Re: Vigilant or Bloody Minded

[Tom C]

John Forbes wrote:


Frank's right.  When a deranged individual does harm to somebody, there  
may be some excuse or explanation.  When the state does harm, through  
incompetence or malice, there's no excuse.  The damage done by a wrongful  
conviction is enormous, and the damage is done to the victim's family and  
friends as well as the victim himself.


The damage is significant even if the wrongly accused is found innocent.  
It's months, a year, whatever of living hell, not to mention the post 
traumatic stress that follows.

We tend to like to refer to the "State" as a faceless entity.  It is of 
course real people doing real damage through malice and/or incompetence.

Unfortunately, and understandably, when "justice" is eventually done, the 
last thing the victim wants to do is spend another year or more in court 
suing the system. They just want to get on with their lives.

Tom C.