Actually I seriously wonder exactly how much shame the "Just Us " system are actually capable of. Certainly amongst mere mortals versus the self-proclaimed "gods" (judges) and demi-gods (lawyers & court personnel), guilt and shame regarding failures is not apparent. How many mentally ill persons end up in jail for decades? How many poor people with horrendous starts in life end up in jail? How many people of colour who are disrespected, harassed and provoked end up in jail simply for defending themselves? Finally how many people of either limited or even average financial means end up in jail primarily because they don't have the money for a first class defence?
Today's Waterloo Region Record has yet another horrific case of two men who served lengthy prison sentences for a 1983 murder they did not commit. Worse yet both men had multiple witnesses who testified as to their whereabouts at the time of the murder. All for naught with poor forensic evidence, police misconduct and other unreliable witness testimony.
Innocence Canada and a lawyer for them, James Lochyer called for a public inquiry and stated that there are most likely "...a lot more...." cases like them. The Record article is titled "New Brunswick judge apologizes to men for "miscarriage of justice". I suspect that it is a lot more than a miscarriage of justice and more likely a symptom of an inherently perverse and corrupt system with far too little protections for vulnerable and powerless citizens. The Justice System is systemically biased against the powerless.
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