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.
Best of luck with the procedure - you'll be in my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteDid you schedule this a while ago? I wonder what the opposite of "in absentia" is? I hope everything is going to plan for Friday.
ReplyDeleteOops - 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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