New Zealand judge rules Kim Dotcom can see FBI evidence being used against him

[rpannier]

The United States government has suffered another legal setback in its case against alleged piracy king Kim Dotcom, TorrentFreak reported. Authorities involved in the case were trying to claim that the evidence they compiled against Dotcom should stay private. A New Zealand judge on Thursday upheld an earlier decision that ordered the U.S. government to reveal the evidence it held against the Megaupload team, however, citing that the defendants would be unable to mount a full and proper defense in their upcoming extradition hearing without it. “Without disclosure will be significantly constrained in ability to participate in the hearing, and the requesting state will have a significant advantage in terms of access to information,” Justice Helen Winkelmann said in the ruling.

link:
http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/16/kim-dotcom-megaupload-evidence-extradition/

[No Elephants]

1. Anyone ever see "My Cousin Vinnie?" Or follow the OJ trial?

In the U.S., this would be business as usual. I have no clue what the deal is in Australia.

In the U.S., both sides are required to disclose evidence, witnesses, etc.

In the OJ trial, the prosecution tried to get away with withholding evidence and Judge penalized them by not allowing the jury to hear about the blood found on the floor of OJ's car. Marcia what's her haircut argued that "the People" should not be penalized for the failings of the prosecutors. The judge was not impressed.

IOW, we moved a little from "let's play gotcha" or "let's see which lawyer can think fastest" method of trying to jail accused criminals to "let's try to get at what actually happened by leveling the playing field a bit for both sides."

Of course, you can't ever totally level the playing field, but this was an attempt, anyway.


As for Australia, we, of course, started out with the British legal system of the 1500s, which is probably where we got the "gotcha" methods to begin with, though I do not know that for sure.

I would be surprised if UK courts were still using the "gotcha" method in criminal trials.


If you haven't seen "My Cousin Vinnie," Netflix is your friend. It's no "Schindler's List," but it is an enjoyable film with several good performances for which Marisa Tomei got an Oscar for supporting actress--and Oscar's curse. Joe Pesce played Joe Pesce.

As for the OJ trial, the excluded piece of evidence may have made all the difference in the jury's decision or maybe not.

[rpannier]

2. New Zealand

[No Elephants]

3. Thanks for the correction. Sorry for the error.