Prison, dentists, and the least among us

By Frank Moraes

The worst thing about society is our tendency to want to see justice done. The problem with this is that the universe is unjust and our society is even more so. I have heard a number of supposed feminists gloat about the idea of a rapist going to prison and being raped himself. Even apart from that not being an example of justice, the fact is that rapists who go to prison are far more likely to be rapists there than they are to be the victims of rape. That's the way things work in our "justice" system.

Our prisons exist to meed out retribution, not justice. Right now, there is a continuing over-crowding and healthcare crisis going on in California prisons. But the question is how did this come to pass? The people wanted to get "tough on crime," but they didn't want to pay for it. Because people in jail just don't matter. Addicts are left to detox in great pain in prison with nothing but a couple of Advil every four hours and a private cell if they are lucky. Others are allowed to die because their healthcare needs are not taken seriously. As a society, we just don't care about these people. They are "bad" even though most would be better defined as simply "unlucky."

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Making sense of the Zimmerman verdict

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Like many others, I tweeted a lot last night in response to the Zimmerman verdict. Like many others, I wanted -- and still want -- #JusticeForTrayvon. Here are a couple of them:

It's the justice system imperfect? Yes. Is there racism in America? Yes. Are Florida laws appalling? Yes. Strive for change. #ZimmermanTrial

— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) July 14, 2013

Ultimately, the problem is much deeper than a verdict in a single case, however sad. Fight for change, fight for justice. #ZimmermanTrial
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) July 14, 2013

And yet, while I understood, and still do, the enormous outpouring of outrage, and while I abhorred, and always will, the gloating coming from the pro-Zimmerman types on the right, I must say I found much of the reaction to the verdict, from those outraged, unnecessarily weighed down with grotesque hyperbole at a time when what is needed is perspective and a sober sense of what to do now now that the trial is over.

For example, there were those attacking the jurors for supposedly being right-wing morons, as if we can possibly know what was going through their minds, consciously or not, as they reached a verdict in one of the most controversial trials in recent memory.

And there were those attacking the defense attorneys. Yes, there was some ugly gloating on their part, but they were also just doing their jobs.

And those attacking the system without really understanding how criminal justice works.

And today I saw some insanely calling for a boycott of the State of Florida, as if that somehow would solve the problem.

And so on.

This is not to say that I'm happy with the verdict or that I think justice was done. Please. This isn't an either/or thing.

I think we know pretty clearly what happened, or at least we think we do, and I think we know pretty clearly that racism was involved in what happened, and perhaps also in some rather less clear way in the trial/verdict, and I think it's understandable to be angry, disappointed, frustrated.

But while wanting justice for Trayvon Martin, and finding the whole damn thing abhorrent, let's not make the mistake of mistaking this one case for more than it was.

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Debra Milke and the injustice system

By Frank Moraes

This is a picture of Debra Milke. You can see she's a pretty woman but there is a lot of pain in that face. She has suffered a lot. Her 4-year-old son was murdered 23 years ago. And for the last 22 years, she's been on death row of taking part in his murder. She's innocent, of course. Hopefully, she will be released from prison very soon.

Milke is, of course, yet another example of the evilness of the death penalty. If most proponents of these laws had their way, Milke would be long dead. "I don't want to pay for them to sit in jail! Just kill the bastards!" Sadly, I've heard that time and again over the years—even from liberals. The government has a hard time keeping the roads free of potholes, but somehow it is perfect when it chooses to kill.

What is most appalling about the case of Debra Milke is how she was convicted. There was no physical evidence. There was no eyewitness evidence. There was just the claim by a cop that he "didn't buy" her reaction to hearing that her son had died. This was apparently enough to not only arrest and convict her; it was enough to sentence her to death.

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The Oreo felon

By Frank Moraes

This is a picture of Penny Winters. I always wonder about these things. It is a "mug shot." And yet, Ms. Winters has been convicted of no crime. But somehow, the "justice" system seems to think it is just fine to release her photo to the world.

I present her photo to you as an example of an entirely typical victim of our fascistic corporate welfare injustice system. This 63 year old woman is facing felony theft charges for eating multiple unauthorized cookies while working at Walmart. Most recently, the management caught her eating Oreos. But if Walmart is like places I've worked, the management is busy going over months of video tape to see just exactly how many cookies the felonious Walmart employee ate. Is it any wonder that Walmart's profits slipped from $16.4 billion in 2011 to $15.7 billion in 2012?!

