Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Faces of (In)Justice
When I found out Hubert Webb got acquitted, I went home from work earlier than usual to catch the primetime news. I wanted to see it; videos, reports, everything. Real-time news and reactions I read in Twitter all day weren’t enough. It was like someone dear to me died and I had to see that person lying lifeless in a coffin before I let everything sink in.
I was in elementary when our history teacher required us to watch the court give its verdict to Hubert Webb and the others. I remember the defense requesting for the full court decision to be read, resulting to an entire day of recollection. A lot of details stick with me: 19 stab wounds to a 7-year old kid, 6 men raping a young lady and 12 stab wounds to kill their mother, as if what they did to her children weren’t enough to take her life. That was my first real eye-opener to the dark and dangerous version of this world. After that, curiosity caught up with me and I decided to watch the movie version one time it was shown in cable TV. That kept me up at night far longer than any horror movie ever did.
It was inhumane, brutal, gross and I still feel sick in the stomach whenever I watch documentaries on Vizconde massacre throughout the years. Knowing high-profile criminals, one being a son of a Senator nonetheless, were put behind bars for the rest of their lives to pay for the heinous crime they committed got that little spark of confidence I have in our justice system alive. And now, I don’t really know.
I am not saying with authority and full certainty that those acquitted were guilty. Although, I cannot comprehend how a Senator was not able to pull resources and prove the innocence of his son when we are all aware of the ugly truth that, in this country, the rich and the powerful can spin anything their way. On the other side of the coin, if those guys are truly innocent, what incompetent lower court justices, NBI agents (who are lawyers, themselves) and policemen we do have. Plus, I don’t think we have the level of technology to obtain evidences to prove a man’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It will forever be someone’s word against someone else’s with some lightweight evidence on the side. Anyone who watches CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, etc., would agree on that.
I once sincerely believed that my path was towards that profession, taking up law and becoming a criminal lawyer. I wasn’t interested in corporate law as much as I was passionate about representing and defending in a criminal case. But today, I feel disgusted towards every single criminal lawyer in this country. It is being unfair, I know. But I think we all deserve a day for that. There were three women killed some 19 years ago, the head of their family left grieving for his loss. He earned the justice he long fought for, or, it seems now, he was merely swayed in believing so, until a former Senator requested a DNA testing of the specimen that is now nowhere to be found. Now, our country rests in a thin line between an inconsolable victim and innocent men jailed for years. Whichever side we take, we point our fingers to the same hopeless justice system that doesn’t know that first thing about justice.
My prayers are with the victims- whoever they rightfully are in this story.
I was in elementary when our history teacher required us to watch the court give its verdict to Hubert Webb and the others. I remember the defense requesting for the full court decision to be read, resulting to an entire day of recollection. A lot of details stick with me: 19 stab wounds to a 7-year old kid, 6 men raping a young lady and 12 stab wounds to kill their mother, as if what they did to her children weren’t enough to take her life. That was my first real eye-opener to the dark and dangerous version of this world. After that, curiosity caught up with me and I decided to watch the movie version one time it was shown in cable TV. That kept me up at night far longer than any horror movie ever did.
It was inhumane, brutal, gross and I still feel sick in the stomach whenever I watch documentaries on Vizconde massacre throughout the years. Knowing high-profile criminals, one being a son of a Senator nonetheless, were put behind bars for the rest of their lives to pay for the heinous crime they committed got that little spark of confidence I have in our justice system alive. And now, I don’t really know.
I am not saying with authority and full certainty that those acquitted were guilty. Although, I cannot comprehend how a Senator was not able to pull resources and prove the innocence of his son when we are all aware of the ugly truth that, in this country, the rich and the powerful can spin anything their way. On the other side of the coin, if those guys are truly innocent, what incompetent lower court justices, NBI agents (who are lawyers, themselves) and policemen we do have. Plus, I don’t think we have the level of technology to obtain evidences to prove a man’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It will forever be someone’s word against someone else’s with some lightweight evidence on the side. Anyone who watches CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, etc., would agree on that.
I once sincerely believed that my path was towards that profession, taking up law and becoming a criminal lawyer. I wasn’t interested in corporate law as much as I was passionate about representing and defending in a criminal case. But today, I feel disgusted towards every single criminal lawyer in this country. It is being unfair, I know. But I think we all deserve a day for that. There were three women killed some 19 years ago, the head of their family left grieving for his loss. He earned the justice he long fought for, or, it seems now, he was merely swayed in believing so, until a former Senator requested a DNA testing of the specimen that is now nowhere to be found. Now, our country rests in a thin line between an inconsolable victim and innocent men jailed for years. Whichever side we take, we point our fingers to the same hopeless justice system that doesn’t know that first thing about justice.
My prayers are with the victims- whoever they rightfully are in this story.
# posted by Liana : 4:21 PM
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