Stefanie Chen has an interesting opinion piece in The Spectator, a surprisingly impressive newspaper from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, about our pay-to-win legal system.
Despite the presence of a clear “wrong,” in all of these cases, the U.S. capitalistic justice system has made it so that the rich can avoid admitting to their wrongdoings. While it’s hard to watch someone who had proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt get away with a mere slap on the wrist, it is also difficult to completely overturn America’s unjust court system at once, considering that it’s been established since Nixon’s presidency. Still, steps such as offering more qualified lawyers to poorer defendants, or promoting law to all socioeconomic backgrounds can be taken to help equalize the playing field between the rich and the poor. It might not stop the wealthy from getting away with crimes, but revising the biased court system can help make it so that the poor’s and middle classes’ lives aren’t ruined by unjustified sentences at the hands of a biased court.
I do not completely agree with her solution as it includes hiring more lawyers because I think that would just make the matter worse. What we need is a system like most of Scandinavia where crimes are rigorously enforced for all people and the punishment is equitably applied no matter who you are. Then we would not need so many lawyers finding loopholes and pedaling influence.
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