I think judges should be helped by robots
And justice would be more fair (fairer ? llamas ?) if judges were helped by machines to pronounce a sentence.
It so happens that sometime, I have to spend the day in court to defend people who don't have a lawyer and who are judged in a criminal court, for small offences, done a few days earlier.
The type of people you meet :
Poor, unemployed and old
Poor, old and homeless
Poor and addicted (and sometimes homeless too)
Poor, undeclared worker and illegal immigrant (usually homeless)
Young and stupid... and usually at least a little bit poor
Poor, middle-aged, homeless and addicted.
Poor, unemployed, old, addicted, illegal immigrants, homeless and stupid
All these people are thieves or small drug dealers. Most of them are thieves though. Sometime, there are violences but it's pretty rare and most of the time, it's because they spit on a police officer while being arrested. Usually drunk.
Anyway, ALL these people (except the young and stupid) are completely fucking miserable. I defended maybe 30 now, and I can tell you that except 1 or 2, every single one of them has a life so terrible that it's unimaginable. And you could say that they made bad choices but most of them also had a crappy childhood. When one of them tells me that he finished junior High, I actually say "Congratulations".
These people are just struggling, every day. And sometimes, they fuck up. So of course, they end up in court, maybe for the 10th time. Everytime for small offences. Or they used to do big stuff but they calmed down and now "I swear, the bag was abandonned... yeah of course there was a guy next to him, but I didn't see him, and he was on the phone... and... come on ! I just took the 10 Euros ! I'm not going back to jail, am I ? look, look ! I have a social assistant, I'm doing my papers so I can work and all... I found an association that will give me a home ! Can't you tell that to the judge ? I can't go back to jail..."
yeah but you are very probably going back to jail, because you don't have an adress... and you were here 2 years ago, you tried to steal a cell phone... remember ?
"But... but that was a long time ago ! I was an alcoholic but I'm better now, the hospital is treating me...You can call them !"
This guy is guilty, and he should be sentenced.
What is freaking me out is that one Judge is going to give him a sentence that allows him to stay outside and continue the progress he's obviously making and another is just going to sentence him to 10 months, starting now.
I can't understand that a guy, poor and homeless, gets 12 months for death threats (words !) on policemen, even if he was arrested 10 times before, when another one gets a 12 months suspended sentence eventhough it's the 6th time he's arrested for driving completely drunk !
Oh but yes, that second one had an adress, a job and a diploma. And he was white, that always helps.
And that is why I think that justice should be helped by robots. Only humans should determine if someone is guilty or not but I've come to think that the sentence would be fairer (more fair ? llamas ?) if it was following a predetermined algorythm that would analyze the background, the progress and the guarantees. The judge wouldn't be forced to pronounce that sentence, but it would give a good idea of what they should decide...
Or maybe the Judge, last saturday, was just a real bitch and I'm still angry about it.
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Originally Posted by wheelchairman
