- Oct 12, 2009
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I don't know where you live but I would wager heavily it is not in New York City or, probably, not in any other similarly massive metropolis wherein dozens if not hundreds of arrested persons are brought before an arraignment court five days (or nights) a week. While the vast majority of these individuals are guilty of the offense(s) they are charged with there is ample cause to believe that a small percentage of them are not. And while very few of their total number can afford to pay an experienced criminal lawyer to spend the time it will take to carefully investigate the circumstances surrounding their arrest and to properly prepare a defense, the rest will rely on the extremely limited resources of the public defender's office.Justice for all means you can have your day in court.
If you cannot afford a lawyer, one is appointed to you. Your freedom comment is just off the wall.
The court system does not prevent you from being falsely accused, it is meant for the prosecutor to prove beyond reasonable doubt you did something illegal.
All attempts are made to preserve innocence, until guilt is proven.
Basically you have the legal system backwards. Welcome to America.
In New York City the public defender is the Legal Aid Society which typically is overburdened and cannot possibly provide the kind of representation and oversight which is absolutely essential to mounting an effective criminal defense. As the result of this inability of the System to provide more than the most superficial and glaringly inadequate representation for every insolvent individual charged with a crime the Innocence Project has begun to show that a surprising number of persons convicted of serious crimes and sentenced to long prison terms were clearly innocent of those crimes. The Cases & Exoneree Profiles - Innocence Project
The only point I wish to make here is that anyone who is not able to afford a lawyer, who knows how to navigate the intricately complicated criminal court system, is able to obtain and present the relevant facts and defend them against a false or mistaken criminal charge, can end up in prison -- as many individuals clearly, and shamefully, have.
So I wish to respectfully advise you that your belief that "All attempts are made to preserve innocence . . ." is misguided and misleading where larger communities are concerned. But If you live in a small town where the public defender is not overburdened with individual cases, has time to adequately investigate the relevant circumstances, to make all the necessary motions to examine and present evidence and to re-examine testimony, etc., then you have a valid point.
You realize the OP wants to make prosecuting people easier with less restrictions on evidence gathering and the like...