkan wars, and of Augusto Pinochet for human rights violations committed during his presidency of Chile. In a less dramatic example of alleged corruption (rather than human-rights violations and war crimes), former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing criminal charges in a deeply divided Israel. In Italy, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted of tax fraud."
"The reasons trials help promote reconciliation are many. Trials are a performative affair. They are, among other things, a drama in which conflict is enacted and resolved. As such, they can compel attention in a way that pierces the disinformation bubble that has contributed to this era’s divisiveness."
"Trials are about the establishment of truth through evidence, beyond reasonable doubt. The truth gathered and amplified through the drama of a trial creates a historical record and shapes the collective memory. Trials are a stage upon which individuals with firsthand knowledge can be compelled to testify about what they know, and must do so truthfully under penalty of perjury. Trials are as much about educating the public about wrongs that have been done as they are about seeking retribution for harms done (though they are about that as well)."
"At trial, the defendant gets to testify and be heard, and has the opportunity to compel the testimony of others. Milosevic, for instance, used his stage at The Hague to great effect.."
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I offer the above because it serves as a reflective and rationale view that ---if the evidence exists ---- then we must not offer 'protections' for criminal wrongdoing to political leaders that the man-on-the-street American is not afforded.
And, in the context of some of the more screechy postings we read on this venue.....it offers America a view that 'civil war', 'armed rebellion by MAGA and QAnon' is not inevitable and not the only course to address America's divisiveness-du-jour.
IMHO
She offers a cogent and credible rationale that if the evidence is there in sufficient quantity and quality then putting Don Trump on trial would offer the country the opportunity to heal. Rather than further divisiveness.
Now look, Professor Stenitz ain't some college prof from corn country. She was raised in Israel, served at the Hague and on staffs for trials in Rwanda and in South Sudan. She has seen the international legal system address big and bad actors.
For the United States, at this time in our political zeitgeist....she posits this, in her own words:
"Some 30 years of research in transitional justice — the multidisciplinary study of how societies can constructively emerge from conflict and assert or reassert democratic values — provides evidence that, contrary to the understandable worry that a trial would be divisive, trials can instead help heal. In fact, they are considered one of the main methods to bring about “truth and reconciliation.”
"Examples of such “transitional trials” include the prosecutions of Slobodan Milosevic in the aftermath of the Balkan wars, and of Augusto Pinochet for human rights violations committed during his presidency of Chile. In a less dramatic example of alleged corruption (rather than human-rights violations and war crimes), former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing criminal charges in a deeply divided Israel. In Italy, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted of tax fraud."
"The reasons trials help promote reconciliation are many. Trials are a performative affair. They are, among other things, a drama in which conflict is enacted and resolved. As such, they can compel attention in a way that pierces the disinformation bubble that has contributed to this era’s divisiveness."
"Trials are about the establishment of truth through evidence, beyond reasonable doubt. The truth gathered and amplified through the drama of a trial creates a historical record and shapes the collective memory. Trials are a stage upon which individuals with firsthand knowledge can be compelled to testify about what they know, and must do so truthfully under penalty of perjury. Trials are as much about educating the public about wrongs that have been done as they are about seeking retribution for harms done (though they are about that as well)."
"At trial, the defendant gets to testify and be heard, and has the opportunity to compel the testimony of others. Milosevic, for instance, used his stage at The Hague to great effect.."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I offer the above because it serves as a reflective and rationale view that ---if the evidence exists ---- then we must not offer 'protections' for criminal wrongdoing to political leaders that the man-on-the-street American is not afforded.
And, in the context of some of the more screechy postings we read on this venue.....it offers America a view that 'civil war', 'armed rebellion by MAGA and QAnon' is not inevitable and not the only course to address America's divisiveness-du-jour.
IMHO
