‘Unspeakable damage’ to the criminal justice system. The trouble with Marsy’s Law.

In Pikeville they are tearing down the statue of Doctor Hambley, because it has him wearing pleated pants, which you just don’t do anymore. It will be replaced with a statue of Zebulon Pike, who is free of controversy because he didn’t do any thing, or at least anything anybody in Pike County or Zebulon ever heard tell of.

Across Kentucky they are tearing down the criminal justice system which will be fully accomplished when poor Marsy gets her law. Sometimes we honor the memory of totally innocent victims of horrible crime by naming some stupid law after them, and that law is rushed through with almost no opposition even though it will wreak unspeakable damage to the system by which laws are enforced. Show me a legislator who voted against Marsy’s Law and I will show you a man or woman totally fit to be governor. Those laws are framed in such a way as to be irresistible to a politician. The first time it passed the question on the ballot was worded in such a way as to make a “No” voter almost admit he is a pervert. This new version would take a voter twenty minutes to read, if you could see it, and after a mere 50 years of lawing crime, I’m not quite sure I understand it either. But nobody expects a voter to actually read such an issue, much less understand what they are doing.

What would Marsy’s revenge be? It could be best described as when the families of victims get to decide what happens to the defendant. In our system, if a defendant is presumed innocent, then presumably there is no victim. We are about to pass a constitutional amendment by which, no matter how low level a crime is, no matter how minor a hearing is, the “victim” gets to be right there more or less directing the prosecution. Then the County Attorney or the Commonwealth’s Attorney starts to become the lawyer for the ones bringing the charges, instead of being our lawyer.

When a judge sets bail or goes to punish, he must do it in the face of a courtroom full of people who are claiming to be, and may actually be, victims. Victims of crime are even worse determiners of proper punishment than criminals. Back in the early 70’s when Buford Johnson was city judge in Pikevile, he sometimes let people sentence themselves and they were usually harder on themselves than he was. Some of that had to do with those wonderful suppers Wad Justice’s wife cooked for the prisoners.

Now, of course, a Defendant in trouble could always negotiate with the family of the victim and perhaps reach a suitable financial compromise. Mercy purchased through Marsy.

Larry Webster is a Pikeville attorney.