Terry Mitchell

The Absolute Right to Face One’s Accuser



Posted: Friday, November 19, 2010

by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com

Brian Mitchell, the primary defendant in the on-going Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial, was recently tossed out of the courtroom for singing hymns during the proceedings. However, I believe this was a clear violation of his constitutional rights.

The U.S. Constitution provides us the right to face our accusers in a court of law. This right is absolute. The framers of the Constitution did not carve out any exceptions to this rule. There are no ifs, ands, or buts associated with it. It doesn't say this right is nullified if you are disruptive in the courtroom, for example.

Mr. Mitchell could very easily have been gagged (with tape or whatever over his mouth) and restrained and allowed to remain in the courtroom to face the charges against him in person. But since the court refused to avail itself of this simple solution the problem, Mitchell's lawyer should use this as grounds for appeal, if he is ultimately convicted.
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports. He is also the owner of a new privacy-enhanced search engine - http://www.SearchMost.com.

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Jennifer Stewart
 1 year 171 days ago.
152 fans.
It sounds like he was trying to get thrown out, so he can appeal later if he loses. Wouldn't being restrained have interfered with some other constitutional right?
» left by Terry Mitchell 1 year 168 days ago.
91 fans.
Jennifer, as far as I know, restraining him would not have been a constitutional problem.
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