We are led to believe that without government, there would be no justice when disputes arise. However, it has never been shown that with government courts there would be justice. See my essay on the subject here. It is merely assumed that, because that is the stated purpose of government courts, they are capable of dispensing justice and do in fact do so. To call that a bad argument would be too kind since it’s not an argument at all but the absence of an argument.
One of the things I do in my law practice is represent defendants in post-conviction, post-appeal proceedings who have not been given justice in the government courts. There is little money in this work. The work is complex, time-consuming and usually ends in failure. One of my clients a few years back was Valentino Dixon, who filed suit in federal court for a review of his murder conviction in Buffalo in 1992. There were numerous good issues raised but the main one was that another man had committed the crime and in fact confessed to it. Unfortunately, thanks to the GOP Congress and Bill Clinton, the ancient right of habeas corpus was restricted in the late 90’s. A one year statute of limitations was added. Dixon was not able to file in time and the court dismissed his case.
Thanks to the new law, the case was never heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals either.
However, Valentino never stopped fighting to clear his name and he found a creative way to bring attention to his cause, drawing pictures of golf courses. Long story short, Golf Digest wrote about his case prompting the Golf Channel to take note. Tonight at 10:30pm (ET), Jimmy Roberts’ new show In Play, will feature a segment about Valentino. This was a major production which involved two days of filming interviews inside Attica State Prison and a day interviewing witnesses and lawyers in Buffalo. DA Chris Belling and I were interviewed by Roberts a few months back.
I highly recommend this show if you get the Golf Channel. Watch it online later if not.
(Another segment involves an interview with Arnold Palmer.)
6:00 pm on March 12, 2013
