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JohnSchwabFirstPaper 8 - 28 May 2010 - Main.JohnSchwab
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< | Robinson's Defense | >
> | re-write in progress | | | | |
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< | Lawrence Joseph's Robinson probably wouldn't want a defense. Nonetheless, I intend to provide him with one because I believe it could be helpful in understanding how we think about the criminal law as a whole. | >
> | DETERRENCE & THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
If Holmes was correct and the law is what it does, then the criminal law is a force imprisons young, poor, male minorities in enormous numbers, that takes husbands from wives and fathers from children, that robs communities of vast swathes of their young people, that diverts massive sums of money from pressing social needs such as education, that murders men in the name of justice and that incarcerates the innocent along with the guilty. | | | | |
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< | There are millions of lawyers doing millions of jobs all over the world, but there is something about the work of the criminal defense lawyer that makes many of us say, "I could never do that." But why, exactly, do we say this? | >
> | There is little question our criminal justice system is in need of reform. Many Americans, however, would balk at the idea that what we need to do is decrease the degree of punishment our society metes out to those deemed criminals. | | | | |
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< | Bucking the System | >
> | DETERRENCE ANALYSIS: COSTS AND BENEFITS | | | | |
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< | On the most basic level, Robinson is standing against the criminal law and against justice and he is doing so on behalf of "bad" men. Therefore, he is a bad man himself. | | | | |
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< | But this is obvious
illogic. He may be said to represent bad men, as an actor may be
said to represent Richard III or Iago. Perhaps there might be people
who would not want to become actors if they were to play villains
rather than heroes. But it would be a confusion to say that such a
determination resulted from wanting to be a good person rather than a
bad one. | | | | |
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< | But if Holmes was correct and the law is what it does, then Robinson is setting himself against a system that imprisons young, poor, male minorities in enormous numbers, that takes husbands from wives and fathers from children, that robs communities of vast swathes of their young people, that murders men in the name of justice and that incarcerates the innocent along with the guilty. From this perspective, it seems like Robinson actually does good work. And yet, that's not how many of us instinctively feel. | | | If the system were
better, would Robinson be worse? This seems to me to indicate |
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