posted on Dec, 18 2010 @ 10:10 AM
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic
The state did not instate that right, so cannot reinstate it. My previous link explained a prisoner's right to liberty.
The state has control of a prisoner's right once he is incarcerated. The state did not originally instate his right to liberty, but he himself, by
his actions to violate the law and infringe on the rights of another, has forfeited this right to the state. Had he locked himself up willingly, he
would have forfeited his right to himself and could therefore reinstate it at any time.
Think of it as a legal document. Each of us is born with this document that grants us certain rights. No one can take these rights by force, but we do
have the ability to choose to not invoke (read forfeit) this document at any time. In that case, we still have the document and can choose at any time
to open it and invoke that right. If, however, we, by our own actions, choose to surrender this document to the state, the state has the document for
a prescribed period of time, so we cannot open it at will any more until that document is returned to us.
Once a person chooses to commit a crime, he/she is choosing to allow the state to take his/her rights, according to prescribed law, for a specified
time (which may in some cases be forever). The state has not forced him/her to give up his/her right, but it has taken what he/she offered up of
his/her own free will. As a result, he/she no longer retains that right while it is in the possession of the state.
It's more than semantics, BH. If a right always resides with the individual, then cases may be made as to whether the state even has the ability to
lock someone away at all. But the right does not remain with the individual where that individual has freely engaged in actions which give their
rights to the state.
I have been speaking generally, but as to this particular case, yes, we agree. Once the specified time (which I believe was way too short as well) had
expired, his debt was paid and his right returned to his possession. The problem lies not with the perpetrator, but with the law.
TheRedneck