From: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 04:30:31 +0800
To: Sean Gabb <cea01sig@gold.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Carrying the Bible an Offense?
Message-ID: <199602172010.MAA24896@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 07:31 PM 2/17/96 +0000, you wrote:
>Is it not possible in the US jurisdictions to mount private 
>prosecutions?  There is a common law right to do so in England.

I'm not aware of a corresponding right in the US, and am pretty sure that
none exists. The victim of a crime can likely sue civilly for whatever
damages s/he suffered, and can sometimes also recover attorney's fees &
punitive damages (e.g., RICO). But I'm not aware of any procedure by which a
citizen could bring a real criminal prosecution, with the corresponding risk
of incarceration for the defendant, court-appointed counsel for indigent
defendants, and so forth. 

Some statutes (the ones which spring to mind immediately are environmental
statutes) allow private citizens to sue to enforce compliance with the law,
if the government has been given notice of the violation and has failed to
bring its own action for enforcement; but I don't think that those are
criminal prosecutions.

(I think we're wandering away from anything on-topic for C-punks, so further
comments from me on this thread, if any, will likely be in private mail.) 
--
"The anchored mind screwed into me by the psycho-  | Greg Broiles
lubricious thrust of heaven is the one that thinks | gbroiles@netbox.com
every temptation, every desire, every inhibition." | 
	-- Antonin Artaud		   	   |