According to the Japanese Constitution, (which borrows heavily, for

obvious

historical reasons, from the U.S. Constitution,) an accused criminal has

the

right to the presence of counsel, even during interrogation. If they

cannot

afford one, one will be appointed by the court. The arresting officers,
however, are under no obligation to remind the suspect of this right. And
according to (anecdotal) evidence, they rarely do. Which is all to their
advantage, since they can interrogate the suspect as intensely as they

like.

Often, evidence suggests, fairly brutally, even to the point of torture.

The

majority of convictions in Japanese courts are the result of confessions

by

the accused, so it seems that the system works. (at least for the police.)
As for juvenile delinquents, the age at which they can be held criminally
responsible for their actions was lowered in 2000 from 16 to 14.
Consequently, authorities now have the ability to try teens as young as 14
in adult court, with adult sentences. Kinda bodes ill for the Ranma cast

if

all that property damage catches up to them, eh?

Uh, according to a recent spat (read: international incident) with a US
military member accussed of rape, I read in the paper that they are not
actually required to allow counsel to be present during interrogation. They
made a special point of this.  The spat was over the SOFA (State Of Forces
Agreement) requirement that the US would retain custody until the accused
was formally indited.  This was even though the US was allowing them access
to the accussed for 12-16 hours a day.  This was without counsel present,
per Japanese law.


Thanks for the Info!

As for Ranma and the Gang, they probably fit somewhere in the Biker gang
area.  Add in a HUGE chance for a messy, ugly scene showing the cops getting
shown up if the police try to arrest any of them, and you have police
that'll ignore alot.  After all, do you think standard handcuffs would stop
Ryouga?  Or even Ranma?  Thus Granberry's demonstration of 'special
treatment for Nermia'.  Nabiki's allowed to operate because she keeps her
family in money, and it could be a real problem if the money situation got
bad enough that Soun got desperate.  That's if you take 'Nabiki's a genius
bookie' angel.  Or it's actually just not worth it to haul her in for her
petty bookmaking.

Firethorn

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