Justice for all?

Can you lend me $100,000?

One of the founding principles of the first world is the concept of 'justice'. Justice is perceived to be a universal concept that ensure the guilty are punished and the innocent are set free. In the first world the guilt or innocence of a person is determined by a jury of his/her peers. Prosecutors present their case to the jury and defenders attempt to convince the jury that the prosecution case is flawed, particularly with regards to the guilt or innocence of their client.  In theory then, the jury hears the evidence and then decides on guilt or innocence. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, it seems more and more that the accused gets the justice he or she can afford. Is it truly justice when the rich white man can afford the best legal team that money can buy whereas black man from the ghetto gets a public defender who probably as only read the case notes that morning - no question, the black guy is going to jail.

So if justice depends on the amount you can afford to pay for legal representation then that is not justice! It's a form of Russian Roulette where the rich guy's gun has one round in the chamber and the poor guy has five.

To add to the iniquity, District Attorneys and prosecutors are elected, therefore they have vested interest in appearing to be hard on crime. Again it is not about justice but about political status. Perhaps even worse is when appeals are made, sometimes years later, in many cases it can be seen that justices and prosecutors reject appeals, even when there is sufficient evidence to raise questions about guilt - can't have voters thinking you're soft on crime.

For many people dragged through the justice system today, justice did not leave the building, it never entered.

I use rich white men and poor black men as an example of the different 'justice' each gets but really it's all about money and who has it.

The truth is that any major changes to the present system would be so impractical that they could never be implemented - ensuring equal justice for all by having an equal standard of defense representation - how? Could not be done. Make DA's and prosecutors appointed not elected? Never gonna happen.

The only way that a real improvement could be made is to make all prosecution parties and justices appointed not elected, at least removing the conflict of vested interest would give justice some chance of being applied.