Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Justice: An Elusive Concept


by Donna Pendergast

The concept of
justice is sprinkled throughout the scriptures and is an ideal that is sought in many arenas of daily life. People seek justice to create a proper ordering of random things and persons within a society, in the enforcement of laws, to solve disagreements between persons and in response to criminal behavior.

But what is true justice in the case of an almost unimaginable act of criminal depravity? What is justice for a purposeful act of harm and violence where one persons gratification comes from stealing the life of another human being? In the case of a purposeful serial murderer like Coral Watts, who may have murdered as many as a hundred beautiful and talented women, can there ever really be justice for the family and friends who were the peripheral victims of such a diabolical and depraved predator?

I struggle with these concepts on a daily basis while prosecuting homicide cases and when dealing with the survivors, the family and the friends of a person whose life was callously snuffed out by by an act of senseless violence. In the depths of pain and misery survivors look to the prosecutor to guide them through the nuances of an unfamiliar criminal justice system and to obtain justice for them for an incomprehensible loss. Often the families look to the prosecutor as a sort of lifeboat who will save them from disaster and fix the circumstances that put them in touch with the justice system. Unfortunately, as prosecutors we can't fix anything we can only try to do justice, whatever that is, by seeking a conviction.

In seeking justice for the survivors, there are things that you learn, some of them the hard way. After having prosecuting over 100 murder trials I have learned NOT to say "I understand how you feel." As one survivor pointed out very early on, I don't understand how they feel and never could. Instead I've learned to say "I understand that I can't understand what you are going through but I have dealt with other families in this situation many times before and here is the benefit of my experience.

I have also learned to expect what often happens after a verdict even if it's a favorable verdict. Many survivors describe a hollow feeling after a jury verdict in a homicide trial because even a guilty verdict will never bring back a loved one.
Accordingly, I've learned to caution families that there will likely be a letdown after the verdict as they adjust to the new reality that the fight is over but the pain goes on. The mother of a man beat to death by a pack of savage brothers and their friends several levels below "Deliverance" grade caliber once said to me after the verdict "I thought I would feel better but I don't," not a surprisingly revelation considering the testimony that she had to sit through including the fact that her son and his friend had been chopped up and fed to pigs. It was closure after eighteen long years of wondering what had happened to her son who had disappeared while on a hunting trip up north, but closure at a terrible cost.

But the question remains "Is a jury verdict that one is guilty of homicide and subsequent resultant incarceration in prison true justice?" The dictionary defines justice in a number of ways. One definition defines justice as the ideal morally correct state of things and persons. Another entry defines justice a what is fair.

The question remains whether or not anything can be morally correct or fair when dealing with the senseless obliteration of a human life. Without delving into the complex and gut wrenching arena and dodging the land mines associated with the debate over the death penalty (maybe a subject for another day) I've come to the conclusion that there is no true justice for survivors rather justice as we can best do it under a horrendous set of circumstances and with an imperfect system.

Unfortunately true justice and true closure for the survivors remains an impossible dream.

Statements made in this post are my own and are not intended to reflect the views, opinion or position of the Michigan Attorney General or the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

5 comments:

Eye-of -the-storm said...

That was a good coverage of the situation as it exists in the current justice system in the way it's implimented today.
Where killing others includes sadistic cruelty and utterly demeaning attitude to the victim a finding of guilt is shallow without a prompt death penalty that is carried out within a month and appeals known not to be acceptabled when it's clear cut on the perpetrators identities.
Nothing will take away the horror of the type of loss, but victims families do feel at least there was a level of justice achieved with knowledge the assailants life has ended.
True justice would be served if the killers were to be put through the same type of experience to be made deceased. I'm sure some never to be released prisoners - don't want to encourage brutalising behaviours in ones that can be released - would happily do that for payments of luxuries they can't normally get.
Realistically ultra eye for an eye punishment won't happen in a society too squimish on death penalties.
Psychopathic sadistic killers aren't like those who killed in many other circumstances. Victim families have felt relief when real death penalties used to be given and carried out promptly. The double dissapointment of the loss is still there, court processes temporarily magnify it, but hearing guilty knowing the killers will walk out to still live and even when in prison must not be maltreated is a second insult when the victim has had their life removed.
Please do dare tackling the minefield of the death penalty, there are those that do warrant it.The only grounds for appeal ought to be strong new evidence of the question over the killers identity.

hokiedokie24 said...

Donna, this really hit close to home for the Harrington family. Great job!!!

lisa cowling said...

Very well said, my daughter Cara Marie Holley was brutally murdered and her murderer is facing the death penalty, but, the trial is scheduled for Oct, 2012, he murdered my daughter on july 7, 2010. There is no sentence that is just. Lisa Cowling, Cara's Mom

Ann Summerville said...

What a touching post. You are right, none of us can know how the families feel.
For me, I would like them to have a harsher punishment rather than having free room and board in a facility with televisions and workout rooms and free health care. We are all victims as we continue to pay for this.
Ann

A Voice of Sanity said...

The death penalty makes murderers of prosecutors, judges and prison employees. Some may enjoy this, most do not.

I divide the guilty into two groups - bad neighbors and good neighbors. Some you wouldn't want living next door. Many more aren't objectionable. Prison should be reserved for the bad, for the abusers, for those who assault others and for the killers. All too often the bad are set free while the merely mendacious or the social pariahs are not.

There's no justice in this 'justice'.