Political Opinion: Justice System is Broken, not Failing
As part of our hyperlocal coverage, Davidson Local invites ALL registered political parties to submit a monthly opinion column by a designee.
Davidson County, today I come to you with a piece on one of my favorite topics —- Our broken justice system. Last month, our country proved once again just how bad we need a reform of our criminal justice system. People across the nation are speaking out about how the justice system failed in the Rittenhouse verdict. I am here to tell you it did not fail, it protected exactly who it was designed to protect.
Trice Hickman Hayes
Best Selling Author
Blindsided
www.tricehickman.com
It protected people like Rittenhouse, who took two lives & injured a third person, and then proceeded to walk away clear of all charges. The trial was mishandled by multiple people including the prosecutors. I’ve heard many criticisms about the way the prosecutors “attempted to cause a mistrial” by asking Rittenhouse questions about things the judge had already ruled would not be allowed into the trial. However, I want to point out how the prosecutor did not object once when their own witness was being questioned on issued hurting the state’s case. How can you as an experienced prosecutor put an unprepared witness up there like that and expect a different outcome? Let's talk about the way the prosecutors allowed the defendant to testify by asking open-ended questions. Mocktrial 101 (law school, college, and even high school level) teaches you that during cross examination you only ask leading questions. You NEVER ask a question that cannot be answered by a yes or a no. I could continue pointing out the things that should never have happened during the trial, but instead I want to come to you from a different aspect.
While most of the country is caught up in the political aspect of it, analyzing whether the protests were wrong or Rittenhouse was a heroic vigilante, I am asking you to look at the clear facts of the case, based on our broken system. The self defense claim should have immediately been dismantled. The prosecution should have stood firm on section 939.48 (2) of the Wisconsin legislature which says, “Provocation affects the privilege of self defense as follows: A person who engages in unlawful conducts of a type likely to provoke others to attack him or her, and thereby does provoke an attack is not entitled to claim the privilege of self defense against such attack, except when the attack which ensues is of a type causing the person engaging in the unlawful conduct to reasonably believe that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.” This means Rittenhouse should not have been allowed to claim self defense after committing an unlawful act. Rittenhouse WAS breaking curfew that
night.(although the prosecution failed to provide any evidence of this during his trial, hmm) He also carried a weapon across state lines, NOT for hunting reasons, but in the name of protecting private property. Wisconsin law states very clearly that you cannot use deadly force just to protect private property (legal precedent states that property is not valued over life). In fact, Wisconsin legislation, in section 939.49 it talks about defending property against theft. For the purposes of this law, Rittenhouse was protecting a 3rd person’s property. The law clearly states that the persons whose property you are protecting must meet these requirements: is a member of your immediate family or household, a person whose property you have a legal duty to protect, or you are the merchant’s employee or agent. Rittenhouse was NONE of these. He, therefore, had no legal basis for using force to protect property. To continue with the right to self defense law, you might be thinking, “Well the law says he can use self defense if he thought he was in danger of death or bodily harm, right?” Yeah… that’s not how it works. You see the law continues to say, “In such a case, the person engaging in the unlawful conduct is privileged to act in self-defense, but the person is NOT privileged to resort to the use of force intended or likely to cause death to the person's assailant unless the person reasonably believes he or she has exhausted every other reasonable means to escape from or otherwise avoid death or great bodily harm at the hands of his or her assailant.” Rittenhouse would have had to exhaust every other measure before using lethal force. He did not, in fact his first reaction was to shoot. The prosecution, judge, jury, and our justice system did not do justice to the people who lost their lives. The trial was infuriating to watch. Rittenhouse walked away clear from all five charges, because the defense little by little disarmed the prosecution’s arguments while they watched it happen, knowing the dangerous precedent set by the decision of this case. I decided to write about the trial from this aspect for those who love saying,”the law is the law”.
The argument is the law is only enforced when our justice system wants it to. How many times have human rights advocates begged for humanity, leniency in immigration law, which by the way is a civil matter that has only recently been criminalized. ( I would love to explain why immigration should be handled in civil courts, instead of criminal courts, but we’ll leave this for a later date).
The reality is that our justice system protects those it was designed to protect. It offered no protection to the central park five who were wrongly charged and spent 11 years in jail for a crime they did not commit. Nobody stopped to see the humanity in these kids. The prosecution did not see them as kids, but criminals, all the while they were innocent. Our justice system offered no protection to Ronnie Long who spent FORTY FOUR years in prison in North Carolina for a crime he did not commit. Countless people sat by as he served almost a whole lifetime in jail, after having an unfair trial and being wrongly accused for a rape he did not commit. I personally sat there, frustrated with fellow rams, his family, his advocates, pleading with the North Carolina Justice System to do right by him. Let's talk about how our justice system did wrong by Darryl Hunt who spend 22 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, and ultimately took his own life. There was DNA introduced to prove his innocence, and the judge ignored it. I could go on and on, passionately naming you, people, because they are not cases, who our system has failed. Last month, our system did exactly what it was designed to do, and protected exactly who it was designed to protect. There is a reason we are the worldwide leader for incarcerated people. We must fight for change.
For reference please visit : https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/939/iii/48
