The term "Person of Interest" is not defined in the U.S. Attorney's Manual, whereas terms such as suspect, subject, target, and material witness have formal definitions with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Also the term "Person of Interest" is not defined in the Associated Press Stylebook whereas such terms as accused, allege, arrest, and indict are.
LE using the words "Person of Interest" means that they can also speak to him without reading him his Miranda rights. They can question him all they want without ever having to read him his Miranda rights until he is named a suspect or officially charged, at that point, his Miranda rights apply and must be read offered to him. He's in custody on child
charges, he's right there where they can question him about Somer without a lawyer present because he hasn't been charged in Somer's case. (Make sense?)
(Assuming JH is involved)
It's in the best interest of justice to not charge him until they absolutely have to or until they have built up a solid case with concrete evidence. The moment a legally defined term is used to describe him, he must be charged (for all kinds of legal reasons including defamation). Once he is officially charged, his Miranda rights fall into place. An attorney steps in. At that point, the attorney has the right to any and all evidence and the time clock starts ticking on the case. A lot of the evidence they already have will have to be turned over to the defense within 30 days. Then there is the right to a speedy trial, and I believe in Florida that a trial must be held within 172 days after the time the person is charged unless that right has been waived (again, the Miranda rights fall into play here).
Legally, the term Person of Interest means absolutely nothing. It does not hold a person accountable, nor does it maintain innocence. It does not bind LE to anything or hold LE accountable either. All the word does is tell the community (and the press) "we are looking closely at this guy". It's a simple way to explain to the public why they are searching someone's house without really saying why they are searching someone's house. But behind the words, there is evidence that was used to obtain a warrant to search someone's house. In this case, that evidence used to obtain a warrant to search may be simply because of the child and Somer's case fits his MO (The was mostly of young girls and not boys, he was in the area where Somer disappeared, he had motive, he had opportunity. If his computer had contained nothing but images of young boys, I doubt he would be looked at so closely in the connection of Somer's death - it wouldn't have fit his MO.)
There is one more thing that falls into play here and that is profiling. Child is an addiction of sorts and just like any addiction, a tolerance is built up and more and harder "drug" is needed to obtain that "euphoria". In this case, JH no longer had his computer (and I assume since he had no job, he didn't run right out and get another one - not to mention we don't even know if he had electricity in the Gano home). Take away an addicts drugs and what happens? They start to withdraw. -If- JH is responsible for Somer's death, I believe this is what happened. He needed his fix and Somer was a convenient target (child molesters are opportunists). Given that, that makes JH the most plausible "person of interest" to date.
Also the term "Person of Interest" is not defined in the Associated Press Stylebook whereas such terms as accused, allege, arrest, and indict are.
LE using the words "Person of Interest" means that they can also speak to him without reading him his Miranda rights. They can question him all they want without ever having to read him his Miranda rights until he is named a suspect or officially charged, at that point, his Miranda rights apply and must be read offered to him. He's in custody on child
charges, he's right there where they can question him about Somer without a lawyer present because he hasn't been charged in Somer's case. (Make sense?)(Assuming JH is involved)
It's in the best interest of justice to not charge him until they absolutely have to or until they have built up a solid case with concrete evidence. The moment a legally defined term is used to describe him, he must be charged (for all kinds of legal reasons including defamation). Once he is officially charged, his Miranda rights fall into place. An attorney steps in. At that point, the attorney has the right to any and all evidence and the time clock starts ticking on the case. A lot of the evidence they already have will have to be turned over to the defense within 30 days. Then there is the right to a speedy trial, and I believe in Florida that a trial must be held within 172 days after the time the person is charged unless that right has been waived (again, the Miranda rights fall into play here).
Legally, the term Person of Interest means absolutely nothing. It does not hold a person accountable, nor does it maintain innocence. It does not bind LE to anything or hold LE accountable either. All the word does is tell the community (and the press) "we are looking closely at this guy". It's a simple way to explain to the public why they are searching someone's house without really saying why they are searching someone's house. But behind the words, there is evidence that was used to obtain a warrant to search someone's house. In this case, that evidence used to obtain a warrant to search may be simply because of the child
and Somer's case fits his MO (The was mostly of young girls and not boys, he was in the area where Somer disappeared, he had motive, he had opportunity. If his computer had contained nothing but images of young boys, I doubt he would be looked at so closely in the connection of Somer's death - it wouldn't have fit his MO.)There is one more thing that falls into play here and that is profiling. Child
is an addiction of sorts and just like any addiction, a tolerance is built up and more and harder "drug" is needed to obtain that "euphoria". In this case, JH no longer had his computer (and I assume since he had no job, he didn't run right out and get another one - not to mention we don't even know if he had electricity in the Gano home). Take away an addicts drugs and what happens? They start to withdraw. -If- JH is responsible for Somer's death, I believe this is what happened. He needed his fix and Somer was a convenient target (child molesters are opportunists). Given that, that makes JH the most plausible "person of interest" to date.
