An Obsession with Legalism is Destroying America's Soul
In recent years, American society has turned into a veritable banana-republic of every day citizens running around pretending to be Supreme Court judges. When Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her two year old daughter, I heard comments from the public like, "well, obviously she did it. But the prosecutor should have done a better job of . . . " And sadly, these every-day citizens wind up on juries.
When George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering the unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, the statements made by jurors were both infuriating and heart-breaking. "Well, we believed he was guilty, but the Judge instructed us. . . yada. . yada. . .yada."
Rather than reflect on Dylan Farrow's child molestation charges against Woody Allen, a substantial number of comments on Internet websites begin:
It would be one thing if our criminal justice system worked. But in truth it doesn't except for the rich and famous. Of the two million inmates in American prisons, we could probably count on one hand the number of Wall Street bankers who went to jail for bringing down the global economy. If all the evil in society is not perpetrated by minorities and poor whites, why are they 99.7 percent of our prison population?
And, if justice were nothing more profound than spouting arcane terms from a legal dictionary, then we could dispense with both judges and juries and get fairer legal decisions from well-programmed computers.
When George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering the unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, the statements made by jurors were both infuriating and heart-breaking. "Well, we believed he was guilty, but the Judge instructed us. . . yada. . yada. . .yada."
Rather than reflect on Dylan Farrow's child molestation charges against Woody Allen, a substantial number of comments on Internet websites begin:
"Well, yes Woody Allen is a creep for marrying his adopted older daughter and taking nude photos of her with her legs spread as a child. But his behavior towards one daughter would not be admissible in a court of law nor have legal standing in regard to his 7 year old daughter 's accusations, repeated as an adult, of child molestation. . . "Both juries and the public at large are losing any sense of having either a moral compass or commonsense when confronted with legal jargon and attorneys, whose goal is winning the case for their client, not justice.
It would be one thing if our criminal justice system worked. But in truth it doesn't except for the rich and famous. Of the two million inmates in American prisons, we could probably count on one hand the number of Wall Street bankers who went to jail for bringing down the global economy. If all the evil in society is not perpetrated by minorities and poor whites, why are they 99.7 percent of our prison population?
And, if justice were nothing more profound than spouting arcane terms from a legal dictionary, then we could dispense with both judges and juries and get fairer legal decisions from well-programmed computers.
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