Sequelae of El Regeu v CCX

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Two issues that I want the Ziu to consider consequent to my experience as Public Defender in this case:

- should we have more explicit instruction on how to conduct "trials in absentia", i.e. on how to preserve the rights of the accused?

- should we explicitly introduce a plea of nolo contendere - or, in other words, a plea of "I do not admit guilt but I'm not going to offer a defence"? I still think that's the only ethical thing for a Public Defender to do when the State's case is overwhelming

And a broader issue based on the original case:

- whether the offence of "abuse of trust" should be codified into Talossan law, with whatever alterations might be necessary given Talossa's different situation from England and Wales; and whether, more widely, a nation where full political rights are available at age 14 would benefit from an "age of consent".

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

BUMP. Given the upcoming election campaign, I wonder what the other parties think about this? I honestly think the CCX trial revealed a few gaps and dangerous ambiguities in the current set-up.

Two issues that I want the Ziu to consider consequent to my experience as Public Defender in this case:

- should we have more explicit instruction on how to conduct "trials in absentia", i.e. on how to preserve the rights of the accused?

- should we explicitly introduce a plea of nolo contendere - or, in other words, a plea of "I do not admit guilt but I'm not going to offer a defence"? I still think that's the only ethical thing for a Public Defender to do when the State's case is overwhelming

And a broader issue based on the original case:

- whether the offence of "abuse of trust" should be codified into Talossan law, with whatever alterations might be necessary given Talossa's different situation from England and Wales; and whether, more widely, a nation where full political rights are available at age 14 would benefit from an "age of consent".

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It would be good to address these issues, and I support your general approach.  Would you like some wording suggestions?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

It would be good to address these issues, and I support your general approach.  Would you like some wording suggestions?

I thought the upvote would indicate a "yes", but maybe you missed that, lol. Is this coming and/or do you still want to do this?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It would be good to address these issues, and I support your general approach.  Would you like some wording suggestions?

I thought the upvote would indicate a "yes", but maybe you missed that, lol. Is this coming and/or do you still want to do this?

I'm sorry, my mother is in hospice care and I'm not able to be as engaged as I'd like. I've been living on the hospice couch for a while now. I'll still be happy to do this, but there will be a delay.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

It would be good to address these issues, and I support your general approach.  Would you like some wording suggestions?

I thought the upvote would indicate a "yes", but maybe you missed that, lol. Is this coming and/or do you still want to do this?

I'm sorry, my mother is in hospice care and I'm not able to be as engaged as I'd like. I've been living on the hospice couch for a while now. I'll still be happy to do this, but there will be a delay.

Very sorry to hear that. I'm happy to take over responsibility for this.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

So the first step would be to ask for comments on whether there is broad support for each of these three initiatives, separately:

1) explicit instruction on how to conduct "trials in absentia", i.e. on how to preserve the rights of the accused (and if so of what sort);

2) explicitly introduce a plea of nolo contendere - or, in other words, a plea of "I do not admit guilt but I'm not going to offer a defence";

3) whether the offence of "abuse of trust" should be codified into Talossan law, with whatever alterations might be necessary given Talossa's different situation from England and Wales; and whether, more widely, a nation where full political rights are available at age 14 would benefit from an "age of consent".

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

So the first step would be to ask for comments on whether there is broad support for each of these three initiatives, separately:

1) explicit instruction on how to conduct "trials in absentia", i.e. on how to preserve the rights of the accused (and if so of what sort);

2) explicitly introduce a plea of nolo contendere - or, in other words, a plea of "I do not admit guilt but I'm not going to offer a defence";

3) whether the offence of "abuse of trust" should be codified into Talossan law, with whatever alterations might be necessary given Talossa's different situation from England and Wales; and whether, more widely, a nation where full political rights are available at age 14 would benefit from an "age of consent".

Hmmm, a chorus of rampant apathy. So, I'll do what seems best to me.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Okay, here's what I've found so far:

1. Virtually everything on pleading is to be found in the Hearing Rules and Procedures. There is virtually nothing on it in law. So it seems that to be able to alter the law on pleading would require writing the rules on hearings into legislation. Would the CpI be okay with that?

2. On trials in absentia, I think Wikipedia's summary of how Czechia does it seems pretty fair:

The proceedings are then officially started by the formal delivery of charges to the defendant's attorney. If the defendant does not have an attorney, the court will appoint one. An attorney must in these circumstances be appointed throughout the entire proceedings, and will have all the defendant's rights. All documents intended for the defendant will be delivered to the attorney and the court must take "appropriate measures" to announce the trial publicly. Where the absent defendant subsequently appears during the trial, the proceedings shall continue in the normal way. The defendant may request that any evidence that had been presented in his absence be presented again; where this is not possible, he will be shown records of it and may comment on it. Where the case has ended with an enforceable judgment, the convicted party may request a fresh trial within eight days of the delivery of the judgment to him. The fresh trial may not lead to an outcome that would be less favorable to the defendant than the outcome of the previous in absentia trial.

So I do like the idea that if the defendant wants to challenge the verdict of a trial in abstentia, they may. I would only want discussion about the specific argument that was raised by some during El Regeu vs CCx, that the Public Defender was unethical for not pleading "not guilty". We need to establish that - as the ABA "Standards for the Defense Function" put it - "defense counsel is the client's professional representative, not the client's alter-ego." And in any case, if we allow an in absentia defendant to come back and challenge a ruling in person later, that adds a protection against negligent lawyering.

Another question is that in the Czech standards, the defense attorney has "all the defendants' rights" - including the right to plead guilty. As I keep saying, I would prefer that in Talossan law this be withdrawn in favour of a right to plead either not guilty, or nolo contendere. Thoughts?

3. As to a position of abuse of trust. In English/Welsh law, this makes it an offence for someone over 18 to initiate sexual behaviour with someone under the age of 18 over whom they have some kind of responsibility (for example, a teacher). I can personally envisage a position where a TalossAssistant, for example, might behave in a creepy and gross manner towards a younger person whom they're supposed to be helping. If we wrote this into Talossan law, we would have to be pretty specific about what a "position of trust" means, like s. 21 of the English/Welsh law.

Apart from that - given that the age of majority and of full civil rights in Talossa is 14 - we might decide whether we want wider provisions to shield younger Talossans from being sexually importuned by older citizens. It hasn't happened yet; doesn't mean it won't happen; doesn't mean that Talossa might not get into trouble sometime in the future if a creep decides to do something awful inside our country rather than outside it.

Again, I would like *lots* of people to chime in on these issues.

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

For my part, I think all this seems good. I don't really have anything to add.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Okay, I've finally done it

Trials in Absentia
Abuse of Trust

After a lot of thought, I've decided we don't need the nolo contendere plea; the Public Defender should just suck it up and plead guilty if necessary. But the CpI itself can amend the Hearing Rules of Procedure if they see fit.