What’s The Problem?

I read Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center pretty regularly. As Paul Kennedy at The Defense Rests pointed out earlier this year, however, it is sometimes tough to figure out if its author, Murray Newman, remembers that he is a defense lawyer and not a prosecutor.

Murray’s newest crusade seems to be some issue with Harris County Texas’s chief prosecutor, the soon-to-be-replaced Pat Lykos, and a defense lawyer named Dick DeGuerin. I’ve heard of the defense lawyer before, mostly through his representation of high profile clients, and I saw that he has his own Wikipedia page. Must be a big deal, right? Regardless, it seems Murray is mad about Lykos looking into what DeGuerin believes was the wrongful conviction of one of his clients. Although his thoughts about the situation make for good reading, I’m left confused.

Murray is a defense lawyer. Lykos is a top prosecutor who is concerned about a conviction that might be wrongful. Whether it’s a result of the defense lawyer’s power or prestige, or even if it’s a result of some old fashioned nepotism or politics or a personal vendetta, the situation in general is something that needs to happen a lot more often. Prosecutors need to rethink their decisions. When there might’ve been foul play by the state, why not investigate? The way that I see it, the situation is indicative of the diseased thinking that’s led to the justice system being as bad as it is.

When someone gets what everyone should get but few do, we react in the wrong way. We don’t think about how we could make it better for all of us. Instead, we get angry about how some have it better than others. We’re mad at the bigwigs who get the treatment we’d all like. We don’t bother trying to get equal justice for all, but rather an equally unfair result and an equally oppressive punishment for everyone. It’s like finding out that the house cheats in cards against everyone except the most famous gamblers and demanding that they cheat in games with them too rather than demanding they play according to the rules no matter who’s playing.

I’d like to think that most people agree that we shouldn’t send people away after an unfair trial. How does it help us to achieve a better system by calling out the people in power every time they make the right decision for the wrong reasons? Have we really given up all hope of having a system that’s not just equal but fair?