There are attorneys and judges in every State carrying a secret to work with them each morning. They are addicted to drugs, alcohol, have gambling problems or are suffering from some form of mental illness. Due to privacy laws, the clients and litigants that are affected by these impairments never know. All they know is that they have lost their case, are sentenced to jail, and that either their attorney was an incompetent or the judge couldn’t keep his head on straight long enough to follow the law.
I do believe that lawyers and judges like everyone else have a right to medical privacy; but our society must come up with a better way to reconcile competing rights—the right of a judge or lawyer to medical privacy and the right of the public to know when the enforcement of their guaranteed constitutional rights are dependent on the performance of a crackhead.
The problem is so significant that the American Bar Association (ABA) has established a Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs(CoLAP) which provides a model for assisting judges, lawyers and law students whose lives have been impaired by drug addictions and other emotional health issues. Okay sidebar—law students on drugs are still allowed to become lawyers? What ever happened to the character evaluation?
It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that someone is looking out for members of the legal community whose lives have been impaired by their own voluntary action of taking crack, crystal meth, or heroine. But what I want to know is who is looking out for the innocent public who unsuspectingly doles out $225 per hour after hour to a crackhead that is supposed to be vigorously fighting for their rights. Who is looking out for the lives that are directly and indirectly ruined by these impaired judges and lawyers? I think I can guess who is not looking out.
Do you think we’d be opening Pandora’s box if we sought to prevent judges who are substance abusers from ruling on cases were substance abuse is at issue? There is something ironic about the thought of a judge who is a substance abuser himself being allowed to preside over cases where the possession and distribution of illegal drugs are at issue … what is worst is allowing a crackhead judge to sentence other crackheads and drug dealers to jail while the only penalty for the judge on drugs is to voluntarily participate in a CoLAP sponsored event?
I might be a little late to the party, but now I see what the big debate was back in 2007 when there was a brouhaha involving Gulf War veteran Derrick Kimbrough who first defended his country, then alleged to have dealt drugs. At issue was the controversial sentencing rules that punish crack cocaine users far more severely than their powder cocaine counterparts.
Absent from the debate was any mention of Judges who are substance abusers themselves presiding over drug related sentencing hearings. According to the Supreme Court of The United States (SCOTUS) Blog, “Congress in 1986 adopted a federal sentencing policy that those who commit crimes involving “crack” cocaine are to be punished on a 100-to-1 ratio compared to those whose crimes involve cocaine in powder form. The U.S. Sentencing Commission for years has asked Congress to narrow the difference, to no avail. Yet Congress has never ordered the Commission to put the ratio into the Federal sentencing guidelines.”It was said that Federal trial judges had begun experimenting with easing up, comparatively, on cocaine crime sentences. So did the Judges ease up on the sentences because they truly felt the guidelines were unfair or was it because the Judges realized that if they put all the crack dealers in jail at a rate of 100-to-1, there would soon be no crack dealers left to service the needs of crackhead judges?
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
I am not a troublemaker. I am an Activist.
My enemies like to paint me as a troublemaker.
I am not a troublemaker. I am a law abiding citizen.
But if I were a troublemaker ...
What's wrong with making trouble for the corrupt elements in our justice system?
I am not a trouble maker.
I am an Activist.
The Legal Critic.
I am not a troublemaker. I am a law abiding citizen.
But if I were a troublemaker ...
What's wrong with making trouble for the corrupt elements in our justice system?
I am not a trouble maker.
I am an Activist.
The Legal Critic.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Silent Deadly Branch
America has three branches of government. The most popular is the executive branch; run by President Barack Obama. The most noteworthy, is the legislative branch; you can turn on CSPAN on any given night and observe members of congress digress as they squabble over issues that affect the American people and the world at large. The third branch, the judicial branch is not so well known. I call this branch the silent deadly branch. The judicial branch is silent and deadly because its operations are cloaked by the virtual darkness of public ignorance; and once you are in its clutches, regardless of guilt or innocence, your life as you once knew it is over.
