[fabsroman]

Val,

An attorney's job is to inform the client of the law, the penalties that the client could face if convicted, and to strive for the best deal for the client. It is up to the other attorney to do his/her job. Is the judicial system perfect, nope. If it were, innocent people wouldn't get locked up and guilty people wouldn't go free, but determining guilt isn't quite as easy as it turns out to be. In most cases, things aren't cut and dry. If they were, 40 innocent men wouldn't have been on death row and a man wouldn't have served 10 years in prison because his daughters lied about him molesting them. Then again, maybe the prosecutor was just a better attorney than the public defender or whatever other attorney these poor guys could afford, and this comment is aimed at GSP. Sure, some guilty guys get off because they have a better attorney, but it looks like some innocent people have also been convicted.

Can any of you imagine having to spend 10 years in jail for something you didn't do? How about being sentenced to death for something that you didn't do? Sure, everybody on trial says they didn't do it, my clients included, but what if 1 in 100 are telling the truth. Should we just sentence that person to jail because they are accused of something? This is why people are scared to spank their child nowadays. In my opinion, the greater problem of the judicial system is that innocent people are being convicted, not that guilty people are going free. Now, that is not to say that guilty people going free isn't a problem, just not as big of one.

GSP,

To answer your other question, I seriously doubt that all attorneys are out there for the betterment of the public. Attorneys are just like other people, and some of them fall into the greedy category, some of them fall into the liar category, and some of them fall into the criminal category. However, blaiming the problems with the judicial system on attorneys in general is pretty bad.

How about blaming the problems with the judicial system on the voters. If I am not mistaken, District Court Judges in Florida are elected officials as are the guys in the Legislature that make up the laws. Why not blame the voters for not voting in tougher Judges and Legislators? How about the States Attorney? Here in Maryland he is also elected. If that is the case in Florida, how about blaming the voters for not electing a tougher States Attorney.

I can keep on going on and on about placing blame on people. The judicial system isn't perfect, just as the practice of medicine isn't perfect. Should there be tort reform, probably, but try explaining that to the children of somebody that was killed by malpractice. Try explaining that they have no cause of action against the doctor.

We live in a complicated society where there aren't any simple answers. Eventually, gov't will be able to track everything we do. Eventually, there will be things like the movie "Minority Report." Problem is, does this infringe on our right to privacy.

The whole thing with Terri Schiavo is a constitutional nightmare regarding the separation of federal and state powers, not to mention the right to die issue. Of course, a lot of politicians in Congress acted the way they acted because the voters were on them about it. Was what they did right, only time will tell, if we ever get to that issue.