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Reader reactions to this series
Originally published Thursday, March 5, 1998 Flaws in the system means it provides order but not justice
Rather than focus on specific participants of the Wenatchee legal system, the story is the system itself. I personally know almost everyone involved in the legal system during the entire debacle. Anyone acquainted with the judges or prosecutors involved knows that they are good, highly moral people. For our system of checks and balances to work, we have to have a system wherein the prosecutor refuses to trust the police; the judge refuses to trust the police or the prosecutor; the jury refuses to trust the police, prosecutor or judge; and the appeals courts distrusts everyone. Every stage of the proceedings needs to entail a new level of checks -- watchdogging the previous levels. That is the only way "justice" can be attained. Yet, because of the sheer number of cases, our system has evolved into a system of law and order, rather than law and justice. Justice takes time, which is scarce in our courts. Because prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges are buried in cases, the system begins cutting corners and trusting the people with whom they have worked day after day. Juries trust that the person would not be on trial or would not have confessed if not guilty. The public trusts that the jury would not have convicted if the person was not guilty. Hence, the system has eroded to provide order but not justice. Everyone, participants and non-participants, are at fault. If our system worked as intended, it would survive rogue individuals. Schneider and Barber smear public defenders and praise the private attorneys, yet don't indicate that the private attorneys took the clients who hadn't confessed, leaving the public defenders primarily the clients from whom confessions had been obtained. Whose cases do you think would do better? They slam the ACLU for not acting sooner. Where was the P-I four years ago? Shouldn't the paper cover current events rather than history? Only Tom Grant of KREM-2 in Spokane stood up when it counted.
Eric M. Christianson
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While I applaud the investigation by Andrew Schneider and Mike Barber, they missed the story in Wenatchee.