The silent deadly branch is tasked with enforcing the law, and with this task it has virtually unchecked power to rebuild or destroy life. Its cloak of darkness is made possible by the fact that from birth, citizens are kept in the dark about the law that governs them. Unlike its sister branches, operations of the judicial branch are not taught in public school. Instead, citizens are conditioned from birth to accept a child-like reliance on lawyers. Lawyers are a race of super-humans who have achieved a monopoly on the right to discuss, assert and opine on the law.
Lawyers have taken advantage of their special positions in society. They have entrenched themselves in the justice system, garnering further power through bar associations who lobby the other branches of government on their behalf, by becoming judges and by infiltrating the other two branches of government, where they ensure statutes such as the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) are in place to maintain their oppressive monopoly over American citizens.
As an American citizen, born and raised under this legal system of oppression, I did not realize until recently that I was oppressed. This is because I was cultivated by a public school system that taught me to believe that liberty and justice is for all. In fact, everyday that I went to school I was required to repeat the mantra “liberty and justice for all” and so it was ingrained in the fabric of my being, even before I had awareness of self that liberty and justice was for all. No one told me it was a lie. The mantra was repeated so often that it became a building block in my value system; and my self-esteem was placed, upon that block. I can only thank God that He infused himself in my spirit before the beginning of time. It was God that saved me when I found myself caught in the death grip of the silent deadly branch.
To my horror, I discovered the gatekeepers of justice, judges and lawyers are not a race of angels , but are human and prone to frailties like greed, incompetence and abuse of power. Further, there are no mechanisms in place to protect the public against corrupt gatekeepers of justice and the lives that they touch, in many cases, are permanently destroyed. Pennsylvania Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were indicted in September 2009 for what has been nicknamed as “selling kids for cash.” 10-year old Jean Paul Lacombe, was reported as being the victim of a court-sanctioned kidnapping after a Judge’s lack of due diligence, enabled the Judge to be duped by the boy’s father. Former governor Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003, was thrown in jail as the result of what one media outlet called an “incestuous pool of corruption in Alabama, with government officials, lobbyists, attorneys, and even judges behaving in ways that breach the public trust. Something has to be done to protect the public before lives are destroyed. The government has yet to acknowledge that there is a pandemic of corruption in the American justice system, so the people must step up.
My contribution is a framework for mitigating corruption in the justice system. The framework can be used in any democracy. The framework is designed to be implemented by people who enter the system without an attorney a.k.a. pro se. At the root of the framework is a pro se’s ability to collect and report information about their experience in the justice system. Information on a citizen’s interaction with judges, prosecutors, court clerks, attorneys, state bar associations and judicial commissions are captured and aggregated. Statistics are generated including turnaround time for ruling on motions filed by pro se litigants vs. turnaround time for ruling on motions filed by parties represented by counsel. The number and types of errors that judges make in their rulings that yield unfavorable outcomes for pro se litigants are also captured as well as the cost to taxpayers and the cost to pro se litigants that arise as a result of improper criminal charges, erroneous rulings and repeat errors. Finally the number of pro se litigants who resort to vigilantism or other crimes of revenge as a result of being denied justice in our court system are tracked. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used for reporting the results.
In addition to statistics, the framework makes it possible to hold a mirror up for Judges who fail to exercise courtroom decorum and whose character, deviates from the morally proper character that the public expects from persons in positions of public trust. Findings are compiled into monthly reports and distributed to elected representatives, the U.S. Justice Department, the Media and the public at large.
Benefit of the framework is that it works to mitigate corruption in the justice system by creating negative consequences for those who are corrupt; it also reduces vigilantes as it gives individuals legal power to punish, and finally it serves as a catalyst for judicial reform. A complete introduction to the framework can be found in “A Game Called Justice.” Details of how to apply the framework to any litigation will be spelled out in upcoming title “How to Beat a Corrupt Justice System.
