Lawyers and Defenders

[Bravus]

A friend who reads here requested that I post this for discussion. That person is an American, so this is someone worried about his/her own country, not me as an outsider.

It's a crucial issue in relation to justice, and I believe something that should be of great concern to Christians:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050829/ts_usatoday/8yearsinalouisianajailbutheneverwenttotrial

[Dr. Shane]

I would hope this is somewhat of an isolated incident. Saddly, this kind of thing happens quite often in Mexico and perhaps other countries too. What makes this story newsworthy is that this happened in the United States where these types of things are not known to happen very often.

The poor do get the bad end of the stick. For example if a poor man's neighbor calls the police because he thinks his neighbor is fighting with his wife, the poor neighbor can be hauled into jail. If he doesn't have money for bail, he may have to sit there for 3 or 4 months even if he never hit his wife. One needs a lawyer to get justice and good lawyers cost money. Public defenders may be "good" but they get spread so thin they can spend the amount of time on their clients cases that they need to.