Three Page Paper in School Chronicles

Professor will be lucky if he gets that. LOL

The subject matter is entirely based upon opinion, but it is “Are criminal laws too lenient and afford those accused of crimes too many rights?”

Truth be told, I don’t have a solid opinion, for or against. What I do know via observation is that there is always an exception and there are cases where leniency is granted to some and not others. Unfortunately, deciding factors can be steeped in racisim, or whether or not the crime is on a federal or state level. There are persons serving time for crimes they are innocent of and have been forced to take a plea deal. There are people who have committed horrible crimes and have either been released via being found not guilty or there were some legal errors that caused the guilty to be set free or do little time.

For those that don’t know, I have a friend that took a plea deal a few months back. The week of my birthday. I thought the defense had a strong case that would be able to acquit my friend. The jury took 3 days to deliberate. I’m not even sure what happened that caused them to settle for a plea. The outcome was he was to serve 120 days in the penitentiary, take sex offender classes and become a registered sex offender. If, at the end of the 120 days, he has had no sexual offenses, they would let him out and he would have 5 years probation. If there were sexual offenses, he would have to serve a full 8 years. The alternative? If he went to trial again and was found guilty, he would serve 48 years. Where is the leniency in that? From what I have seen thus far, a plea deal is just as bad as being found guilty.

In watching a Frontline episode, it just seems to me that the justice system is fraught with people who either don’t have time to give proper counsel, are so set in their ways believing they are doing the right thing and improperly apply laws to suit their own reputations, or they just don’t care enough to do the right thing. Not everyone is like that, I know, but from the viewpoint of the innocently accused, the system is set up to fail them. Money, unfortunately in some cases, rules everything. Where was the leniency when a woman in this episode was wrongfully accused on drug charges? She took a plea deal and was made destitute and homeless because of court fees and the other costs associated with being on probation. To paraphrase what she said, “I make $5.50 an hour. They [court system] just see that if I’m working, I can pay them.” At $5.50 an hour, she cannot properly take care of the two children she has. She, being classified as a felon, cannot receive assistance to supplement her income, feed and cloth herself and her children, nor can she shelter her family.

Okay…I think I laid down some ground work here. LOL
I’m going to move this over to document form and finish the next part.

Thanks for “listening”.