In all seriousness, what Ms. Winters allegedly did was wrong. But such "leakage" is common and accepted. If her total cookie intake raised her cost to the company by as much as 1%, I would be surprised. Walmart's profits are falling because people like Winters don't have as much money to spend at places like Walmart. And a high profile felony prosecution of an employee for filching some cookies is not going to do anything to improve their bottom line.

This is justice in the United States. Winters could go to prison for years for her crime. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for a single banker to go to jail for their fraudulent games that caused the current depression. I'm so very proud.

And the la-hand of the Freeeeee!
And the hoooome, of thhhhhe, braaaave!

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)

Amanda Knox is free

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I had heard of Amanda Knox, the young American woman convicted of murder in Italy, but I didn't think all that much about her case until I read The Monster of Florence, the fantastic book by crime writer Douglas Preston and Italian journalist Mario Spezi on perhaps the most notorious serial killer in Italian history -- it includes an afterward on the Knox case, presented as yet another case of gross injustice on the part of the incredibly corrupt Italian legal system (with some of the same people involved).

Reading that book, one thing was clear: Amanda Knox was innocent.

She was a victim of that system, from police to prosecutors, and despite overwhelming evidence she was rotting away in an Italian prison. The system had too much riding on her conviction ever to let her go, and while she had a good deal of support in the U.S., with family and friends fighting for her conviction to be overturned and for her release, a noble and determined struggle for the truth finally to prevail, in Italy and elsewhere she was widely seen as a bloodthirsty cult murderer, a femme fatale of sorts, so strong was the very much anti-American propaganda machine lined up against her, feeding a lascivious public with more and more lies.

For more on the case, see this recent piece by Katie Crouch at Slate:

So why are these people still in jail? There are many layers of reasons, largely having to do with the singular and complicated Italian legal system. Not that ours is so perfect. (Please see the West Memphis Three.) But some of this mess, it may be said, was caused by tabloid-hungry folks at dinner parties who wanted a different death for Meredith Kercher than a break-in gone wrong. I know I did, sad as I am about it. And Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor, obliged us...

My educated end-of-summer conclusion: Two innocent people are locked up partly because orgies are fun to talk about.

That may very well be true, though I would add that the prosecution -- the system -- wanted to find Knox guilty and made sure it happened. Those involved wanted it for personal and professional reasons, to get ahead, to make a splash in a high-profile case. Knox was their victim, and she paid for it.

Until now, at long last:

With a rapt worldwide television audience looking on, an Italian court on Monday reversed the murder conviction of 24-year-old Amanda Knox, the American student whose sensational murder trial had reverberated on both sides of the Atlantic.

The decision was read out a little before 10 p.m. to a courtroom heavy with tensions and emotions built up over the four years since the arrest of Ms. Knox and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, for the killing of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Mr. Sollecito’s conviction was also overturned Monday.

As it became evident that she was being cleared of all charges, save one of defamation, a deeply stressed Ms. Knox slumped in her chair and began to sob, before falling into the arms of one of her lawyers, Maria Del Grosso.

"She'd been terrified; if I hadn't held her up she would have crumbled," Ms. Del Grosso said. "All she could say was thank you."

Throughout the original trial and the appeal, prosecutors tried to paint Ms. Knox as a calculating femme fatale, a "she-devil" capable of murderous acts despite her sweet courtroom appearance and demeanor.

But their case was based mostly on circumstantial evidence. The validity of the main forensic evidence, microscopic amounts of DNA on the murder weapon and on a bra clasp, was thrown into doubt this summer by a report from independent experts that was highly critical of the police's handling and analysis of the materials. 

Circumstantial evidence that in the end didn't stand up, and much more that Preston and Spezi get into in their book. Again, it was abundantly clear that she was innocent.

I don't know if Amanda Knox is a good person or not. I presume she is. She was over in Italy as a young woman travelling abroad, as many young Americans do, and she got caught up in something horrendous, accused of a brutal murder she didn't commit, then convicted and held in prison for four years. And while one certainly feels for Kercher's family, what do they know about what did and didn't happen? Knox can't be their scapegoat just because the authorities told them she did it and they want closure. I hope she can find peace now, and can find someway to go on with her life.

