Of Zealous Prosecutors and Trial by Internet

In “Syriana,” last year’s hit movie about oil, power, corruption and terrorism, a powerful lawyer (Christopher Plummer) tells a once-idealistic CIA operative (George Clooney), “Here in Washington, you’re innocent until investigated.” Two administrators at a central New Jersey college discovered this truth applies beyond our nation’s capital, when they were indicted this summer for hazing (a felony) in the wake of an alcohol –related death on their campus. Although the charges were dismissed six weeks later on the motion of the county prosecutor, a writer in the Trenton Times aptly observed, “The Internet can keep reputations damaged forever, even when persons are acquitted…. Today, an estimated nearly 30 billion Web pages exist, according to boutell.com (www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/sizeofweb.html).” On the Internet, you are innocent until blogged.
In some cases, even doing the hard-time and ostensibly paying your debt to society isn’t enough to let you get on with your life. Consider William Barnes, aged 71. Some 40 years ago he shot a Philadelphia police officer. Barnes was convicted of attempted murder for the November 27, 1966 shooting, which occurred when rookie cop Walter T. Barclay interrupted Barnes’s burglary of a beauty shop. Barclay was left a paraplegic. He died on August 19th of an infection at age 64. The Bucks County medical examiner ruled Barclay’s death a homicide, concluding there was a causal connection between the ’66 gunshot wound and ’07 fatal illness. Philadelphia DA Lynn Abraham has charged Barnes, who was paroled from prison in 2005 and now works in a supermarket, with murder.
Whatever the ultimate outcome of this bizarre prosecution, Barnes too is already being tried on the Internet.
For instance, a blogger on WordPress.com, one of the net’s most popular blog sites, asks, “So, what do you think? Should he be prosecuted for a crime he has already spent time in prison for?” One respondent opines, “No he served his time and paid his debt to society. I think the double jeopardy rule should apply hear. The fact that this man passed away 40 yrs later, then it shouldn’t be a murder charge. I think murder is when the person dies at the time of the crime or soon after.”
But another blogger retorts, “No no no…. he did die on that tragic day in 1966…he lost everything, his career, chance to get married and have children, and all the things you and I take for granted including being able to WALK!!!! Double jeopardy does not apply here. William Barnes got to serve a few years for attempted murder and seemed to go on enjoying life with no remorse based on his comments to a newspaper although he was in and out of prison even up to now at age 71!! 71 - an age Mr. Barclay didn’t reach. He lived to be 64 years of age of which 41 years were spent in hell. Barnes needs to face justice in our court system. If he is not tried in court, he will have to face the ultimate Judge - God.”
Clearly the Internet jury is still out on Mr. Barnes. Whatever the final cyberspace consensus, he is now permanently enshrined as one of the latest virtual villains of the world-wide web.
Andy Warhol, the avant-garde artist, predicted “in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” The advent of reality TV, MySpace.com, Face Book, video-phones, and blog sites has extrapolated Warhol’s prognostication beyond the sixties icon’s wildest fantasies. Some hapless folks, targeted (rightly or wrongly) by zealous prosecutors, are in the words of the Trenton Times “Indicted forever.”
--- Jim Castagnera