On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 erik at debill.org wrote: >On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 11:16:03AM -0600, Howard Brazee wrote: >>Corruption may be "doing what an empress or goddess >>wanted". It might be "keeping the powers that be happy", or >>simply "saving us from having a situation that would be bad for >>our people". Or -- another thought -- the interrogators might have been gently convinced (might be persuasion, might be blackmail, maybe a little of both) to use the "pro forma" interrogation by someone else who is watching out for Vlad, and who might have influence among the Jhereg. Say, Kiera the Thief? Remember, this particular murder took place when Vlad was very young, just starting out in the Organization. He hadn't met any of his powerful Dragon friends at that point; there was no *reason* for the Empress to intervene. What's one Jhereg, more or less? Why should she care if Vlad lives or dies (at that point in time)? Especially if he *is* a murderer. I'll admit I don't know enough about Verra's methods to know if should would have intervened, but I kinda doubt it. It doesn't seem like something that would show up on her radar, as it were, nor the sort of thing she would interfere with. Of course, Kiera might not have *told* Vlad she was intervening, and Vlad picked up that he was getting it easy over the course of the questions, but not realized that it was nonstandard. >It might even be that they don't know how to do interrogations >properly. I get the impression that police in the US didn't learn >how to build cases well until after they were forced to start >giving people Miranda warnings. Comparing and contrasting standards of law and justice and evidence in different times and countries and cultures would be a fascinating project, but it's not one I've time for now. However, there is evidence that Dragaera does have a legal system and standards of justice, and I find it likely that "not knowing how to to interrogations properly" is specific to Vlad's case and similar situations. > If your standard practice is to intimidate Teckla into >confessing, Do you really think that intimidating Teckla is standard practice in settling cases? Well, maybe during Jhereg reigns. But remember, they have access to an (alleged) lie detector. All the Teckla has to do to verify his alibi is state it under the Orb. Also, while most nobles might not care, there's a whole House for whom justice and the miscarriage thereof is of paramount extreme interest: The Iorich. >you'll probably be a fish out of water in court with an educated >suspect and a bunch of high nobles breathing down your neck. Yes, and if one noble accuses another? Do you think Vlad is the first noble to stand trial? Do you really think that sloppy style of interrogations would wash when the accusing party could hear how easy his opponent was getting off? >I get the feeling that a lot of things in Dragaera are more >primitive than we give them credit for, just because Vlad comes >across as relatively educated and sophisticated. Yet the opposite can also be argued: That after 200,000 years of nearly continuous history, they'd have hammered out the really basic rules of both interrogation and jurisprudence. Especially since they have the Iorich, who are actively interested in that sort of thing.