[Avodah] police misdeeds and trial evidence

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 04:55:10PM -0400, Joseph C. Kaplan wrote:
: Why is the exclusion of probative evidence because it was obtained
: illegally any worse than excluding probative evidence because it is
: being proffered by a woman?

In US law, a person can rely on the 5th ammendment, and refuse to answer
a question that would incriminate himself. In halakhah, even if he says
something incriminatory, we aren't meqabelim. Even palginan dibura!

One sevara could be parallel to throwing out evidence. We don't allow
the eidus because we don't want to tempt baalei din (or kangaroo courts)
into blackmailing people into pleading guilty.

A sevara that appeals to me more relates to the post I just sent out. If
a qarov's eidus can't really be understood by dayanim, and adam qarov
eitzel atzmo, how can we possibly check the veracity of self-testimony?

And yet: shavya alei chatikha de'isura. It's only WRT personal guilt
that eidus is ignored.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
micha at aishdas.org        G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
http://www.aishdas.org   corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
Fax: (270) 514-1507      to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter