They are addressing a very real problem in this country but their solution is really stupid and it will backfire horribly. The constitution does not apply to people without money. Only poor people sit in jail. The reality is that a fair trial only applies to those who have the money for their own lawyer. If you are charged with a crime in this country, you are guilty if you can't afford your own lawyer. Public defenders do not make any attempt to prove your innocence. Their job is to get you to confess and take a plea deal. Doesn't matter whether you did the crime or not. Public defenders have way too many clients to put any time into a single client. I personally know someone who had a warrant taken out against them. I know this story because he was a friend of my brother and the incident occurred on my brother's property while my brother was away. The police were called and there was a police report. The police saw no reason to arrest him. The woman at the incident filed a warrant against him claiming that he assaulted her and he was thrown in jail. This person was poor and could not afford bail and he was assigned a public defender. The public defender made no attempt to even find out if he was innocent. They never even pulled the police report of the incident and looked at it. This person refused to plea so he sat in jail for 8 months until the trial. My brother went and pulled a copy of the police report and took it to court. The police report showed that he never assaulted the woman and cleared him of the charges and was free to go after only sitting in the jail for 8 months of his life. As a matter of fact, the woman was the only one to go to jail the night of the incident because she had outstanding warrants. The woman was not charged with making a false report.
No one wants to address the issue because it does not affect them and it costs too much money. Public defenders should be paid more money so that we don't just get bottom of the barrel attorneys as public defenders. There also should be allot more hired. Public defenders can be representing hundreds of clients at the same time. How can anyone get a fair trial if their attorney only has a few minutes a week if that much to defend them? Maybe Illinois is taking the wrong approach. Maybe they should be making it so that people with money can't get bail. If a poor person has to sit in jail until trial, why shouldn't a person with money have to sit in jail until trial also? Maybe the poor person is more likely to run but can you blame them considering the attorney who has been appointed to represent them?
Again, its a really stupid way to address a very real issue and they are probably going to make the situation even worse as a result of the repercussions.
I believe everyone should have a fair trial. And our tax dollars would be better spent on making sure even criminals get a decent attorney than
defunding the police to waste the money on corruption and free stuff that politicians want to hand out, and when murderers, rapists, drug dealers are just let go on society, the costs are even higher in the end.
So, I have no problem beefing up public defenders for criminals, vs.
letting them go Scot free and defunding the police.
But if they are convicted, they have to do hard time, no matter who they are, or what color they are, or how much money they do or dont have.
There is no utopia and no nirvana.
There can never be "perfect justice".
But we need to do our best for the best justice that we can provide.
That means punishing those who do wrong and are proven to have comitted crimes. Injustice is feeling sorry for the criminals and turning them loose on another innocent victim.
I'll go for fair trials and fair representation, and fair jail time.
Not no bail, no trial, no jail, no consequences, and no justice for victims.
plain and simply stupid.
