A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Monday, July 15, 2013

Do We Have a "Justice" System?

Tony Jones doesn't think so. He writes,

I am no expert in criminal legal matters. But I know what it's like to be involved in our court system. I know the frustration of being caught in a web of legal technicalities and a byzantine bureaucracy. I know what it's like to be completely reliant upon high-priced attorneys to wade through that thicket.

Ours is not a justice system. It's a court system. If we can discipline ourselves to acknowledge that, it will benefit our mental health.

That's not to say that we shouldn't keep fighting for justice. We should. Indeed, we need to, for Trayvon and for children who don't get to see their fathers and for others who are caught in the system that is a court system and not a justice system. But we need to be realistic about the ability of our court system to deliver justice, and we need to look for other avenues of justice in our society.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

During my undergraduate years I was selected for jury duty. The case involved a man that admittedly was driving over 80 mph, took out 63 feet of guardrail, and 9 guardrail posts. His car spun around finally hitting the curb at 5 mph. He fell out becoming paralyzed. The jury was hung 50-50. He sued a major car manufacturer for failure for his seatbelt to keep him in the vehicle. He was asking for money for medical, cost of lawyers, loss of body function, and future pay, pension, etc. After the deliberations the attorneys told us he was drunk, but that fact was not allowed since it had "nothing" to do with the seatbelt functioning. It seems that justice was not given to the car manufacturer. The jury also learned that he sued the guardrail company and several others for malfunctioning products and design. Until then I had a lot of faith in our system of justice. But I would still rather live in America where we do have a system in place.

Allan R. Bevere said...

Anon,

Your experience is astounding, but not completely surprising.

Country Parson said...

Good post Allan

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that the fact that we have a "court system" instead of a system for coming to justice is a reason to keep fighting for justice.

-Pam Garrud