Let's Hope the Case is On

Let us hope the Scruggs Case is still on with Zach Scruggs taking the lead. It is apparent Dick Scruggs had to plead as he did in order to give his son, Zach, a chance at proving his innocence. Zach Scruggs did not stand a chance with his case being combined with that of Dick Scruggs and Sidney Backstrom. One can hardly fail to see the due process problem here. Judge Bigger's denial of the motion to sever was way over the top.

I also hope the issue of "entrapment as a matter of law" will come up and that it will be used to vindicate Zach Scruggs. Again, we cannot have respect for the judicial system if state judges become agents of the Federal Government. Especially if the judge cum government agent pursued his mark when the mark did not pursue the judge and when the judge cum government agent was the actual person who proposed the bribe.

How We Should Look at Things, Part 2

What should we be looking for when we observe the processes of law? Taking sides and then watching the process as if it was a game does not seem very edifying. What a serious citizen should be looking for is much deeper.

It is much deeper because in the matter he is actually observing forces playing themselves out. And, when they do they set the stage or the record for the way things will happen in the future.

The serious citizen is actually "watching the mind of man made." He is observing the creation and refinement of culture. Not only is he watching history in the making, he is watching the filial sense of man progressing or going backward to a darker time.

So one hopes in observing the Scruggs Litigation he is able to see the positive force of a soul of the law animating everything being done, especially the work of the judge and the jury.

The Justice System? Justice or War?

The case against Dick Scruggs in Alabama was dismissed yesterday. The Order can be found here. One of the main commentators in these matters said this about the decision:

UPDATE: I read it, and all I can say is thank goodness, it has been a long time coming -- finally, a case where the criminal justice system doesn't railroad a famous, rich, white guy! Famous rich friends of Dickie Scruggs -- it's party time!

This cynical comment tells us something about a lawyer's view of the law, or at least the lawyer commentator's view of the law. His side lost. His enemy won.

So how to address the work of Judge Vinson? Make fun of it. Tell people Judge Vinson is a partisan for Dick Scruggs. The comment does not show care or respect for law. It also shows great disrespect for Judge Vinson.

The commentator did not address the issues Judge Vinson decided and the law was applied by Judge Vinson as to the issues and the facts pertaining to the issues. Instead he simply makes an ad hominum attack upon Judge Vinson's work.

A true lawyer would comment on the law not upon personalities. What is at stake in these proceedings is not winners and losers but the law. Unless of course law is not about law but instead is simply another forum for war.

Judical Entrapment Violates the Rule of Law

Use of judge in an entrapment violates the fundamental principle upon which the judicial process is founded -- the rule of law, or rule by law. The rule of law is the opposite of the rule of power or judgment of power. The foundation of the rule of law is that the "end does not justify the means." Justice cannot be acheived if its basis is injustice, law breaking. When a judge becomes a government agent in an entrapment, the judiciary becomes an agent in breaking the law so as to punish one caught in the trap of the entrapment. See Wikiscruggs.

Existential Meanderings

I have been reading some of the internet journals (blogs) which focus on the Scruggs Litigation. One is a solo effort. Another a joint effort. Yet another a solo effort which brings in other sources mostly from the first two. A national newspaper with a "law blog." A person with a "tort reform" agenda. The sites are interesting but, . . . I guess it seems the authors all are true believers of one sort or another.

I have not found, at least so far, any sites which are written by true believers for Dick Scruggs, Zach Scruggs and Sidney Backstrom.

I do not know where I stand on the question of the guilt or innocence of the defendants. Right now it seems they have not a friend in the world. That is unfair, I think. I admit to being a bit partial to the guy the apparatus of government is going after. Despite my belief the mind of man, let us say man's government, can be a good thing and do good things and protect people from the bad guys and even ourselves, I have a healthy distrust of it.

When a person becomes a government employee or an elected representative of the people he does not become smarter nor more ethical than he was before he got the job. Suffice it to say, we are all sinners and power does have a real tendency to corrupt. So the good guys are not always perfect and the bad guys are not always bad. In fact the dividing line between good and evil probably runs through the soul of each person, each and every person, involved in the situation.

At the moment, at the moment of my self directed involvement and self sponsored involvement I have to admit to some real tough questions moving though my mind about the situation and the main players in the situation.

A topic which keeps coming up is the question of entrapment. I hope I stick with this topic. Simply put, there is something (which seems to me) insidious in the use of a sitting judge as a government agent offering to be bribed in a bribery entrapment scheme. Especially one who is a close friend of the person and family of one of the targets of the scheme.

What has happened in the Scruggs Litigation seems contrary to our value of "rule by law." Contrary in several respects.