[plug] [OT] pillow fights (was: Columbia)

[Shayne]

A Judge can instantly sentence anyone on the spot (including himself) to
a sentence with no top limit (even life) without appeal or review for contempt 
of court.

I used to work in the District court, and remember one younger (Ie below 60!) 
judge nearly do a cop prosecutor in for  contempt over blundering a case. The 
prosecutor almost deserved it too. The victim commited suicide and it was so 
damn obvious the attacker was guilty, but the technical evidence didn't quite 
match up to legal standard. The Judge had to let the evil bastard off and 
mygod she was furious about it. She even made a swipe about making the 
prosecutor stand in the corner with a dunce hat on... 

> > There has been much good SciFi written along those lines, and an
> > interesting on in which *any* participant in a court could be found
> > guilty of stuff and maybe executed: witnesses, the judge, lawyers,
> > prosecution, defense, janitor, the lot. Now *that* would be an
> > interesting experiment.
>
> You don't need sci-fi, to see it. I saw a senile magistrate, who was
> supposed to have been put out on a funny farm years before, want to
> convict the police prosecution for dropping a case for lack of evidence.
> Yes, folks, right here in Perth. The current A-G knew of the senility,
> and said that was okay.