Loss of rights shouldn’t be acceptable

Published 9:00 pm Friday, January 18, 2002

Simply put, “technicalities” are what we call our legal rights when we don’t like the results of having them.

Bruce Eric Smith is a lifetime criminal who, while evading police (yet another felony) allegedly killed a totally innocent man (“Fleeing driver in fatal wreck had life sentence overturned,” news story, Jan. 13). Those who would close the so-called loophole in the law, thereby keeping someone like Bruce Smith in jail, advocate what is now unlawful incarceration and would effectively eliminate the accused’s right to a speedy trial.

Everyone (with the possible exception of Bruce Smith) feels terrible about the loss of an innocent life but a loss of our rights should not be acceptable to any of us.

Marysville