"Boston Legal" - U.S. Legal System on Trial, There & in RI

Okay, the part of tonight's episode on "Boston Legal" in which Alan chastises the U.S. Supreme Court Justices was absurd.  But the program made some important points via Alan's arguments before the High Court about how politicized our legal system has become.

The plot line mirrored loosely a real case going to the Supremes.  The real case is about a Louisiana man is on death row for raping a child.  The child was his stepdaughter, if I remember correctly.  He won the right to appeal this sentence.  The "Boston Legal" version adds the wrinkle of diminished capacity.  The man, who claims he is innocent of the rape, has a 70 IQ. 

There was more at issue than just the death penalty.  Alan also hammered the differences of sentencing in various states and that the trial court seemed to overlook the man's low IQ.  The politicization of American justice, though, was what really hit home. 

I keep wondering:  Could the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance litigation have gone from trial one to trial two to a possible trial three in a state other than RI? 

I bring this up because I grew up in an area very much like RI.  We were afraid of the law throughout Jersey City, New Jersey circa 1950s and early 1960s.  Part of that was because the iconic mayor Frank Hague said he was the law.  That statement by Hague has been taken out of context but it captures the spirit of the times.  I left Haguesville hating all that.  When I started blogging at the end of October 2005 about the RI political and legal scene, I came to concede that in Haguesville the buses ran on time, everyone who wanted to work could, and the public high school [Synder] I attended was excellent. 

But that was half a century ago.  No area, no legal system, no rhetoric should be politicized.  We should have become too savvy for that.  Yet, it might still exist in RI. 

Tonight on "Boston Legal," Alan pleaded to the Justices of the High Court for justice.  I ask the same of the Justices of the RI SC.