Sunday Thought By Kunal Roy
Where Death rules the Throne and Justice is Denied!
Did you ever hear of a place in the world where people are killed and the offenders are not punished for their criminal acts? Your reply will be tinged with a grain of negativism. But to everyone’s surprise, there is a location in the world where such things take place imperceptibly! It is in the United States of America. The infamous “Yellow Stone”, popularly known as the “Zone of Death”.
This Zone of Death comprises 129.50sqkm. The name was being given by the USA itself. The reason is obvious. Owing to the presence of some loopholes in their Constitution, the criminal could easily commit the crime without any fear! It seems the individual is entitled to enjoy the public place! Moreover, ‘the federal government has “exclusive jurisdiction” over the park , so the crimes committed in the park cannot be prosecuted under any of the State’s laws’.
It is interesting to note that this legal loophole was discovered by Professor Kalt when he was planning to pen an essay on the technical features of the ‘Sixth Amendment’. He thought of a hypothetical location where the absence of enough eligible citizens couldn’t form a jury! And therefore no trail, no punishment even for the heinous crimes like robbery and murder. This whole factor conjured up the image of the Yellow Park, a part of USA, where crimes take place unabatedly without any fear of “exemplary punishment”. Being horrified by his realisation, he penned an essay where a focus was to persuade the Government to think about such loopholes and take effective measures against them. The name of the essay was ‘The Perfect Crime’, published in “The Georgetown Law Journal” in 2005. However, a fear always worked in his mind. The criminals might go through his essay and commit a more heinous crime before fixing the constitutional loopholes!!
On the other hand, the law makers didnot pay any heed to the essayist’s words. Later C.J Box penned his novel named “The Free Fire” and projected the deadly zone. This work somehow managed to draw the attention of the authority. The authority was convinced to a certain extent!
All these could not stop the crimes. The unwillingness of the people of the zone cannot form a jury even today. Being a very small population, there is no one perfect to serve! Innumerable voices were raised against the essay by Kalt, but all of them were dismissed by the authority concerned. No apt legal solution is found yet to solve such a serious problem. It is still in the moot status!
We often complain of our own judiciary system. We reveal our discontent over the various laws and their branches. Now close your eyes and imagine: If such a kind of place existed in our nation, what would have happened with us? The answer perhaps lies within.
