Something Stinks

I'm not talking about my old sneakers, although they do qualify. I'll give you some clues. The US has more citizens in prison per capita than any other country in the world. Over two dozen men in Texas alone have had their convictions

[DEAD LINK]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070409/ap_on_re_us/dna_exoneration

overturned on DNA evidence. Three young North Carolina men who were guilty of no crime had to spend in the neighborhood of three million dollars in legal fees to keep from being railroaded by a rogue prosecutor.

That’s right, what stinks is the American justice system, or more appropriately the American injustice system. If we are that "shining city on the hill", "the greatest nation in the world", "the land of the free and the home of the brave", why do we have so many citizens locked up in prison? Why do we have so many convictions being overturned and why do people who can come up with three million dollars have to spend it on legal fees and people who can't come up with it have to spend their lives in jail? I personally don't have the answer to those questions, but I've got some ideas.

First, we have too many laws. The congress and the state legislatures pay themselves way too much money and then think they have to come up with all these micro-managment laws to justify that pay.

Second, we have too many lawyers. You may have trouble finding a mechanic to fix your car, or a plumber to fix your pipes, but there is a lawyer on nearly every street corner. Many lawyers are good people, like the guy that helped the Duke lacrosse players, but many of them are just looking for someone to sue. Too many of the marginal lawyers wind up as prosecutors whose only goal is production. They want convictions. The most efficient way to get convictions is plea bargaining, so they threaten innocent people who can't afford a protracted court fight and get them to plea to a lesser offence. Never mind that the people are innocent. Anyone with half a brain knows that innocence is no guarantee of going free in the USA.

Third, we have too many stupid people. That's right, people who go around whining and crying about the need for "law and order" and saying "lock the rascals up." We don't need "law and order"; we need "liberty and justice for all."

What is the solution? I don't know, you tell me. How do you renovate a corrupt legal system especially when the bulk of the citizens are quite happy with the status quo?