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Published Letters: 1716
This is a great read on why the average guy will never get a "fair trial" in America. Who is to blame? Both parties have watched this develop for generations. Will one step to the plate and fix it?
If you care anything about "justice", I recommend reading this short PBS interview.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plea/interviews/langbein.html
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Frontline: "Many say we have the best justice system in the world."
Professor Langbein:
No knowledgeable student of comparative criminal justice is likely to fall victim to the notion that ours is an admirable system.
It is an appalling system. We have ten times as large a percent of our population locked up in jail by comparison with the European countries. We have sentences which are draconian. We've just had a 12 year-old put in jail for life in Florida. Things of this sort are unheard of in the rest of the world. There are many causes, but the failure of our adversary system is central, and the political nature of our prosecutorial system is also central.
A true story as related by a defense attorney in a presentation to children on how our "justice" system works:
A fellow came out of the basketball arena that the citizens built for a billionaire some years back. The game had just ended and thousands were piling out late at night. The bathrooms are in short supply inside, so often beer-ed-up fans will take a piss in the lake (small pond) beside the stadium.
Of the crowd of guys who took a piss --- one was arrested and charged with a crime that will get him on the sex-offender list! Why, the one? He was black.
Line of the week from Victoria Toensing paraphrased.... If Bush can pardon 12 million illegal immigrants he can certainly pardon Libby.
To which I'll add, if the previous administration can pardon Puerto Rican terrorists and ex-pat tax evaders, Libby looks like a walk. The upside to all this, is that Fred Thompson's defense of Libby looks better and better.
I'll give you that we can find literally millions of miscarriages of justice here in this country. I just posted a couple of articles attesting to that fact.
That in no way exonerates Scooter Libby. Just because Mr. X murdered his ex-wife and boyfriend, and got away with it, does not mean that you may also go and do the same.
Two miscarriages of justice do not cancel out.