Prosecution Counsel

This is something of a rant against the justice system, the purpose of which may seem at times to be to gain conviction and lengthen sentences rather than establish the truth. Naive citizens, caught up in some illicit activity, may be mere lambs voluntarily going to their slaughter in the belief that the system will ensure that a jury is influenced only by proven fact and that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. Career criminals will, of course, find a way to profit from it.

We should remember that, when a prosecution counsel states something as fact which they know to be untrue, they are deemed to have been mistaken. If they omit to state an important fact which is on the public reacord or part of the evidence, they are deemed to be ill-informed. When a defendant does these things, they are deemed to be dishonest.

Enough said for this poem, I suppose.

Prosecution Counsel 

 

Perverse this prosecution counsel

Victory by verdict his sole concern

Truth and justice, merely minor matters

As his well-groomed jurors to the court return

 

So animated as guilt pronounced

So still his face when the innocents rise

Astonishing amorality in this man

A master of myth and stilted surprise

 

Justice for him has no moral base

Cultured, and of curiously calm disposition

An unsympathetic, soapbox speaker

A proud professional of inquisition

 

Innuendo and inference

The tools of his tawdry trade

This doctor of denigration

Conviction his career has made

 

As his victims are led away

He turns, triumphant to his peers

Even the defence acclaims his skills

Salutations of success ring in his ears

 

Does he sleep well at night?

Is he disturbed by drug-induced dreams?

Has he no concern for others’ plight?

Is he as insincere as he seems?

 

Questions that remain unanswered

For the world, uninvolved, does not care

The victims for them are defined in the News

Little thought whether justice is firm or fair

 

Society seeks its pound of flesh

From whoever is put on the stand

The prosecutor drives judge and jury

Others’ fate in the palm of his hand

 

But do not hope that he’ll change his ways

As he grows older, wiser and sadder

He’ll be replaced by one even more eager

To climb the Establishment ladder