Is the spirit of law vs the letter of the law at the discretion of the officer?

stop eating people, dammit

The wording of the law is important, but so is the intent. Particularly important is the way the law is understood by the general population. The debates surrounding a statute, newspaper articles about it, etc., are all fair game, and are legitimate for a judge to consider, in applying a statute. If a person was arrested for having a few friends over for an evening of poker, for example, and the arrest was made because of a statute that was clearly intended to prohibit casinos, horse tracks, etc., but only said "gambling is illegal," the case would surely be thrown out of court.

The jury *always* has the power to acquit someone, even if the person is guilty as hell.

A judge may also take several other factors into account, and can sometimes even quash warrants, etc.

As for police officers, they have enormous discretion in allowing people to "get away" with trivial offenses if in their judgement the offense was accidental, the person is sincerely repentant, etc. Haven't you ever talked an officer into shaving a couple of mph off a traffic ticket?

And what makes you think peace officers are not educated on anything beyond the exact wording of the law? They have to know quite a lot about the principles of the law in order to determine on the spot how far they can go in questioning a person; how far they can go in a warrantless search; etc.

Edit -- note to Sparky above; great example about the hospital!

Sparky

You are right that the officers aren't empowered to legislate but you better hope they know the intentions of the law makers.

For instance, take an officer who stops someone exceeding the speed limit but not endangering anyone. The person is rushing to the hospital due to someone in the car with a bad injury. Do you want that person getting a ticket or being delayed? If the officer went by the letter of the law that is exactly what would happen. This is where common sense comes into play.

How's that for enlightening?

Chris

Police are under pressure to perform and to make money. Make no mistake. These guys are not angels. They make money at your expense. They often break laws they are sworn to enforce.

Think about it. Unless they crash they get away with the kind of crimes that would cost us our freedom, career, money, vehicles, and families. All they have to do is stay out of a serious crash and they will not get ticketed.

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