Courts Putting Hot-Button Words on Ice

The National Law Journal ^ | June 16, 2008 | Tresa Baldas

[Aristotelian]

Judges are banning terms such as 'rape' and 'victim' as prejudicial to defendants

Call it the age of the Loaded Word.

A steadily increasing number of courts across the United States are prohibiting witnesses and victims from uttering certain words in front of a jury, banning everything from the words "rape" to "victim" to "crime scene."

Prosecutors and victims' rights advocates nationwide claim the courts are going too far in trying to cleanse witness testimony, all to protect a defendant's right to a fair trial. Concerns and fears over language restrictions have been percolating ever since judges in Nebraska and Missouri last year banned the word "rape" during rape trials.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg, claim critics, who say courts telling witnesses what words they can and can't say is a much larger trend than they had realized. In addition to "rape," courts also have banned the terms "homicide," "drunk," "victim," "murderer," "killer" and "crime scene."

"I've gotten a flood of e-mails saying, 'Wow, you should see the number of times that this is happening in our jurisdiction,' " said Joshua Marquis, vice president of the National District Attorneys Association, who strongly objects to censoring witnesses, especially victims. "It's absurd. It's dangerous. And it's growing."

INSULTING WITNESSES?

Marquis, who is the district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore., said courts telling witnesses and victims how to tell their story insults them, as well as the intelligence of jurors.

"You have a woman who's been raped and she has to say that she had sexual intercourse with the man, rather than calling him her attacker?" Marquis said. "I think this is going 50 years back in our legal evolution."

[Alkhin]

To me, this is the perfect set up for Islamic takeover - Islamicists excell in parsing words and eradicating the meaning. To take the sting out of words like rape and murder is to make them legal and open the way for Islam to pillage women with impunity.

Beware.

[kitkat]

1984

Excellent post. Thank you.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Like everything else in our culture, another example of dumbing down reality.

Remember:

BUMS are now HOMELESS.

DRUG ADDICTS AND DRUNKS are now SUBSTANCE ABUSERS. etc..............

[95 Bravo]

“I’d rather they stuck around for the tar and feathers.”
I have something far more drastic- and permanent- than tar & feathers in mind.
Judicial activism is strangling justice in America.

[EternalVigilance]

Judicial activism is strangling justice in America.

Indeed.

[EternalVigilance]

They have forgotten one of the most important premises that civilization is built upon:

“Words mean things.”

[polymuser]

'Judge' has such a...judgmental ring to it. We should call them something else, too.

[definitelynotaliberal]

Do you think your theory would hold up in the case of Mayors, as well? The mayor of Minneapolis removed the word rape from the police code and replaced it with involuntary deviant sexual intercourse probably with a view to treating it as a disease rather than a crime.

How do I love liberals? Let me count the ways.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The mayor of Minneapolis removed the word rape from the police code and replaced it with involuntary deviant sexual intercourse probably with a view to treating it as a disease rather than a crime."

Rapists are diseased, but it's a malady easily cured with a couple of these pills.