The “enhanced interrogation technique” was then called the “water cure” which is a form of simulated drowning. Sound familiar?
Thus sayeth the Mississippi Supreme Court:
The state offered . . . testimony of confessions made by the appellant, Fisher. . . [who], after the state had rested, introduced the sheriff, who testified that, he was sent for one night to come and receive a confession of the appellant in the jail; that he went there for that purpose; that when he reached the jail he found a number of parties in the jail; that they had the appellant down upon the floor, tied, and were administering the water cure, a specie of torture well known to the bench and bar of the country.
Note the lack of hemming and hawing. There isn’t any question: the practice described is torture. The Court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. The case is Fisher v. State, 110 So. 361 (Miss. 1926)citing White v. State, 91 So. 903 (Miss. 1922).
It is interesting to note that the torturing of a criminal defendant by law enforcement does not exactly shock the court’s conscience. They just note that the confession was not free and voluntary, and must be excluded. (One wonders if Mr. Fisher was convicted on the evidence of the baying, springing bloodhounds alone.)
If something used to extract a confession from a black man suspected of killing a white man, in Mississippi, in 1926, is recognized to be torture, then how is it that our newly confirmed Attorney General, in 2007, isn’t so sure?
…that the techniquie used to obtain a confession may have been shocking to the Court’s conscience is not really a particularly good ground for overturning a jury verdict. Particularly in an elected court, which MS’s supreme court most likely was.
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That the decision was based on a determination that the confession was not voluntary, but instead was obtained by torture, was sufficient to get the desired result.
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It is a mistake to read too much into what is not said in an appellate opinion.
I bet they could have argued the appelant wanted to be tortured so everyone would know the truth; a real miscarriage of justice!
I found this article on the potential for a Pakistan like coup here particularly insightful:
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http://www.isthatleg…