Nancy Workman has been admitted into an elite and exclusive club that most of us will never have the privilege to join (God Forbid)--those acquitted of criminal charges. And among even this elite group she is in a subclass almost all to her own--those whose private attorney's fees are paid for at public expense--to the tune of $100,000. Despite the overblown tab--this is as it should be.
The rest of this elite club are divided into two groups. The acquitted poor who were appointed public defenders and the acquitted middle class who, to preserve their freedom and hopefully good name, must relish a bitter victory because of the financial ruin--which was the price of fighting the State. It should not be this way. No one should have to face the furry and power of the State when it brings its weight to bear in a misguided prosecution.
Despite popular belief, many such prosecutions are misguided. The completely innocent do find themselves facing the bar of judgment. These are the victims of lies, politics, mistakes, incompetence and over zealousness.
We have long decried the horrendous violence of a vigilante lynching mob/ but we should just as well bemoan the wrenching impoverishment of a financial lynching at the hands of an arrogant, ignorant or mistaken prosecution. A prosecution that amasses, not the raging mob that pulls you from your bed in full view of the cameras, but the quiet, unfeeling, unseen mob of government functionaries that pulls the house down around you. This is one of the last great injustices in our criminal system that should be remedied.
But it will not happen. No one cares about this elite minority, that is until that exclusive invitation is personally delivered to your door by one of our unformed servants. When it does, just hope you have all your dues saved up, or, no matter how innocent you know you are, you may not make it to dine with Nancy.
Loren M. Lambert, February 4, 2006 ©
