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Lady Justice Statue (Photo credit: vaXzine)
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)
For many people this rather simple command was revised into an even more simple one: do not lie. Now, heaven forbid I be accused of condoning lying, cheating on math tests, and telling your doctor you exercised for 30 minutes every day when all you did was watch the golf channel on TV, but lying is not what this command refers to.
What God is forbidding here is the presenting of false testimony in a legal dispute.
When you really stop and think about it, what is the one single function of government that, if the government gets it wrong, it doesn’t matter how many other things it gets right, the government becomes cruel and inhuman? Not taxation, not health care, not whether someone of a particular sexual orientation can get married or not. Therefore, not anything about which most Americans are all in a tizzy over right now.
No, the one thing that will destroy any government if allowed to exist for any length of time is the one thing that Americans seem to be the least concerned about and that is the judicial system.
If the rights of the citizenship are not carefully protected, if the rights of a victim are not carefully protected, and if the rights of an accused are not carefully protected then it doesn’t matter how efficiently the streets are paved or how regular the trash pickup occurs. The government becomes inhuman and, given time, will fall of its own inhumanity.
And the bedrock foundation of a just and fair judicial system is the requirement that everyone, from the judges to the lawyers to the juries to the witnesses, act in an honest manner. That means telling the truth first, foremost, and always.
I have verbally stated several times that our judicial system is broken, and I almost always get verbally disciplined by someone who happens to hear me say that. But I’ll put it in writing here – our judicial system is broken. I simply do not care that it is the “best judicial system in the world.” It is broken. It stinks. There is no “justice” in our “justice system.” Our system is a financial system, and he or she who has the money will win in the overwhelming majority of cases. Occasionally a judge or jury gets it right – but I would offer that those cases are in the minority. Even if the verdict is correct, the punishment rarely, if ever, fits the crime. Case in point: because of the “three strikes and you are out” laws that many states have, we have “criminals” whose only crime is possessing illegal drugs incarcerated for longer periods of time than someone who intentionally kills someone. Folks, that is just wrong.
I sat on a jury involving a Driving While Intoxicated case. The driver was caught “dead to rights.” It was a text-book open and shut case. However, we had two jurors who had bad experiences with the police previously and they refused to allow the rest of us to convict the driver. He walked with just a slap on the wrist – a meaningless little citation of not being able to maintain his driving lane. This was a perfect example of “bearing false witness.” The jurors lied to the judge and lied to the attorneys who presented the case. They had no intention of allowing the accused to be found guilty. The defendant walked out of the courtroom with a “cat who ate the canary” smirk on his face and the citizens of the community in which we lived lost more of our safety.
On the other hand, many cases have made national headlines involving individuals who have been convicted of serious crimes -rape and murder among them -being released upon further examination and, most commonly, DNA evidence. That raises a profound and disturbing question: how many innocent young men (mostly young black men) have been executed because of a racially stacked jury, with incompetent defense attorneys and blood thirsty prosecutors? It is a chilling question to ask.
Why do we allow this broken system to remain? Two quick answers.
One, we want the system to remain because in the back of our minds we fear being at the defense table, and we want a system that is most likely to work in the favor of the defense. If you have to convince a large number of people that a person is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, the cards are stacked in favor of the defense. Intuitively we know that. That is why very, very few people will opt to have a judge decide the case, although that is always an option. It is better to cast your fate into the hands of 6, or 12 uneducated “peers” than it is to trust it to one solitary person.
Two, and basically conversely, the system is rigged to favor the side who has the most money. The laws will never change because the lawyers own the politicians, and the politicians are not going to bite the hands that feed them. So, if you can afford an expensive attorney, you stand a better chance of winning. If you cannot, and the state has the most money (which is usually the case), you had better accept a plea bargain. That way everybody wins – the defense keeps you out of significant punishment (even if you are guilty) the prosecution can chalk up a “conviction” (even if you are innocent) and the judge gets to clear a case off of his or her docket. Then, all the principal actors get to go out to the bar and have a drink and laugh about the whole sordid affair.
The victim never wins, however. And it is the VICTIM that God is most concerned about in his judicial system. And the only way for the VICTIM to get any justice is for the entire system to be built upon a relentless and unswerving search for truth.
The judge must be compelled to seek the truth of the case – not who has the slickest attorneys, but whether the defendant is guilty or not. The defense attorneys must be compelled to present the truth – not some slick slight-of-hand that gets a defendant released on a technicality. And the prosecutor must be compelled to seek the truth – not just another conviction in his or her resume to be used in seeking higher office. The police must be held to the highest standard in the process of investigating and arresting suspects. And the witnesses must be compelled to tell the truth, all of the truth, and the whole truth when testifying.
I have previously mentioned one simple, foolproof method of making sure this process happens. Simply place the police, the judge, the jury, both attorneys and all witnesses under the same possible sentence as the accused. Then, if it is later determined that anyone dealt falsely during the investigation, the trial or the sentencing (or the acquittal) of the accused, then the person or persons responsible for the “false witness” must be sentenced to the maximum the accused was liable to be punished. That would clean up an awful lot of false witnessing. Or it would fill up our prisons – one or the other. If you question my sanity, read Deuteronomy 19:15-19. I know I extended my solution beyond what is specifically mentioned, but according to our system of “justice” you have to include more characters in order to clean up the mess we are in.
You shall not bear false witness. You shall not allow false witness to be presented. You shall not allow false witness to be purchased, or to be bartered. You shall demand your justice system to be based on a search for truth and the protection of innocent victims. You shall hold your police departments to the highest of standards, realizing they are human. Attorneys, Judges, and juries must be completely above any reproach – and that means trafficking in false testimony.
Convict and punish the guilty, acquit the innocent – provide justice for the victim. That is what the “justice” system is all about.
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