Many believe the American justice system protects the law-abiders from law-breakers by convicting and incarcerating the wrong doers. The vehicle to accomplish this is the trial by way of judge and or jury. However, that vehicle has rusted exposing gapping holes while running on empty. Apparently, unintended consequences have created a cancer, the silent invisible killer.
The courts support and are maintained by convictions, not exonerations. Winning is paramount, not truth or justice witnessed by organizations as the Innocence Project or the Justice Project continually quantifying and exposing shameful situations. Emphasizing convictions instead of truth has incarcerated over 2.5 million within America, more than any record-keeping nation on the face of the earth. The myth of increased convictions to decrease crime rates has been shoved down the throats of Americans every way possible while statistics bear otherwise
Prosecutors are paid and promoted for convictions, as are judges. And most judges paved the way to the royal robe as a prosecutor. A successful prosecutor, that is.
Most judges are substandard. Concentration is directed to orchestrating procedures that are unnecessarily complex administered by inefficient court employees instead of preserving individual freedoms against government aggression.
Law enforcement officials can and do arrest on, flawed, incomplete, fabricated and no evidence at all. Affidavits are sworn, under penalty of perjury, a meaningless unenforceable penalty. As such, these so-called truth statements are accepted without corroboration justified by an expectation of voluntarily rising to the standards of law and ethics of honesty.
The right to a speedy trial has become contra productive. Prosecutors routinely and purposefully delay exposing key discovery to the defense. Most omit relevant, exculpatory evidence or hide it in massive paper dumps, deciphered only by highly paid, highly qualified legal professionals. Direct evidence is often lacking, leading the prosecutors to theories and suppositions, now becoming the norm and not the exception. Defendants are restricted to actual facts while the prosecution has no such constraints.
Counsel plays a game of hide and seek, catch me if you can, ring around the rosy so all fall down. Tactics, documents, witnesses and obscure resources are the ringer, the players introduced by surprise in the hopes of overwhelming the opponent to initiate a settlement.
Misconduct, opinionated forensics, and self-proclaimed necessity to permit creativity, are acceptable. The routine declaration of flight or danger to society fosters a 'held without bail' decision or astronomically unaffordable bail incarcerating individuals for years. Yet this prosecutorial tool has no defense equivalent and thus no recourse. Imagine that!
The notion of innocent until proven guilty is a worthless dead dinosaur. Even a "not guilty" verdict is not a proclamation of innocence.
Defendants are laden with numerous serious crimes along with ridiculous charges to inspire a plea bargain. Intimidating threats and fear of the unknown favor the path to settle. The misunderstood deal waives the defendant's right to trial while declaring the prosecution the winner, even if untrue, all without the full understanding of the lifelong repercussions.
No government shall ever be much better than its courts.
This is one story. A raid on an organization of like-minded individuals and related companies called the 'largest crackdown in the history of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.' You decide if justice was served.