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Steve Silberblatt
299 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10025
Phone (212) 663-1811
Legal Aid Society, Queens
Phone (718) 286-2406
e-mail: blattmanNY@aol.com
Steve has been a defense lawyer for a long time. He is currently a
Supervisor for The Legal Aid Society in Queens.
He has been teaching a wonderful
introduction to the Criminal Justice System at NYU for the last 10 years.
I know because
I have taken his class and loved every minute of it. The attached pages
are mostly taken from his class notes.
QUESTION: What is the connection between Orwell's theory of language as
expressed by Politics and the English Language and 1984, and
the reference to prisoners as "bodies" by the Corrections Dept.?
ANSWER
QUESTION: To be "voluntary" within the meaning of the Fifth
Amendment, a statement by a criminal defendant must be a product
of free will, unencumbered by threats or promises. Coercion of any
kind, whether physical or psychological, is prohibited, and a
statement found to be involuntary will (theoretically, at least)
be suppressed. That being the case, why is the Criminal Justice
System permitted to make promises (of leniency, e.g.) and threats
(of maximum time after a trial conviction) in order to induce
defendants to give up all of their constitutional trial rights,
including the right to remain silent? How can the Criminal Justice
System get away with violating the very constitutional rights it
functions to protect in order to conduct its everyday business of
plea bargaining?
ANSWER
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