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The Lorian
March 21, 2019
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Justice for all, I wish! by CONOR KELLY
“
opinion editor
You have the right to a fair trial.” We have all heard this phrase sometime in our lives, usually in the form of some cop television show where justice is served, the crooks are thrown away, and the good guys prevail. That is how the system works, right? I wish I could say that was true, but unfortunately, we don’t live in an idealized world of a cop show. Many people simply don’t get the fair trial they deserve. They’re needlessly punished either for crimes they didn’t commit or are punished disproportionately to the crime in question. This is a disturbing discrepancy in the constitutional idea set up in the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution which states: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” The right to a fair and impartial trial is stated in our constitution, but it’s too bad our court system has completely disregarded this.
Despite what most people think, the vast majority of defendants never see a court of law, they never argue their case, and they never exercise their right to a trial as 95% of criminal court decisions are decided by plea bargains (Lynch, Cato Institute). They were never proven guilty, they simply pleaded guilty to the crimes they were accused of, and despite some people’s optimism, I find it highly unlikely that the law is accusing people of crimes with 95% accuracy. The reality is that most defendants can’t afford a lawyer, more than we care to think. The Department of Justice estimated that a minimum of 60% of defendants can’t afford a lawyer and as such, the burden of representation for these people goes to public defenders, a group of civil servants who are overworked, underpaid, and are unable to maintain their duties, thus ensuring that the defendant is at a disadvantage with or without legal counsel. The public defender is unable to provide proper quality counsel with his or her massive work load. In 2007, there were 947 public defenders’ offices in the U.S. with the average full time attorney in these offices
What’s the future of Brexit? by TYLER FAHEY
I
staff writer
reported on Brexit this past fall and discussed how the United Kingdom will successfully leave the European Union. Radical nationalist, Nigel Farage, was keen on getting the United Kingdom out of the European Union since the beginning of his career in the European Parliament. There will be three ways that Brexit will be resolved. First, Conservative Party Prime Minister, Teresa May, will go to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France and talk to European leaders about halting the process of allowing the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Second, the United Kingdom will get a hard Brexit and the world stock market will basically take a “hard punch to the gut”. Third, the Prime Minister will have a vote in the British Parliament to hold a vote on halting the process of allowing the United Kingdom to fall out with the European Union and allow another referendum for the British people. My personal opinion is that millions of people would vote to stay in the European Union, specifically Scotland, who preferred to stay in the European Union. Many people were misguided by politicians in the United Kingdom, mainly by nationalist Nigel Farage and his UKIP organization that drove people off the edge. We also saw that the 2016 presidential election also potentially influenced the Brexit decision, due to the international rise of nationalism, mainly in the west. My prediction is that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will not allow another referendum and will begin a series of negotiations with European Union leaders and the Labour Party in the British Parliament, among other parities to find a way to solve these issues. The domestic politics and the details are unknown at this point, but I do foresee
a series of meetings in which the Prime Minister will hold negotiations. I wish the United Kingdom the best of luck going forward. The other thing that people in Europe have to be aware of is a potential Frexit, meaning France leaving the European Union. France is the life blood of the European Union and so is the United Kingdom. To have both of these major powers leave the European Union, would likely leave the European Union with nothing. The United Kingdom and France are one of the larger producing countries in terms of economic prosperity in the European Union. To have them leave would like be an abolishment of an economic system. It wouldn’t be good. With the rise of nationalism in France right now and around the world, many believe that France will leave and I’ve read a few times now that Greece might leave as well. However, the international rise of nationalism is beginning to have a backlash on itself. We’ve seen the people of the United Kingdom begin to regret their decision to leave the European Union and some want another referendum. France is in chaos right now because of the immigration problems they are having, the struggle with different ethnic groups, their government is really divided, but the term of define France would be extreme division. In the middle of all of this, France leaving would have dire consequences for Europe and even the world. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, has been traveling around the country holding national debates and talking about the socioeconomic situation going on right now. There has been a lot of backlash to that, especially with the “Yellow vest movement”. Overall, France needs to become more culturally stable, before they make a decision to leave the European Union.
