The Legal System We Depend On

As a citizen of Arkansas, I find it appalling that we have judges that make decisions based on their opinion and the only avenue available to us if we disagree is to pay an attorney several thousands of dollars to appeal the decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

In Drew County, a young lady and young man stood before a judge over a custody matter. This judge, in his capacity, made a decision to take a young child from the mother. The judge did not in turn give the child to the father, who is by all accounts psychotic, no he gave the child to the paternal grandmother (the individual that raised said psycho), who was not even party to the action.

His decision was based solely on the mothers past; which included a former job as a "stripper", accusations of drug use, and general instability. All of which are truly terrible qualities for a mother. However, for several years now this same young woman finished her education, started and runs a profitable business, attends church regularly, and has completely turned her life around. The young child's teacher testified that the child was by all accounts happy and well adjusted.

It disturbs me that an individual that has made mistakes and has changed his/her life is still judged based on those mistakes.

I will not bore those of you without familiarity with the law on the numerous ways this is ruling is unjust.

I have to ask myself do we, in this day and age, hold so tightly to our dubious morality that we are no longer capable of forgiving an individual of mistakes made years ago. Do we as people in the bible belt consider forgiving someone (of stupid decisions in their youth) the same as condoning those mistakes? Does it make us more comfortable to write off someone rather than take into account all of the progress that individual has made and look at that individual with new eyes?

A judge is obviously an elected official. He/she is the individual that we put our trust in to uphold, abide, and make decisions based on our laws.

The above statement gives me pause; I wonder if any voter has cared to look at the amount of decisions one of the candidates for judge have had overruled by the Arkansas Supreme Court prior to voting for that judge.

Personally I believe that if a judge has had certain number of rulings overruled by our higher court he/she should lose his/her ability to act as judge as he/she is obviously attempting to enforce his/her own personal opinion rather than the law, or he/she is incompetent.

With this short essay, which of course in no way encompasses the magnitude of the injustice people can suffer at the hands of our legal system, I implore the reader to think when it is time to vote, next time it may be you that loses your child based on the whim of judge without any actual law backing the judgment.

temotena

anybody know the name and what happened to the couple that burned 19 houses to the ground in late 2003 i lost my notes and my friends were asking last week while in new edinburg i can not find any info on line