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The Legal System

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Surfguy, Apr 17, 2016.

  1. Surfguy

    Surfguy Contributing Member

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    So, just saw the news of some old dude who was wrongly convicted for some murder and was just released from prison. Apparently, they were relying on the eyewitness testimony of a child that saw someone with the victim from 55 years ago and who had to recently identify this poor guy as the perpetrator in a 2011 case brought to trial against this poor guy for which he was convicted. It really makes no sense that this would stand up and a judge did in fact overturn it just the other day.

    My big gripe with the legal system...which is supposed to be fair and impartial...is prosecutors make their way through their careers building their careers by winning cases. It doesn't look good for them to prosecute cases they bring to trial and then lose even though the person brought to trial may be innocent. Obviously, racism played a huge role in wrongful convictions for many years and prosecutors made their livelihoods putting innocent black people away. But, it could happen to anyone.

    So, my question is how is our legal system supposed to be fair and impartial and actually about justice when prosecutors careers are made by putting people away regardless of whether they are innocent or not given the cases goes to trial? We know a lot of the time...this blinds prosecutors to the truth. And, there is that obvious career ladder they are trying to climb that is made by these cases. For the longest time, it was about prosecutors getting the convictions only for many of those cases to be overturned later because they put innocent people away. Obviously, advances in DNA profiling, forensics, and technology made a lot of that possible.

    In my opinion, the only way our legal system could ever be about justice with fairness and impartiality is if prosecutors do not make or break careers based on high profile cases, number of convictions, etc. . There will always be those former prosecutors that stand by their work even after convictions have been overturned and still think the now innocent "perpetrator(s)" was guilty. Even today, it still feels like that is what the justice system is at least partially about and innocent people are still being locked up. In my opinion, there has to be a completely different set of standards to judge attorneys and prosecutors by...but I'm unclear if that is even how it works today even after all the crap cases the justice system has screwed up over the years.

    Does anyone have any input or opinions on this matter? I'm not claiming to know everything about this so I'm partially seeking enlightenment on this matter with this thread. I've formed my opinions seeing all this unfold over the years and I need to know for my own sake whether my opinions need updating. How are prosecutors' performance graded today? Is it still about high profile cases, number of convictions, etc. ? It almost seems like a popularity contest. At least, we all know that is what it was and careers were made by it.

    Thanks!
     
    #1 Surfguy, Apr 17, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2016
  2. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    It's a disgrace but it starts with the police and the way they conduct investigations. Falsified evidence, intimidated witness, coerced confessions, shoddy police work, and a lack of accountability for incompetence and underhanded behavior in the justice system overall.
     
  3. REEKO_HTOWN

    REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

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    Money. Prosecutors protect their records because if they want to move up in the word (be it through private sector or politics) their record is a reflection of their work. These are people that don't intend on being prosecutors forever since it's a stepping stone.
     
  4. Exiled

    Exiled Member

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  5. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    The only fair thing is to completely do away with the legal system and just let people fend for themselves.
     
  6. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    Well, they're also employees in a role that's actually become much more competitive to get in their particular profession, and can get fired at any time. I'm just saying I think there are a lot of those guys who, having studied the profession for years and probably liking the side they're on, don't necessarily want to move up anywhere.
     
  7. Duncan McDonuts

    Duncan McDonuts Contributing Member

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    Are we talking about a purge?
     
  8. MSBRockets

    MSBRockets Member

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    You mention and talk a lot about the prosecutor, yet you don't once mention the jury.

    At the end of the day 12 random people, a cross section of his peers, found him guilty.

    Don't blame the legal system, blame society.
     
  9. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Snitches get stitches.

    No justice for the rest.

    I was driving home from the airport tonight and was thinking about posting something on here about convictions. Might do it later.
     
  10. sirbaihu

    sirbaihu Member

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    :confused:

    "12 random people" = society?

    And what should we blame society for? Not automatically knowing the truth?
     
  11. RunninRaven

    RunninRaven Contributing Member
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    It does feel sometimes like weird, random legal rules prevent a reasonable outcome in a case.

    I know this is anecdotal and a civil case but I was in a jury once for a guy trying to get $150,000 from his insurance company because his house burned down. We were basically interpreting a somewhat vague "occupancy" clause in the insurance policy. The defendant tried to bring in an insurance legal expert just to get his opinion on how those types of clauses are typically interpreted, and something about how he was asking the questions kept getting sustained objections from the other side. In the end he basically had to step down without saying anything because the lawyer couldn't get the questions out there.

    And then on top of that, there were a few tangental things brought up that made it very apparent (to ALL of us in the jury) that the guy had burned his own damn house down for the insurance money. But that wasn't what we were there to decide (and the judge made sure to emphasize that to us).

    In the end we gave the guy his money but I regretted it because I didn't feel he deserved it, but we basically did what the legal system was set up to do.
     
  12. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    It's not 12 random people. It is 12 people selected by the lawyers from about 100 random people. Prosecutors have a lot of power in who gets put in jail and who doesn't especially when poor people can't afford a lawyer and are assigned a lawyer who doesn't really want to represent them.
     
  13. SamCassell

    SamCassell Contributing Member

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    I think there are a lot of opinions in this thread about the justice system in general and prosecutors in particular, based on what people see on TV and read about on the internet.

    Wrongful convictions are an unfortunate outcome of an imperfect system. So are crimes not solved and culpable criminals who are acquitted. Human error will continue to occur until we invent computers capable of determining guilt or innocence. I still prefer the American adversarial system to the inquisitorial system used in many civil law jurisdictions.
     
  14. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    1. Too much emphasis on WINNING and not enough on JUSTICE
    -- Cops are trying to win. Prosecuters are trying to win. Judges are trying to win
    -- pointing to stats of how they WON and got X amount of criminals off the street
    2. No accountability
    -- If they are wrong they fight tooth and nail and deny to the bloody end . . . .doesn't matter if they f***ing up someone's life. . .that is not important. . . what is important is never admitting a mistake or wrong act
    3. No Accountability part 2
    -- Even if wrong and found out . . .big deal . . .. why is it if you make a mistake on your taxes you can go to jail but a mistake that sends someone to torture and imprisonment . .. we act like it is no big deal and the same people continue to do the same thing
    I mean . . . Doctors who do malpractice are kicked out of the profession but lawyers, accounts, etc who do the same . .. which ruins someone life just like the doctor . .. get to continue to practice and **** over other people

    Rocket River
     
  15. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    Yeah, I think that's what we have to do, just have a 10 or 20 year long purge and then those who survive will probably think differently about having a justice system with rare mistakes and imperfections after decades without one at all.
     

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