Ex post nothing (a blast from the past)

This one's from way back, folks. But it's still relevant because it shows how fluently the law is misused.

Yesterday at the library I accidentally found a Kentucky Post article from 1982 about a man who sued the Villa Hills police over a false arrest. The 1980 arrest occurred when he was allegedly found with porn and fireworks.

In late 1981, a judge dismissed both the fireworks and the porn charges. Regarding the fireworks, there were penalties on the books in Kentucky for mere possession by late 1981, but no penalty at all in 1980 when the man was arrested.

1980, no penalty; 1981, penalty. Gee, is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

Instead of keeping fireworks legal so they could be regulated, lawmakers realized that with the new conservative mood that gained power ("Well..."), they could just ban stuff outright and use the new law to wield against anyone for anything, no matter how illogical the authorities were being.

It's a perfect example of how there's so many laws on personal conduct that almost everyone breaks laws without even knowing it. When even a small percentage get caught, it's a boon for the corrections industry.

What's also amazing is that prosecutors seemed to be going after the guy on an ex post facto basis, which is strictly unconstitutional. They apparently wanted him punished under the law that was in force in 1981, even though it wasn't enacted yet in 1980 when he was arrested.

No wonder the cops got sued for false arrest. They arrested the man for something that wasn't illegal yet! However, it's unclear how this case turned out.

Locally, the system has a history of abusing the law like this. My memory is sketchy, but I seem to recall a later case in which prosecutors had a criminal suspect retried because the defendant was acquitted the first time. In other words, they were prosecuting over and over until a jury gave them the results they wanted - which violated the Constitution's double jeopardy clause.

Maybe I missed something, but it seems like there's been a whole system in place around here for years to run roughshod over the people's rights. I'm in the middle of a jury duty term, so I might get to see it up close and personal.