THE
executive editor:
features editor:
assistant copy editor:
KELSEY LANSING
JACOB RICHERT AND DARBY CALLAHAN
ROSE GOTTSCHALK
CONOR KELLY news editor:
ANNA PETERSEN
health & lifestyle editor:
DANIEL WILLIS
advertising manager:
ANDREW GROSSKLAUS
sports editor:
executive copy editor and web editor:
moderator:
JON QUINN
ELIZABETH TIGGES
TIM MANNING
to a degree, I find myself agreeing with this. The amount of drug busts reached a high level of 1.6 million in 2017 with the percentage of charges involving possession only being reported to be at 85.4% (Forbes and Drug Policy. Org). I don’t want to say we should legalize every drug under the sun, but the amount of times the courts are filled to the brim with drug cases for people who are sick and addicted is too much to ignore. What I propose to this issue is not meant to excuse drug-related behavior, nor is it to encourage the act of drug use. What I am proposing is solely for the purpose of getting these people out of a flawed and weak criminal justice system that won’t care about them and only cares about putting them in prison with flawed and overworked defenders. Instead of throwing those who possess drugs in prison, only possess, we should be fining them and begin to revamp treatment programs. These people are sick and they are filling the court system to the maximum. They aren’t criminals — they are people who need help like any other sick person. We can’t abandon them.
A different superhero universe by JOSH VOGT
W
staff writer
hat is commonly referred to on the shows as “The Arrowverse” began in 2012 with the premiere of the show “Arrow”. The show was centered around the character of Oliver Queen, a playboy who was lost in the North China Sea when his boat went down with him and his father on board. Five years later he returns home to Starling City, having survived on an island all this time, with a mission to cleanse his city of crime and corruption. This show went a season and a half as a standalone superhero show, with great ratings and a loyal audience at the time who were growing invested in the world of the Arrow and his friends. Around the middle of the second season a character was introduced, Barry Allen, a forensic scientist from the another place called Central City, here to help on a certain case with the city’s police force. Many fans recognized these names as those of The Flash and his home town, which had a lot of people excited. Soon after, the first season of the television show “The Flash” premiered with the third season of “Arrow”. The two show’s crossed over at the mid-point of these seasons for a special two night event that blew the minds of fans. To see two characters from unique shows showing up in each other’s worlds and fighting bad guys together was awesome. This was only the beginning as ABC was starting their own show of “Supergirl” at the same time, initially not connected, however. By the eighteenth episode of Supergirl season one, a crossover was allowed with The Flash, where he was able to literally, I kid you not, run so fast he accidentally ran between worlds into the world of
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working a median amount of 82 felony noncapital cases, 217 misdemeanor cases and 2 appeals cases. To put this into perspective, there are 15,000 public defenders handling cases with a median load that prevents them from doing their jobs effectively for over 240,000 people. (Langton and Farole, Bureau of Justice Statistics). It shows too, as the estimated rate of innocents locked up in prison ranges from between 2-10% of the prison population of 2.3 million people, meaning that our criminal justice system has locked up somewhere between 46,000 to 230,000 innocent people (Grisham, Chicago Tribune). The horror of this is there haven’t been a lot of proposed solutions that won’t have some degree of passionate and fiery partisanship, and it is understandable that many people feel strongly on this issue. Most of my writing has been direct and confrontational on many subjects, consistently so, but this time, I am a bit more inclined to err on the side of restraint. There are those who argue that this is the inevitable result of the drug war that prioritizes conviction over justice;
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Supergirl. This introduced the idea that there were infinite other worlds out there to pull characters from and that they could all interact with each other for amazing character moments. From here the connected universe bloomed into a four night set of shows, leading to one of their most ambitious crossovers, “Crisis on Earth X”. It was essentially a full movie length crossover with four show’s worth of characters against a common threat. The audience got to see all their favorite characters interacting with each other, and it truly made the world feel alive, and seeing everything come together was just magical, akin to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Only the Arrowverse has been able to capture this on a television
level, and they only continue to add characters and shows to their roster. The crossovers get better and better by the year, with next one’s promising the largest collection of characters yet. This last one even introduced Batwoman to the universe, opening the doors for some of the most well-known characters of DC to show up in this world. No network has managed this level of magic in their show’s worlds and how alive they feel makes them impossible to compare. It is a lot of work to truly catch up on this massive collection of connected shows, some of which are cartoons online, but oh my god is it satisfying to do. Good luck, and enjoy.
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