"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Monday 22 February 2010

In absentia

In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial. For more than 100 years, courts in the United States have held that, according to the United States Constitution, a criminal defendant's right to appear in person at their trial, as a matter of due process is protected under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

Hopefully I shall be have my heart bypass today so I have scheduled my words and phrases blog to bring up one a day for the next few weeks 'in absentia'. As a result if you make any comments it may be some time before they are moderated and posted.

3 comments:

  1. Best of luck with the procedure - you'll be in my thoughts.

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  2. Did you schedule this a while ago? I wonder what the opposite of "in absentia" is? I hope everything is going to plan for Friday.

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  3. Oops - yes I scheduled it before the second re-scheduling of the op. I'm still present - i.e. adsum or in praesentia!

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