AMERICAN JUSTICE IS FLAWED AT CORE

AMERICAN JUSTICE IS FLAWED AT CORE

By Andy Weddington

Thursday, 03 April 2025

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.  - Theodore Roosevelt

The presumption of innocence is the heart of American justice. 

But that presumption applies to the accused; who may be lying or telling the truth.

The assumption that accusers, and those (e.g., police officers, detectives, attorneys, trial judges, courts of appeal, et al.) acting on behalf of accusers and the safety of society, tell the truth is false. 

And that flaw negates blind justice. 

Months ago I read John Grisham and Jim McCloskey's non-fiction 'FRAMED - Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions' - ten cases (from hundreds) of wrongfully convicted people on death row. 

That convictions, of innocent people, happened because of liars in the chain of judicial due process (sometimes at more than one level) initially disheartening but after deeper thought terrifying (because it could happen to me and you).

Noted DNA has, in some cases, proved wrongful conviction. 

Yet the long and wide red tape of bureaucracy obstructs; typically, speedy not characteristic.  

Once in a while cases in the book come to mind during long walks. That happened this morning (as my wife now reading and we discuss after she finishes a case). 

How is it possible a person who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, witnesses crime, doing civic duty reports crime to police, then winds up being the primary suspect - arrested, charged, tried, sentenced to death? 

How is that possible?

Back to flawed at the core - the presumption police officers, detectives, attorneys, trial judges, and judges hearing appeals, without exception, tell the truth. 

One reasonable way to correct this false assumption - before case tried in front of jury - is to subject everyone in the due process chain to polygraph. 

Simple questions. 

For example, "Have you done, seen, or know of anything done dishonestly in the arrest and charging of the accused?" [Or some such words, and other logical questions.]

Might there be corrupt polygraphers? Of course. But that does not negate doing whatever possible to realize fairness, truth. 

All men are capable, for sundry temptations, of evil. 

Is there evil more evil than concoction of case and collusion thereafter to arrest, charge, try, convict, and sentence to death an innocent man (woman)? And appeal be corrupt? 

I know police officers, detectives, criminal lawyers (defense and prosecutors), a judge or two, and sat as jury foreman during a criminal (felony burglary) double defendant trial. [Note: I have not been a police officer and am not a lawyer but have presided over military non-judicial punishment cases, conducted summary courts martial, and testified during Boards of Inquiry and Special and General Courts Martial.]

My takeaway from that civilian criminal court experience in California was the system was about as fair as possible.

That opinion, based on facts, truth, case law, and thinking through the idea of fair since, has changed. 

American justice is flawed at the core.

Validating "the good guys," all times, aligns with Theodore Roosevelt's opening thought.

Let's be reasonable; from outset remove doubt. 

In closing, last fall (before reading 'FRAMED') I had a quite intimate tour, including visiting and speaking with inmates on Death Row, of Angola - Louisiana State Penitentiary. At the time, 54 awaiting. Were any framed? More than once I've wondered.