Lynching of innocent man kicked off Vigilante rule

and yet when you look at it. Our court system has some serious issues. One of the biggest is it's black and white guidelines of structure and sentencing, which really restricts it not for the better. State appointed defense attorneys are often weak. Prosecution charges 10 things when maybe they know they can only convict on 3. Rushing people through trial, not giving fair representation.. Seen it all..

Watched Portland convict a couple for a series of murders because one of them wanted revenge on the other (with no evidence).. Only to tick off the real killer.. who went to great lengths to establish "he was the one" only to be ignored.. until he killed again and dumped his victim on the washington side.. sadly.. it took washington state in court to release the innocent couple.

But Washington isn't much better. after serving 3 years of 7. a person named by someone else in a robbery was finally released when someone looked through the info to find out he was two states away at the time of robbery and at his probation officers during that time.. ((Also out of revenge))

As a society we would do a lot better if we use evidence instead of testimony. I grew up thinking we use both, what I came to realize when going through court case after court case is rarely are all the facts ever really given, those that are, are met with objections through the whole thing. This is why I believe today we are starting to see more innocent people convicted once again.

What I like about peace circles is everyone has a voice (they are all there) and people speak directly. Victim, Accused, and Community and everyone is held accountable.

troy prouty*

It's interesting reading for sure. I always wonder about historical events because the historical documents are usually written by the victors.