"Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been forcibly taken from Venezuela and are being moved to the United States to face criminal drug-trafficking charges. Regardless of the international-law implications of this military action, the Trump administration's description of what awaits Maduro and Flores has also transgressed basic principles of American domestic criminal law, as well as the underlying philosophical justification for punishment."
"When federal prosecutors speak of criminal allegations, moreover, they ritualistically note that a defendant such as Maduro is innocent until proven guilty. By making a presumption of guilt and of the state's inerrancy, the attorney general is repudiating the rule of law, which is grounded in the state's obligation to prove its case. For millennia, punishment was considered morally defensible purely on retributive grounds."
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores were forcibly taken from Venezuela and are being moved to the United States to face criminal drug‑trafficking charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi promised they will face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts. Bondi's vow of wrathful punishment presumes guilt and rejects the presumption of innocence that federal prosecutors routinely state. By presuming guilt and embracing state inerrancy, the vow repudiates the rule of law, which requires the state to prove its case. Punishment historically shifted from retributive vengeance to utilitarian, social‑benefit justifications during the Enlightenment.
Read at www.theatlantic.com
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