The Rules of the Justice Game

Tom Henry: Confession of a Killer

While digitizing and organizing my many boxes of legal–and other–papers, I came across something I typed out years ago from a book by Harvard Constitutional Law Professor, Allen Dershowitz. The book is entitled The Best Defense. It’s still available. I recommend it.

The Rules of the Justice Game

Rule I – Almost all criminal defendants are, in fact, guilty.

Rule II – All criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges understand and believe Rule I.

Rule III – It is easier to convict guilty defendants by violating the Constitution than by complying with it, and in some case it is impossible to convict guilty defendants without violating the constitution.

Rule IV – Almost all police lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict guilty defendants.

Rule V – All prosecutors, judges, and defense lawyers are aware of Rule IV.

Rule VI – Many prosecutors implicitly encourage police to lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict guilty defendants.

Rule VII – All judges are aware of Rule VI.

Rule VIII – Most trial judges pretend to believe police officers who they know are lying.

Rule IX – All appellate judges are aware of Rule VIII, yet many pretend to believe the trial judges who pretend to believe the lying police officers.

Rule X – Most judges disbelieve defendants about whether their constitutional rights have been violated, even if they are telling the truth.

Rule XI – Most judges and prosecutors would not knowingly convict a defendant who they believe to be innocent of the crime charged (or a closely related crime).

Rule XII – Rule XI does not apply to members of organized crime, drug dealers, career criminals, or potential informers.

Rule XIII – Nobody really wants justice.

Thank you for viewing my blog. Please return often. I value your comments.

Regards,

David Hendricks

www.authorhendricks.com

Like Author Hendricks on FacebookFollow Author Hendricks on Twitter

One thought on “The Rules of the Justice Game”

  1. Agreed….MOST are guilty of a crime but often the charges are very trumped up. We dealt with this in our family. The local system is small and there is a lot.of back scratching going on. I don’t have faith in the system and I find it sad that anyone in the legal system.could live with their own.conscience when they are sometimes more corrupt than those they send.off to prison.

Leave a Reply