Petersen headed for death row

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by lookout123

in a way you are right HM. i don't believe that fair trials exist. our justice system has very little justice in it. when criminals can get off because of technicalities, i don't see that as being fair to the victims - and i have more concern for them than the criminal.

Trials aren't for the victim. They are for society. It isn't the job of the court to make the victim feel better, but to make sure that laws are followed and the correct penalty is given, and in that endeavor the victim is nothing more than a primary witness.

A fundamental basis of the US legal system is that it is better for a hundred guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to be imprisoned, and that is why the laws governing prosecutions are so strict. If a law can be broken so an "obviously guilty" person gets a few more years, then it can also be broken so a "probably guilty" person seems "obviously guilty". If it becomes more important to find guilt than to determine guilt, that is a much larger injustice than a victim being disappointed that someone got life instead of death.