Monday, December 27, 2021

Accountability vs. Justice

Right after the manslaughter conviction of Kimberly Potter for the death of Daunte Wright, Minnesota attorney general, and former congressman, Keith Ellison stated

With the jury finding Kimberly Potter guilty today of manslaughter in the first degree and manslaughter in the second degree in connection with his death, we have a measure of accountability for Daunte’s death. Accountability is not justice: justice would be restoring Daunte to life and making the Wright family whole. Justice is beyond our reach for Daunte. But accountability is an important step on the long road to justice for all. 

Ellison stated something similar after Derek Chauvin's murder conviction for death of George Floyd.

That long, hard, painstaking work has culminated today. I would not call today’s verdict “justice”, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice. And now the cause of justice is in your hands. And when I say your hands, I mean the hands of the people of the United States.

I find find the distinction between accountability and justice interesting. I had not quite thought about it that way before but it does make sense. 

In my own situation, accountability, at least for some of the guilty, is primarily what I am working on now. That is what this site as well as LegalReformMN.org is all about. 

But what about justice? What would that entail. I would be trilled to just get back what I lost financially. But that wouldn't really be justice. Justice would be undoing all the pain and misery I and especially my children and loved ones have experienced throughout the entire nightmare. I suppose a financial value could be put on that but even if that miraculously happened, it would never undo all the damage. 

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