By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 25, 2023 | It was four-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898) who is credited with the phrase, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” In the modern day, that phrase was brought back to popularity by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, smuggled out of prison in 1963.
Essentially, it means that when a person is charged, neither side benefits from a delay in moving through the justice system.
Certainly the defendant, especially if not guilty, continues to suffer tremendously until a verdict is rendered. If guilty, when a trial is drawn out, allows the defendant to be free until the verdict is pronounced.
And the government, trying to bring order and move people and charges through the court system, can be thwarted for a long, drawn-out process, even to the point of seeing witnesses die before they can testify, sometimes to the benefit of the defendant.
That brings us to a person who seems intent on thwarting the American system of justice – none other than former President Donald Trump.
Among his many lawyer maneuvers, Trump is saying that his many possible trials should be delayed because he is a presidential candidate. That’s crazy!
What? Does that mean that if you or I are charged with a crime, all we have to do is declare for the presidency, and that trial might be delayed?
Seems to us that the exact opposite is true. The American people need to know before they go into the voting booth in 2024 if they should support someone charged with crimes. Isn’t that best for the United States, that we pick leaders who are upright, and are not criminals?
Just read one element in Mr. Trump’s attempt to get a delay in one of his many charges. The court was told:
“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication.”
Let us add what the Trump lawyer left out to that: “And if that candidate should be elected before a trial, then found guilty later on, wouldn’t that be a travesty of justice that the American people just elected a guilty person?
Not only that, but wouldn’t a jury find it much harder to convict a sitting president? And what would be the outcome to get a guilty president out of office if he was convicted after he assumed office?
We find that Donald Trump, before, while president and since, continues to lawyer up and litigate his problems, trying to scare people away, getting his attorneys to come up with reason after reason that Trump should not ever face a jury.
Yep, he is the international poster child of trying to delay justice!
Donald Trump wasn’t raised like you and I were. His parents never said, “No Donald, don’t do that.” He has never been disciplined. He goes into tantrums when people say “No” to him, as he tries to thwart every critic.
The best thing for the American people in the coming year is to get Donald Trump into court in short order on every charge. Don’t let him hoodwink our government – and our people – with his rage and outlandish views.
Let him get the justice he deserves. And we pray even the Republican Party will cut his efforts short and not nominate him for any office. Again, justice delayed is justice denied.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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