Soap Box

There is a feeling shared by many people in this country that the super rich and powerfully connected in America are not subjected to the same kind of justice as the less influential among us, and this attitude is not without some justification.

President Obama's sealing of information pertinent to Eric Holder's disastrous Fast and Furious gun running fiasco could have well kept him from doing jail time. But we'll never know as an executive privilege shield was placed around him before the true facts could be dug out and presented.

Hillary Clinton's fate for trying to hide the truth about her emails and then lying about it still remains to be seen but I'd bet a good horse against a stick of chewing gum that she never serves a day in jail or suffers a penalty as severely as General David Petraus who was guilty of a much lesser crime.

Nixon's pardon, and the similar ones that are handed out in the last days of a president's administration seldom involve any of the thousands of common folks who have been convicted of crimes because they couldn't afford the caliber of lawyer they needed, all add to the suspicion that the upper crust gets a much fairer shake than anybody else. 

The statue of the lady who represents judicial justice wears a blindfold portraying her as one who sees neither color, creed, race or religion and administers justice evenhandedly to all,
presuming innocence until guilt is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

But we all know that, unfortunately, this does not always ring true as pre trial public pressure and the deeply held personal ideologies of the judges involved can come into play, sometimes benefiting the guilty in the sentencing phase to the point of letting a child molester - who has been proven to be guilty - off with a light sentence and in some cases no sentence at all.

I know for a fact that several decades ago race played a part in conviction and sentencing as in the segregated parts of the country, black people walked into court with at least one strike already against them, especially if the case involved a supposed offense involving a white person.

Major organized crime figures have been known to stay out of jail for decades because of being able to intimidate witnesses and afford lawyers who knew how to take advantage of the fact. Only through the above and beyond efforts of dedicated prosecutors did the likes of John Gotti ever see the inside of a jail cell.

There are thousands of Americans in prisons across the country who shouldn't really be there, people who were caught with small amounts of controlled substance and because of some zero tolerance law passed years ago by zealous, but non-comprehending politicians trying to clean up the drug problem in their state, they were caught in the web of mandatory sentencing and put away for years.

Conversely, there are thousands of others walking the streets as guilty as sin who, through some technicality or the failings of an incompetent prosecutor, were able to walk away from crimes many times worse, often posing an ongoing threat to society.

Remember O.J.?

Another source of gaming the system is the battery of ambulance chasers and opportunists, attorneys who actually seek out people who were involved but uninjured in minor accidents in traffic, or at work and try to talk them into claiming an injury with the promise of compensation
at the expense of the party or company involved.

Many times the companies settle out of court rather than going to the expense of a trial and then they pass the expense on to customers.

What do we do to level the playing field and make sure Lady Justice's blindfold stays in place?

Well, for one thing America desperately needs tort reform, an unlikely happening since almost all legislators are lawyers and regardless of party they stand shoulder to shoulder against it.

If the law was such that if the case went to court and the complainant lost, the complainant had to pay their own lawyer plus the defendants lawyer, a lot of this nonsense would come to a screaming halt. 

I think we should pay more attention to the judges we vote for in local elections making sure they represent our convictions in administering justice.

Unfortunately, there is little we can do about the ones who are appointed, who, I feel, are appointed more for their political leanings than their attitude toward ground level jurisprudence.

Fortunately, our justice system, for the most part is manned by honorable and dedicated people who take equality and fairness very seriously and make every effort to administer the law of the land in a fair and impartial manner.

But nobody should fall through the cracks or escape justice in America because of wealth and connections or lack thereof.

Everybody deserves a fair shake.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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