The silent deadly branch is tasked with enforcing the law, and with this task it has virtually unchecked power to rebuild or destroy life. Its cloak of darkness is made possible by the fact that from birth, citizens are kept in the dark about the law that governs them. Unlike its sister branches, operations of the judicial branch are not taught in public school. Instead, citizens are conditioned from birth to accept a child-like reliance on lawyers. Lawyers are a race of super-humans who have achieved a monopoly on the right to discuss, assert and opine on the law.
Lawyers have taken advantage of their special positions in society. They have entrenched themselves in the justice system, garnering further power through bar associations who lobby the other branches of government on their behalf, by becoming judges and by infiltrating the other two branches of government, where they ensure statutes such as the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) are in place to maintain their oppressive monopoly over American citizens.
As an American citizen, born and raised under this legal system of oppression, I did not realize until recently that I was oppressed. This is because I was cultivated by a public school system that taught me to believe that liberty and justice is for all. In fact, everyday that I went to school I was required to repeat the mantra “liberty and justice for all” and so it was ingrained in the fabric of my being, even before I had awareness of self that liberty and justice was for all. No one told me it was a lie. The mantra was repeated so often that it became a building block in my value system; and my self-esteem was placed, upon that block. I can only thank God that He infused himself in my spirit before the beginning of time. It was God that saved me when I found myself caught in the death grip of the silent deadly branch.
To my horror, I discovered the gatekeepers of justice, judges and lawyers are not a race of angels , but are human and prone to frailties like greed, incompetence and abuse of power. Further, there are no mechanisms in place to protect the public against corrupt gatekeepers of justice and the lives that they touch, in many cases, are permanently destroyed. Pennsylvania Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were indicted in September 2009 for what has been nicknamed as “selling kids for cash.” 10-year old Jean Paul Lacombe, was reported as being the victim of a court-sanctioned kidnapping after a Judge’s lack of due diligence, enabled the Judge to be duped by the boy’s father. Former governor Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003, was thrown in jail as the result of what one media outlet called an “incestuous pool of corruption in Alabama, with government officials, lobbyists, attorneys, and even judges behaving in ways that breach the public trust. Something has to be done to protect the public before lives are destroyed. The government has yet to acknowledge that there is a pandemic of corruption in the American justice system, so the people must step up.
My contribution is a framework for mitigating corruption in the justice system. The framework can be used in any democracy. The framework is designed to be implemented by people who enter the system without an attorney a.k.a. pro se. At the root of the framework is a pro se’s ability to collect and report information about their experience in the justice system. Information on a citizen’s interaction with judges, prosecutors, court clerks, attorneys, state bar associations and judicial commissions are captured and aggregated. Statistics are generated including turnaround time for ruling on motions filed by pro se litigants vs. turnaround time for ruling on motions filed by parties represented by counsel. The number and types of errors that judges make in their rulings that yield unfavorable outcomes for pro se litigants are also captured as well as the cost to taxpayers and the cost to pro se litigants that arise as a result of improper criminal charges, erroneous rulings and repeat errors. Finally the number of pro se litigants who resort to vigilantism or other crimes of revenge as a result of being denied justice in our court system are tracked. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used for reporting the results.
In addition to statistics, the framework makes it possible to hold a mirror up for Judges who fail to exercise courtroom decorum and whose character, deviates from the morally proper character that the public expects from persons in positions of public trust. Findings are compiled into monthly reports and distributed to elected representatives, the U.S. Justice Department, the Media and the public at large.
Benefit of the framework is that it works to mitigate corruption in the justice system by creating negative consequences for those who are corrupt; it also reduces vigilantes as it gives individuals legal power to punish, and finally it serves as a catalyst for judicial reform. A complete introduction to the framework can be found in “A Game Called Justice.” Details of how to apply the framework to any litigation will be spelled out in upcoming title “How to Beat a Corrupt Justice System.
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