Acquitted Women Ordered Held in Prison

[shuize]

Sadly, as I know this will disappoint Matteo and Oliver, it is not in the United States:

TOKYO — The Supreme Court has approved the detention of a Swiss woman after she was acquitted of smuggling stimulants, sources close to the trial said Friday. Presiding Justice Kohei Nasu dismissed an appeal by the 28-year-old woman against a lower court decision that accepted a request from public prosecutors that she be detained to prevent her from being deported, they said. Prosecutors requested that she be detained because if she was deported it would impossible for the prosecutors to appeal her acquittal in higher courts.

The woman was arrested Oct. 24 last year at Narita airport after arriving on a flight from Malaysia carrying 2.2 kilograms of stimulants in a suitcase. She pleaded not guilty, saying she had not known about the drugs. The Chiba District Court acquitted her in August, citing reasonable doubt about her intent.


http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/422948

[WildCat]

Say what you want about the US, barring gross misconduct at the trial (the judge was bribed for example) prosecutors can't appeal an acquittal.

[shuize]

Exactly. Even in cases where it's obvious the jurors ignored the judge's instructions on the law, an acquittal means "game over" for prosecutors in the United States.

While I am not usually sympathetic to the "not my bag" defense one sees from time to time from suspects arrested carrying kilos of drugs into Japan, if one can convince a judge that there's reasonable doubt as to guilt, then that really should be the end of the matter. At the absolute minimum, the acquitted person should not have to languish in prison while waiting for the prosecutors to appeal their loss.

[davefoc]

In most cases prohibition of double jeopardy is strictly enforced in the US.

It is not if you are a policeman. If the feds don't think the locals got it right, they come up with some kind of violation of civil rights crime and try the cops again.

One aspect of this that surprises me a bit is that jury tampering does not seem to be grounds for an acquittal reversal. It seems like it might have been reasonable to allow acquittal reversal in that case to me.