Common Sense Before “Justice”

I’m a big fan of criminal law, or just news relating to crime in general. Thus, I’ve always had an avid interest in a future career as a lawyer. I hear lots of kids says “I want to be a lawyer when I’m older”, but half of these kids are saying it simply because of the money. Shortly said, I love the idea of defending the rights of common people, and fighting for the innocence of those who truely innocent. I see more satisifcation in winning peoples freedom, than I do in draining their pockets.

As I said above, I love criminal law. I usually visit the MSNBC website every night and watch videos under the “Crime and Courts” section. Some of the videos I see really sicken me, and push me to wonder what is wrong with people these days. On the other hand, I often see videos which truely make me doubt the legal system in the USA, or from a broader stand point, North America. I also feel bad for some of the people who are pulled into the system unfairly. Let’s look at a few scenarios which I’ve came across recently.

Scenario 1 – High School Football Coach

Last year, David Stinson, a high school football coach in Kentucky, was charged with reckless homicide and wanton endangerment, after a 15 year old player, Max Gilpin, collapsed on the field, and died shortly after. I realize that for the parents of the boy, it’s been very difficult. My heart also goes out to the 15 year old boy. Nonetheless, I feel that charging the coach with these crimes was not right, and I know many others will agree with me. Charging someone with a crime is not an average occurence — it’s a big thing. As an adult, it can cause them to lose their job, assets, and their freedom. Now, common sense makes it obvious that this was an accident — the coach had no intention of this happening to the player. Even though the parents of the boy are in the right to be upset about their loss, pushing to convict the coach is quite disturbing. David Stinson had to go through the legal system for a painful year, where I’m sure he spent thousands of dollars for legal fees. Is that fair? At the end of the trial last week, David Stinson was found not guilty on the charges, and had no comment for reporters after leaving the court house. On the other hand, the mother particularly, of the 15 year old boy, stated how she was disapointment, and had really wanted a conviction. It may be unfair for me to say this, as I don’t have kids, let alone, I’ve never lost a kid, but I think for her to say that, about a man who devoted his time to allow these children to have fun playing football, is not fair at all.

Scenario 2 – University Student Kills Burglar

About 2 weeks ago, a university student in Baltimore killed an older man, after he found him burglarizing his home. The robber was a man with a long criminal past — over 29 arrests. The university student reacted as almost anyone would have, when confronted by a robber inside their own home. He grabbed the closest thing possible, that he could use as a weapon to defend himself (in his case, a samurai sword). As the robber lunged at the university student, he swung at the burglar with the sword, causing the man to die on the scene. Although the man had a long criminal past, it doesn’t mean he deserved to die. Nonetheless, the boy was only defending himself, and acted as anyone would have under similar circumstances. The boy has not been charged with a crime yet, but the District Attorneys Office is still “investigating”. Well, in my opinion, although someone did die, what is there to investigate? We have a university student, and a man with a very long criminal history. An average person anywhere in the world would have reacted the same.

Okay, so I think given these two scenarios above, you probably understand my point — shouldn’t common sense be used before looking at the Justice System, and putting someone through the legal system? I know in some cases this is done, but from what I’ve shown above, it clearly is not always the case. I just hope that gradually, we see less scenarios similar to these. The system is supposed to convict criminals, not those who acted as any normal human being would have under the unbearable circumstances they found themselves in.