Religion & American Law

The Use of the Ten Commandments in Court

I’d like to bring your attention to two articles regarding the same court case. First, the short article that describes Soloman Dwek being grilled on his adherence to the Ten Commandments. Second, the article that explains why the defense thinks this grilling is relevant.

In class last week, we discussed constitutional vs. common law. Oversimplified, constitutional law refers to that which protects common law (it is written out and agreed upon at a given time). Common law, on the other hand, is constantly developing by the people based primarily on customs.

I think that this these news articles demonstrate the way in which constitutional and common law may play out in the court room. Soloman Dwek became an FBI informant after being caught in the fraudulent bank deal referenced in the second article. He then led to the prosecution of several high-level New Jersey politicians. Now, the defendants want to show that Dwek is of low moral character. In doing so, the defense hopes to call into question the FBI’s choice in people they use to prosecute these politicians.

It seems that this move is a last resort for the defense in this case. They merely want to expose Dwek as “just as bad” (or worse) as the defendants in order to undermine the FBI and its efforts. For our discussion, the interesting part is that the defense chose to use the Ten Commandments as the measurement of Dwek’s moral character.

The use of the Ten Commandments assumes that the audience (most importantly the jury) is sympathetic to the moral code that the Ten Commandments assert. I think that the use of the Ten Commandments in this case represents the invocation of common law in the courts. If this is the case, the most relevant habits of Dwek would be his habit of lying. If Dwek was a habitual liar in the past, how can he be trusted in working for the FBI? The defense wants to call Dwek’s credibility into question further by proving that he even cheated and stole from his own family and Jewish community. I wonder how much weight this probing against Dwek will have when he has handed over filmed encounters with the defendants discussing their corrupt dealings? Will the jury value the defense’s questioning of Dwek’s character enough to oversee the evidence provided by Dwek? I don’t think this is very likely but I guess it is worth a shot for the defense.

It seems that the evidence provided by Dwek should be used to in the case against the defendants and then Dwek can be dealt with on his own. Sure, he probably only cooperated with the FBI for selfish reasons but that does not change the fact that the defendants are corrupt themselves.

About : Raja CRN

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