Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Innocent until proven guilty sounds good on paper, however, it’s far from true.  The fact of the matter is in the eyes of the law you’re guilty until proven innocent.  That fact is especially true for the less fortunate in our society.  I have witnessed far too many good people be persecuted for often first time menial offenses for which they lack the means to properly defend themselves.  Obviously, there are people who are habitual law breakers that commit serious crimes and these are not the people I’m talking about.  I’m talking about the person that has never been in trouble with the law before who gets accused of something they didn’t do or the crime itself is misrepresented and blown out of proportion by the law.  If you find yourself in a jail accused of something you didn’t do and you have no money for bail or a lawyer for that matter your pretty much already screwed.  True you will get your day in court, in a month or two, and you’ll get the court appointed public defender.  Try building a defense from a jail cell if you’ve never been in that position before.  The reality is this, if you’re lucky you may get to speak with your public defender once before court or you’ll get to whisper to them in court for about five minutes.  Five minutes to decide your fate, five minutes to make what could be a life changing decision.  The public defender is also representing four hundred other defendants along with you so their stretched beyond their means before they even get to you.  What do you plead? That’s the million dollar question.  You may want to plead not guilty, but if you do that means more time behind bars.