Posted on 09/18/2006 6:16:11 AM PDT by Smoke Bomb
Because lawyers make the rules?
Who knows. Because for a couple/three generations people who should have known better were eunuchs and let people with the minds and hearts of orcs take over.
Answer to 1-7
Because we are a nation of laws and the administration of those laws is often expensive.
In the disposition of this case you will find...
the difference between Oregon and Texas.
Although I was suprised to learn that the death penalty is available in Oregon.
A .22 long rifle shell can still be had for about 4 cents. For extra insurance, though, I'd go with a .22 Magnum. They're about 15 cents each.
The laws are also written with overly complex procedures in overly complex language that generates the need for lots of legal services to implement those laws.
The language isn't particularly complex, it is very precise. Though legal documents do use words that are particular to the field.
The reason such precision is required is that our legal system is "adversarial." That is to say, if you get two sides arguing as best they can, there is a good chance the truth will come out.
The procedures are nothing more than the "rules of the game." If you looked at the rule book for football, you'll see very complex procedures as well.
However, what you may be really saying is why can't it just be "common sense?" The answer, of course, is that "common sense" is more fallible than highly organized procedures.
The laws obviously need a heckuva lot of changing.
It's beyond disgusting that a serial killer lives on for more than 20 years at taxpayer expense with a TEAM of lawyers pleading for his life.
Once it's clear he done the deed, he should be removed from Mother Earth tout suite. Clean, cheap, and everyone (including Mother Earth) breathes a sigh of relief.
And fewer scumbag lawyers would be attracted to the defending criminals field. Especially on taxpayer dime.
The law serves the worst of us as well as the best. These types of cases only prove that we are still a nation of laws and we don't fry/stone/hang/shoot/behead people willy-nilly.
Consequently, we say "oops" a lot less than other folks.
The second we start saying, "Ah, what the hell, shoot the sumbitch, everyone knows the guy did it" we're in trouble.
I'm not saying kill the perp without a trial. Just kill him after one trial, if he's found guilty.
This is beyond stupid. Mercy to the cruel is cruelty to the innocent.
Most of the time the system works -- despite what people say. But extraordinary cases -- the real odd stuff -- requires special handling.
The other thing -- there is no perfect system of justice. Anything men create is almost by definition flawed. So, you're going to get the guilty going free and the free going to jail. And the law tries to make up for this, too. So, you have the appeals process, etc.
I'm thinking about the old Workers' Compensation laws in California, before they were revised by the legislature last year. I read that the laws and procedures were so complex that most workers had to hire a lawyer just to file a workers compensation claim for a workplace injury and pursue the claim to completion. If the average person needs a lawyer just to file a claim for a workplace injury, then the laws and procedures are too complex. They're written that way by lawyers to generate more work for themselves and other lawyers. Just follow the money, Jake.
Either that or the average person is really, really dumb.
DefenderSD got it right.
Legalese is a language (what to speak of the concepts described) that very few people can learn. Even if they wanted to.
The system is too flawed, durasell, and I wonder that you don't see it that way. I personally know a couple or three people harassed by the law who shouldn't have been (one more or less forced to plead to manslaughter), and who knows how many actual fiends in human form are free to commit more atrocities.
It's a system run by scum lawyers who could give a s*** about truth, many judges run amok, and shysters of every description.
There's only one solution, and people won't go for it until things get way worse.
Public caning and public executions. Crime will drop like a stone. And the taxpayers will see relief, and a lot of government employees will be free to find honest work.
Here's a wise saying:
If you don't invite Reality in nicely, sooner or later Reality will kick your door in.
A) Legalese is a language that can be learned very easily, though anyone who practices amateur law on their own behalf is an idiot. I'd note that most people don't do their own plumbing repairs, either and yet you don't her cries to eliminate plumbers.
B)Lawyers are advocates. Again, we have an adversarial system of law: the two sides fight it out in the hope that the truth emerges. Lawyers are not supposed to care about the truth. They are not in the "truth business" they are in the advocate business. If I'm paying $300 an hour for a lawyer (the going rate for someone decent) then I sure as hell want someone who is going to fight for me tooth and nail.
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