Justice for the rich?
Fred has been found not guilty … at a cost. Reports are that his family spent R9 – 10 million to prove it to the court.
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They brought in four expert witnesses from around the world, had a team of attorneys and lawyers, private investigators and miscellaneous other expenses. It is no wonder that the cost was so high. After all, what loving parent would not pay everything they had to ensure their child had the best defence possible?
Fred is lucky. He comes from a section of the population that has access to this kind of money. I can’t but help thinking of the millions of other South Africans who do not have access to the same defence as Fred did. Do they get a fair shot at proving their innocence?
Without a good defence, the police have carte blanche in manufacturing evidence, presenting flimsy evidence before the court and/or not bothering with a good investigation. When this repetitively happens, they are exposed as incompetent when someone with money stands up to them – as in this case.
An additional problem is that Legal Aid is so overworked that they probably can not give each case the full attention that it deserves. Added to this are the budget restraints. Would Legal Aid spend millions to bring the best possible witnesses to court? Would they even bother with getting local experts?
The result is a badly defended case and a high probability that the defendant will end up being imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. In our prisons there could be thousands of innocent people who have been wrongly accused and convicted but without the financial means to prove it.
Louis van der Vyver is probably going to sue the police to recoup some of his losses. But also, in his words:
“Having endured what we did, we’ve got a tremendous sensitivity about what this could do to any other person. We would like to do whatever we can to address the [problems in the] system and prevent or limit such a thing happening to anybody else.”
I applaud that he draws attention to this problem. Yet shouldn’t we as a society be doing more?
I feel very strongly that it is high time that the government takes a very close look into the workings of the police, NPA, Legal Aid and the convictions of people currently in prison. Similar action has taken place in the UK over the past several years, resulting in quite a number of convictions being declared ‘unsafe’ and subsequently being quashed.
It is about time we had reform in all aspects of the criminal justice system in South Africa. Maybe then we can live in a law-abiding country! Maybe then people will respect the legal system.
I will end this article with a couple of famous quotes:
It is far better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer
-Sir William Blackstone
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law
-Oliver Goldsmith
The jury, passing on the prisoners life, may, in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try
-William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
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