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The family struggled with their finances, having used their savings to pay for George's defense.
Government has essentially unlimited funds with which to prosecute its targets. Government extracts those funds from We the People at gunpoint. Meanwhile, with rare exceptions, We the People do not have the means to defend ourselves in court.
This conundrum is entirely rooted in leftit ideology.
Judicial discretion in sentencing was essentially outlawed because too many leftist judges were letting hardened criminals, murderers, drug dealers, etc off lightly and justifying their decision in “he grew up in a racist society and had no choice but to choose crime” nonsense. There was a backlash by clear thinking citizens who demanded minimum sentencing requirements to counter it.
Same leftists demand harsher and harsher sentencing, and making everything a crime, where the targets are ordinary citizens going about their daily lives, such as imprisoning fisherman because they used the wrong packaging for their lobster catch, or praying in front of abortion mills, or posting internet memes the left doesn’t like. The no-discrection in sentencing then made it impossible for a reasonable judge to cater the “sentence” for such ‘crimes’.
Same leftists then decriminalized drug use/sales/public consumption and retail thefts committed to finance the drug users’ habit. See, c.f., San Francisco. Can’t park your car for an hour without it being broken into, or shop without a master key to the locked up items, and shoplifting is legal.
Same leftists free rioters when they burn, loot, and murder and build statues to their drug god but jail nonviolent republican political protesters for years without trial.
So while I agree with Justice G’s lament, the leftist roots have grown into a towering sequioa overshadowing the reasonable administration of justice. It’ll take alot more than passing laws to address it.