Is it any wonder that the average North American holds such a low opinion of the justice system? While we have our share of rogue cops, they are not the main problem. That one is the court legal system. Every other day we learn of justice being perverted by ego-tripping prosecutors who frame innocent people so they can enhance their careers. A classic case is the vindictive prosecution in the supposed ritual sex crimes out in the Saskatchewan. The absurd charges brought against the defendants made the Salem Witch Trials look reasonable. Besides the day care workers (male and female) charged, there were an RCMP and a former police officer among the twelve arrested. None of the forensic or physical evidence cast a shred of guilt on the accused; yet the District Attorney's department pressed on and destroyed the lives of the defendents. It was the worst case of operating on mass hysteria I had ever heard of in Canada. Other cases such as that one continue. Just yesterday we had a case in PEI, where the prosecutor had evidence that the man accused didn't commit the murder; however, he suppressed it and prosecuted him anyway. Thank god for DNA evidence, which has exonerated hundreds of innocent men and women.
Then there is the question of plea bargaining. There is no honour among thieves because the first one to rat out the others gets a reduced sentence -- or sometimes, simply walks. The Pearson Airport theft-ring bust is a case in point. Of the eight people caught, only two were charged. Winnipeg built a criminally expensive, fortress-like courthouse to try dozens of native gangsters, but by the time the trial actually started, the vast majority of the defendents had plead to lesser charges. Perhaps they can use the courthouse as a museum of judicial stupidity.
The pinnacle of unfairness in the justice system has to be the failure in the prosecution of corporate big boys. Although Jon Federhoff is thought to be the mastermind behind the Bre-X stock scam--the largest fraud to ever hit Canada--investors lost billions--he still sits in the Caymans, undisturbed. The company's president (also involved) at least had the decency to die in The Bahamas in his early 50's. The RCMP has closed the case. Now we see Martha the maven of all things domestic facing 30 years, while the analyst who actually made the insider trade for her will probably never serve a day. While Martha makes her muffins for the prison commissary, the CEO bastards that destroyed Enron, Worldcom and Tyco--while illegally pocketing obscene fortunes--are still free. I predict that when, and if, they are brought to trial, they will get some minimum sentence in Club Fed. Remember Michael Milken, the junk bond scamster? He served less than two years and his greatest punishment was having his wig taken away from him.
I will close this blog with a little understood trial phenomenon. This is called "jury nullification", which simply means no matter what concrete evidence of a defendent's guilt is presented, the jury acquits. This is becoming an increasing problem when there is a racial component, e.g. the monstrous acquittal of O J Simpson by a predominately black jury. Some years ago, I met a Brooklynite, who told me of a jury he was on. The case concerned a white college girl sodomized by a black ex-con in the campus washrooms. He claimed the sex was consentual; she claimed rape. All the evidence supported the girl; yet, his mainly black jury colleagues acquitted the ex-con. This nullification issue is why jury selection is so important to the lawyers.
Now, if those kinds of nullifications were not bad enough, we have Supreme Court nullifications. Sorry folks, not for everybody -- just for our oppressed aboriginal citizens. It seems that we must take into consideration the fact that the murderer or rapist is of Indian extraction and mete out easier sentences -- because of past racial prejudices, blah, blah, blah. Of course, the less benighted of my readers will concur with this wholeheartedly. The more benighted will throw out silly agruments about most of the victims also being natives. Ignore their bigoted ramblings. My favourite example of this get-out-of-jail-free initiative was the BC Indian woman who killed her common law husband, was acquittted, then killed her next one, was sentenced to a year, or some such foolishness, and when last heard from, had her next boyfriend appearing at a Vancouver hospital with a carving knife in his back. Never heard the outcome on that one; nevertheless, I am sure that the sweetgrass/sentencing circle was--or will be--handed out. Some Afro-Canadian lobby group thinks this leniency should be applied to their clents as well. And don't forget Paul Martin's new fondness for the oppressed Metis. Soon it will be only whitey going to the maximum security prisons. Serves them right, eh?
