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Books about Politics and Current Events in The Radical Academy Bookstore Click Here for New & Used College Textbooks at Discount Prices Click Here for College Education Information & Study Resources Shop Amazon Stores in the Radical Academy Bookstore Magazine Outlet Music Store Video Store DVD Store Computer Store Camera & Photo Store Computer/Video Games Software Store Outlet Store Cellular Phones Toys & Games Tools & Hardware Outdoor Living Consumer Electronics Kitchen & Housewares Baby Superstore Apparel & Accessories Gourmet Food Sporting Goods Jewelry & Watches Health & Personal Care		October 21, 2002 Something to Think About   The Truth About Criminal Justice by Gordon Francis Corbett   There is a joke that is bitter, but true. It runs, "What kind of justice do you get from the criminal justice system?" The answer: "Criminal justice." Criminal justice is, of course, injustice. What is real justice? The branch of philosophy that studies what we should do is called "ethics." The branch of ethics that studies how we should treat one another is called "the natural law." The foundation of the natural law is the "right." Philosopher Ayn Rand defined a right as, "a moral principle that defines and sanctions a man's freedom of action in a social context." Author Sheldon Richman said that, collectively, rights form "a zone of sovereignty" around every person. Only individuals can own rights. As such, groups have no rights, but like all human beings, every person in every group has exactly the same rights. The branch of the natural law that studies how to protect rights best is called "politics." Politics studies how to sanction the use of force, how to determine who should use it, and how to decide when and why they should use it. Only a right can legitimate any use of force. If a law sanctioning a proposed use would not protect one or more rights, no one should pass, enforce, or obey it. Rights, and the natural law that they found, raise an objective standard for everything government does. Among other things, "everything" includes the creation and the enforcement of criminal-law statutes. These statutes should define crimes clearly and objectively. Indictments and prosecutions should say that someone violated one or more of someone else's genuine rights. Trials should let prosecutors and accused show their evidence and arguments to good juries. This clarity, objectivity, and attention to the discovery of truth protects the rights of both the accused and the victim. If lawmakers write laws that are not clear, but fuzzy, and if they make them enforceable, not rigidly, but "flexibly," the definitions of law, and of the rights that the law protects, depend solely on the lawmakers' and the law enforcers' whims. Today's classic example of this injustice in the criminal law is the plea bargain. Prosecutors once reserved plea bargains for criminals who testified against their accomplices. Now, they use them to clear court dockets. This procedure benefits almost everyone. Prosecutors obtain quicker convictions. Defense attorneys obtain quicker decisions. Guilty clients suffer smaller penalties. Judges process cases more rapidly. The only people who lose are the people: not "the people" as lawyers say in court, but the real men and women who hire government to protect their rights. You see, we do not hold trials only so that the accused can get a fair shake. We also hold them so that the adversarial process between judge, jury, prosecutor, and defense attorney can bring out all of the truth. Every plea bargain prevents that truth from being dragged out into the sunlight. Every plea bargain prevents a victim, or his family, from learning whether the accused really did commit the crime alleged. And, every plea bargain carries a high probability that the sentence given is unjust. The sentence is unjust because it did not result from a jury's finding of fact. Much of the time, a defendant pleads guilty because his often tax-paid attorney persuades him that going to trial will give him a worse sentence. If the defendant is really guilty, his plea precludes the jury's finding facts that could merit a harsher sentence. If the defendant is really innocent, his plea precludes the jury's finding facts that could merit an acquittal. Either way, we get "justice" that is truly criminal.   Enrich your life with a book about politics and current events... Enrich your political & social life with a politics or news magazine... Something to Think About Index Politics Resource Center Main Page
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