Letters to the Editor
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Re: Chilling Effect
It wouldn't surprise me at all if, post-9/11, the FBI has used its expanded authority to use techniques such as wire taps against suspected terrorists who aren't terrorists at all, and shoudn't even be suspects.
But this line of government creepiness just doesn't apply to the Briana Waters case. There is no evidence at all that she was pursued by the FBI because she was an activist. There is no evidence that the government obtained evidence against her that would have been illegally obtained were it not for the post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws.
Hyping this aspect of the story obscures a much larger problem with the criminal justice system. That is that prosecutors often willfully ignore exculpatory evidence, and do not share it with the defense. If they decide you are guilty, and have just a shred of evidence, they can find ways to put you in jail. They are, in fact, no different from the witnesses who falsely accuse others because if they name names, their own sentences are reduced: prosecutors' careers depend on putting people in jail, not on putting the RIGHT people in jail. Once it comes to light that an innocent person was convicted, it is an uphill battle for the wrongly convicted to demonstrate that the trial yielded an incorrect result. And the prosecutors are rarely, if ever, held accountable for their misdeeds.
Aside from the destroyed building and the ruined research it housed, the true tragedy of the Waters story is that she was probably a victim of shady practices that are all too common among US and district attorneys.