Price of Justice

[XenoMorph]

(06-08-2016, 02:20 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Let me ask this hypothetical, if the kid was poor & black from the 'hood' at that party and raped that unconscious girl, would he have gotten the same sentence? Heck he doesnt have to be black, he could be latino or white from the hood. I am guessing that there would be a much stiffer sentence handed out in the exact same trial.

A Lot can depend on the judge and evidence at hand I would imagine.  and place it occurred.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(06-08-2016, 02:05 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Money doesn't let a person get away with everything.  Just ask Mike Tyson and Aaron Hernandez.

Or OJ Simpson?  C'mon Fred even you know it helps to have money.  Actually I was hoping to hear your 2 cents on this, given that you are an attorney.   I concede that there are cases in which no matter how much money or lack there of will change the out come.  While we're at it...why is it up to an officers discretion on which laws he enforces and which ones he doesn't? 

[BigPapaKain]

(06-08-2016, 02:05 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Money doesn't let a person get away with everything. Just ask Mike Tyson and Aaron Hernandez.

Or any politician. Or OJ. Ray Lewis. Kobe Bryant. Roman Polanski.

For every rich person who got burned down, I bet I could find two who got away with it.

[fredtoast]

(06-08-2016, 02:28 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: Or OJ Simpson? 

Money did not make the State's lead prosecutor lie on the stand.  If Furman had not lied under oath Simpson would have been convicted.  The theatrics of defense attorneys don't help unless they have a defense to work with.

That being said money does help a lot when it comes to beating criminal charges.  But I don't see any way to fix this problem.

Many times it is not just the defense lawyers that money can buy.  Instead it is because judges are less likely to put productive members of society in jail.  

[fredtoast]

(06-08-2016, 02:30 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Or any politician. Or OJ. Ray Lewis. Kobe Bryant. Roman Polanski.

For every rich person who got burned down, I bet I could find two who got away with it.

Except there is no evidence that Rey Lewis killed anyone or that Kobe raped anyone other than your own opinion.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(06-08-2016, 02:11 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Conflict of interest. There would be a legal challenge if that was every forced (basically making all criminal lawyers public). 

I don't see it as a conflict of interest.  The state is prosecuting you with a lot more resources than you have.  Why shouldn't you have the same amount of legal expertise without additional cost to you?   Also I would think that if both sides are getting paid the same, you'd have less  of lawyers exploiting loopholes to get their clients off.

I dunno just seems like there could be a better system.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(06-08-2016, 02:34 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Money did not make the State's lead prosecutor lie on the stand.  If Furman had not lied under oath Simpson would have been convicted.  The theatrics of defense attorneys don't help unless they have a defense to work with.

That being said money does help a lot when it comes to beating criminal charges.  But I don't see any way to fix this problem.

Many times it is not just the defense lawyers that money can buy.  Instead it is because judges are less likely to put productive members of society in jail.  

My point was (and you just conceded to) is that money influences justice.  It seems to me that they're should be a more fair system in place.

[Rotobeast]

(06-08-2016, 02:54 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: My point was (and you just conceded to) is that money influences justice.  It seems to me that they're should be a more fair system in place.

Perhaps a system (somewhat like affirmative action) where lawyers are required to represent a certain percentage of low income clients per year ?
Wage cap ?
I don't know what an answer would be, but I agree there has to be something a bit more fair.

[GMDino]

(06-08-2016, 03:10 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: Perhaps a system (somewhat like affirmative action) where lawyers are required to represent a certain percentage of low income clients per year ?
Wage cap ?
I don't know what an answer would be, but I agree there has to be something a bit more fair.

I don't see attorneys agreeing to anything that would make them less money.

[BigPapaKain]

(06-08-2016, 02:36 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Except there is no evidence that Rey Lewis killed anyone or that Kobe raped anyone other than your own opinion.

And OJ was acquitted, so if anyone calls him a murderer it's their opinion, not the fact of the matter.

[Rotobeast]

(06-08-2016, 03:12 PM)GMDino Wrote: I don't see attorneys agreeing to anything that would make them less money.

Oh, I didn't really think such a thing possible/valid.
Just spit-balling and I've seen such suggested in other discussions about equal pay for the same occupation.
Not really serious.

[Benton]

(06-08-2016, 12:44 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: Well that's the purpose of my thread.  How could it be?  Seems there should be a more fair system.  Think about it, you make a mistake and because you don't know the details of the law  and the prosecutors do, you pay heavily.  Or because you can pay for hot shot lawyer that knows the details you can literally get away with murder.  It comes down to whether or not you have money, how is that fair?  That's not justice IMO.

(06-08-2016, 01:31 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: I'm wondering, and I'm just spit ballin here...if there could be a better way?  Both parties involved represented by the state?  Both parties represented by private parties?  Why one party would seem to have endless resources while the other does not.  I think both should be represented by the same entity, either public or private.  I just think they're could be a better way.

The problem is you're always going to have people and no two of us are the same. Even the same person won't do the same thing the same way every time. And any time you have two people, one is going to do something "better" than the other. It doesn't matter if it's hit a ball, draw a picture or argue a point.

[*bfine32*]

Is the contention that poor people "Never get away with it"?

Maybe we just think it's higher among the rich and famous because it is higher profile when they do

[fredtoast]

(06-08-2016, 03:13 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: And OJ was acquitted, so if anyone calls him a murderer it's their opinion, not the fact of the matter.

No.  There was actually a lot of evidence that OJ committed the murder.

With Rey and Kobe there was none.  Rey was there when the murder occurred, but he was not involved.  With Kobe there was a claim of rape, but it was redacted.