Heres my two cents worth on the whole PDAF lists situation: When I was a law intern, my law clinic director used two movies as illustrations to guide us in prosecuting cases. First was A Few Good Men. Lt. Kafee, played by Tom Cruise, said It doesnt matter what I believe. It only matters what I can prove! The same is true with the PDAF case. While most, if not all, believe that all our government is corrupt, we cannot simply place our officials in jail because our society is one of law and such a society requires that we must first convict the accused in court. The second movie was The Untouchables. In this case, the Prohibition agents, led by Eliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, finally arrested and had Al Capone convicted on charges of tax evasion. Capone was the head of a criminal empire and masterminded all sorts of unlawful activities, murder and all. It was only when they secured a record of their financial transactions that the government was able to prove a case against Capone. The case against the three senators and co-conspirators is a landmark case because DOJ believes that the evidence collected, prepared and presented are sufficient to sustain conviction. As a lawyer and as a citizen, I want to believe that our justice system works. I want three convictions now rather than 100 acquittals later. The polticians listed in the lists are not obliged to defend themselves because no case is established against them. The only ones who benefit from this list circus are the ones already accused who are able to buy time and the media who make so much money from the ratings of the news items which do not really help in prosecuting, much less convicting the corrupt officials. I hope we lose interest in the lists soon and focus our limited resources in getting the already accused convicted. At least then we finally get the result that we want.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 08:38:28 +0000