4,500 Federal Crimes, plus Thousands more embedded in Federal Regulations. Then there are the State and Local Crimes and regulations, not to mention the twilight zone of various arbitrary codes and civil actions.
This is what my ancestors fled. Who brought this fresh hell with them? You get 300 million guesses. ♘
By GARY FIELDS And JOHN R. EMSHWILLER 9-27-11
For centuries, a bedrock principle of criminal law has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty. The concept is known as mens rea, Latin for a "guilty mind.This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent. Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them.
As a result, what once might have been considered simply a mistake is now sometimes punishable by jail time. When the police came to Wade Martin's home in Sitka, Alaska, in 2003, he says he had no idea why. Under an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, coastal Native Alaskans such as Mr. Martin are allowed to trap and hunt species that others can't. That included the 10 sea otters he had recently sold for $50 apiece.
..."I was thinking, damn, my life's over," Mr. Martin says.Back in 1790, the first federal criminal law passed by Congress listed fewer than 20 federal crimes. Today there are an estimated 4,500 crimes in federal statutes, plus thousands more embedded in federal regulations, many of which have been added to the penal code since the 1970s...
-Read on at above link.-
No comments:
Post a Comment