I had an idea for changing the courts a while back, I would be curious to see if it would ever work out. But, what I have noticed about our current law system, is how much is relies on lying. Almost nobody pleads guilty at the onset, everything starts from the angle of pleading not guilty for the most part. You get rewarding for lying right from the get go…
I might also say I think in the eyes of God, people that defend people they know are guilty and help them get away with the crime, are essentially a co-conspirator of the crime, like the get-away driver in a way. I hate lawyers that look at getting criminals off as good for business… Now, I might be able to see something where you like the person and don’t believe they deserve a full sentence or something and are trying to help them not spend as much time in jail or something, that you truly don’t think the person deserves it…
I always think of Abraham Lincoln who refused to take any case that he thought the person was guilty… in fact one time while he was defending a person, he realized the guy was guilty and had to leave the room, he wanted to tell the judge he thought the person was guilty now, but people told him he could be disbarred for doing that. That is an example of a great lawyer to me.
But, I have an idea, where we reward people for pleading guilty… If you plead guilty, I think you should have a sentencing trial where you explain to a jury why you did what you did, how you ended up in your situation… your telling people you are guilty of the crime, but you get a chance to explain why you don’t deserve the full sentence or shouldn’t be punished. I could see some instances where people plead guilty and get away with a crime all together after explaining what happened or their life story. Just being willing to plead guilty is already an example of why you don’t deserve the full sentence. But, the catch is, if you plead not-guilty and get found guilty, you automatically get the full sentence… Lying shows why you deserve the full sentence… This way we would be rewarding people for not lying…
Lawyers would probably need time to prepare and get character witnesses and people to collaborate stories… but I think it could be a good system potentially.
Schizophrenic thought… sometimes I think people are trying to tell me we are already trying this places and it is working well…
I don’t like that a lawyer has to defend someone they think is guilty… the way we do it now a bit, if everyone thinks they are guilty, they should have to plead guilty or defend themselves… perhaps a lawyer could just help them with courtroom etiquette or something like that… Seems weird we make someone help a person get away with a crime they think they are guilty of… That or allow a lawyer to say, I think he is guilty, but I am helping him present his case… I don’t know…
I am of course open to debate about all of this… just some thoughts…
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