There will of course be people who continue to vilify Knox. I saw that already, shortly after the verdict came down. Just read the comments to any news article on it, though I warn you you'll find yourself in a cesspool of ignorance and vitriol.

But she is free. Justice has finally been done, overcoming great odds stacked against it by a system that seems to reward opportunism, incompetence, and downright malevolence.

Yes, Amanda Knox is free. And that's all that matters.

Tom DeLay: Guilty!

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(Make sure to watch Distributorcap's fantastic mashup, posted earlier this evening.)

Here's the good news:

AUSTIN, Tex. — Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful and divisive Republican lawmakers ever to come out of Texas, was convicted Wednesday of money-laundering charges in a state trial, five years after his indictment here forced him to resign as majority leader in the House of Representatives.

After 19 hours of deliberation, a jury of six men and six women decided that Mr. DeLay was guilty of conspiring with two associates in 2002 to circumvent a state law against corporate contributions to political campaigns. He was convicted of one charge of money laundering and one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

As the verdict was read, Mr. DeLay, 63, sat stone-faced at the defense table. Then he rose, turned, smiled and hugged his wife and then his weeping daughter in the first row of spectators. He faces between 5 and 99 years in prison, though the judge may choose probation.

A few minutes later, Mr. DeLay said outside the courtroom that he would appeal the decision. He called the prosecution a political vendetta by Democrats in the local district attorney's office, and revenge for his role in orchestrating the 2003 redrawing of Congressional districts to elect more Republicans.

"This is an abuse of power," he said. "It's a miscarriage of justice. I still maintain my innocence. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system."

Actually, no, it's what DeLay himself did that undermines American democracy, not a fair trial that resulted in a guilty verdict.

And while I would bet on probation, and while it's not surprising that DeLay will appeal and continues to protest his innocence -- he probably can't even fathom that he did anything wrong, so criminally corrupt is he -- I would just note that he was found guilty by a jury in Texas, where DeLay is likely to find more sympathy than anywhere else, and that there's nothing to suggest that this trial was in any way a "vendetta." 

It's called the rule of law, Tom. It's supposedly the American way, however much you may wish to exempt yourself, and your party, from its application.

Kids in cages

By Capt. Fogg

"Children should neither be seen or heard from - ever again" said W.C. Fields.

Surprisingly, our activist Supreme Court has begged to differ. It was only five years ago that the Supreme Court finally decided that killing kids for justice was a bit behind the times, but of course some "Conservative" states have continued to sentence juveniles to life without parole. Chief amongst those states is Florida, which houses about 70% of them.

It would be hard to describe Florida as a particularly child-friendly state. Although I can't say it's particularly friendly to those who prey on them or neglect them, the poverty, substance abuse and ignorance that abound isn't child friendly either. Certainly "55 and older" communities are everywhere and as communities of older people are more likely to be afraid of the noise wild behavior and petty crime, there's a certain hostility. There's a certain feeling of helplessness and even terror amongst older people that can lead to hostility. It's a terror that overrides conscience in some cases and that sides with a draconian justice system while whimpering about a less powerful government.

Of course there's a big difference between chasing those brats off your lawn and locking them up in a cage for as long as they shall live, and that bit of casual inhumanity has at last drawn Supreme attention. Terrance Graham was implicated in armed robberies when he was a minor and has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. The court voted 5-4 on Monday and Kennedy, writing for the majority said:

"The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law. This the Eighth Amendment does not permit." (as a cruel punishment)

This decision was a majority one because Chief Justice Roberts sided for once with the liberals although with the qualification that it should not apply to all non-homicide crimes. That of course makes the decision less than decisive. It's a step forward, but a timid and qualified step toward humanity; toward sometimes, in some cases allowing a second chance to someone who got caught doing what millions of others have got away with and never done again. That's just the sort of thing conservatives object to: making the law and justice more congruent; making the law for man and not man for the law -- and that's just the reason we need to balance the angry, self righteous and fearful elements on the court.

(Cross posted from Human Voices)