Worth Reading

This past week I came across a number of articles worth mentioning. 

Want to understand why we should be offended over the government’s assassination of an American citizen/terrorist in Yemen?  Read law Professor Jonathan Turley’s Op Ed in Wednesdays (10/5) USA Today.

As the professor noted:

“No republican can long stand if a president retains the unilateral authority to kill citizens whom he deems a danger to the country.  What is left is a magnificent edifice of laws and values that, to quote Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’”

Be afraid when government, with the power to imprison or kill, unilaterally exerts that power without so much as a whimper about law or justice.

In that same day’s paper, the editors of USA Today, noting Amanda Knox’s release, drew a cogent comparison to the Casey Anthony case. 

“How did Knox end up under arrest, held without bail and imprisoned for four years?  Perhaps one part of the answer is that her case had more in common with Anthony’s than first impressions would suggest.  A rush to judgment in any language is a dangerous thing . . . So which system is worse?  One that might let a killer go free or one that puts an innocent person in jail?  Put yourself in Knox’s shoes, and the answer is obvious.”

Two very powerful points.  Here is the simple truth:  prosecutors and police make mistakes.  They want to close cases and get wins.  I have literally met hundreds of men who were lied to, cajoled; you name it, to get a conviction.  Were they guilty?  In most cases, yes.  But when the police are allowed to lie, to distort the truth, justice suffers.

And finally, don’t think Virginia needs prison reform?  Read about the success in Texas with early release, alternative sentencing for non-violent felons, and emphasis on programs.  The Texas Public Policy Foundation reports in its September 2011 newsletter of significant money savings as well as reduced inmate population and lower crime rates.  Perhaps Governor McDonnell could learn a few things from Texas Governor Perry.

Finally “The Daily Press” (Hampton Roads newspaper) called for prison reform on September 26^th.  How many more editorials have to be written before the Governor and the General Assembly finally do the right thing?

Back to Basics

Most of our building was tuned in the other day as the jury returned their verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial.  Guys in prison watch trials.  We read about the crimes and form opinions.  As the Anthony verdict was handed down, to a man the consensus was she at least knew something about what happened to her daughter but the prosecution overreached on the capital murder charge.

I watched the verdict with mixed emotions.  I was disgusted by the allegations that a mom could actually kill her own child.  But, I was more disgusted with the circus atmosphere that took over cable news as various “talking head” lawyers belittled the process and told us what the evidence meant.  This created a feeding frenzy in the public.  Obviously, the girl was a slut who killed her daughter in cold blood.  Or so, the public was led to believe as more and more “details” emerged about her behavior and her family dynamics.  And charlatans like Nancy Grace drew paychecks from CNN by calling the accused “Top Mom”. Where, I wondered, was the rush to remind people in America you are “innocent until proven guilty”?  Yeah, we say that and a whole lot of other cute clichés like “justice for all” and “one nation, under God”, then we go out and ignore the very definition of those terms.

As the verdict was preparing to be read here’s what I saw:  a scared young woman who was totally and completely alone, who had absolutely no control over her life.  I know that feeling; I’ve been there; and, I don’t wish that on anyone.  Ironically, the morning the verdict was to be rendered I read a portion of Chapter 23 in the Gospel of Matthew.  In the passage, Jesus is skewering the hypocrisy of the “law abiding” citizens of the day (the Pharisees and Sadducees) for being frauds.  In the Modern Language Bible it says:

“You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment – the absolute basics! – you carelessly take it or leave it…the basics are required.”

We have so distorted the meaning of justice in this country that we somehow feel justified protesting in front of a courthouse because a jury decided to find a young mother not guilty of capital murder rather than executing her.  And the people who are protesting don’t know unequivocally that she did it.  None of us do.  Ultimately, only the perpetrator and God know.

How, I ask, is “justice served” by killing this woman?  Perhaps the most profound thing I heard throughout this entire sordid episode was when her attorney, after the verdict said:

“We have to stop thinking killing is a legitimate punishment for killing.”
 
Justice, dear readers, requires wholeness and restoration and forgiveness.  Our prisons are full, our court dockets clogged with millions of people who are being subjected to a justice system that is quick to emphasize guilt and punishment and dismally poor when it comes to dispensing Godly justice.

The sad fact is, as much as we hate to admit it; we are all similar to Casey Anthony.  I don’t mean we all ignore a missing child for 31 days or we become pathologic with our lies.  But all of us do wrong things from time to time.  Even Mother Teresa took contributions from notorious drug lords rationalizing that while the money may be dirty; God’s use for it was clean.

Here’s my hope.  That we lose interest in other people’s misfortunes.  We allow the judicial system to work the way it’s supposed to work.  And, we demand the police and prosecutors act within the law and ethically.  We ignore these loudmouths on the tube who profess to know so much.  Finally, we remember God has the final say.  And how we judge others is how we will be judged.

I stood in a courtroom two and a half years ago and heard a Commonwealth Attorney make false statements about me and a judge ignore my remorse.  I take no joy in anyone’s misfortune.  I learned that day that all of us could find ourselves in a situation that goes horribly awry.  And the last thing we want - or need - are people passing judgment on our behavior when they haven’t walked a day in our shoes.

It’s time, Jesus said, to get back to the basics.  That’s true justice.