Justice: A Lawyerly Response

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 5905



Peg Kerr wrote:

> But in a world where good and evil have become confused,
> that is, if the prisoner has been wrongfully imprisoned, then hope
> whispers that when good is restored to its rightful place, justice will
> eventually set the prisoner free.

And if only the real world worked like this...but we're talking about the
Harry Potter stories here, not some of the cases I worked on back before I
became an intellectual property attorney, when I assisted in/was involved
with some interesting (and very high profile) criminal defense matters. And
in the HP universe, as Peg points out, justice is almost as rare as it is in
the real world.

One thing Peg didn't mention is a situation where a personal alteration of
the "justice" mandated by society puts the entire society at risk. I'm
speaking of Mr Crouch's giving in to his wife's wishes, and allowing her and
Barty to switch places with Polyjuice potion, thereby ending Barty's
sentence in Azkaban, and bringing him home. I had the impression from the
book Mr Crouch himself wasn't completely convinced of his son's guilt in the
torture of Neville's parents, and that's  both why he had the "show trial"
where his son was severely punished, and why he allowed the Polyjuice Switch
to occur - and in making that decision, and personally overturning the
court's sentence, he set in motion a chain of events which (a) led Bertha
Jorkins to Voldemort, (b) led Voldemort to the Crouch house, (c) led Mr
Crouch to Hogwarts in search of Dumbledore, which put him in the correct
place for his son to kill him, and (d) caused Harry to be portkeyed to the
Riddle gravesite, and allowed Lord Voldemort to be reborn.  Even though the
trial may've been unjust, the sentence to Barty was completely just, and had
it been followed, the wizarding world would not, as of the end of book 4, be
on the verge of conflagration (again).

> Of course, as Harry will learn, when good and evil collide, justice
> often isn't as easy as Uncle Vernon makes it out to be.

Which leads me to think of another Vigilante Justice scene in Book 3 - the
Shrieking Shack "trial" of Peter Pettigrew - Sirius and Remus are completely
prepared to take an action which could be seen in this way (and Harry's
assent to them killing Peter if he tried to escape is a perfect definition
of Imperfect Self Defense - the concept that, as a matter of law, you can
kill someone if you reaosnably believe that the person poses an imminent
threat to your life or the life of another, even if that belief as to
imminence or as to threat is NOT correct (not property, life) - because if
Peter had made an attempt to escape, then it would be reasonable to conclude
that Harry's life - and other lives - would be in danger (it's easy to not
remember that Wormtail *killed twelve muggles* for no reaosn, other than to
frame Sirius and escape the blame for what Voldemort did to Lily & James)
and Harry's life was in danger by wormtail's escape - but any imminence on
that night in Book 3 would've been incorrect, thus imperfect self
defense/defense of another)

> It is a sign of Rowling's skill that none of the trials that Harry sees
> in the Pensieve feel "right" although on the surface all seem to have
> reached the right result.  Bagman is shown mercy, Karkaroff, an admitted
> deatheater, agrees to help the wizarding community, providing helpful
> information, and the torturers of the Longbottoms are given a harsh
> sentence.

I am sure that Penny will also have some comments on this thread, but as a
lawyer, I was very interested in the "trial" scenes - given what we know
about how Sirius ended up at Azkaban (i.e. NO trial), it seems that the
rights of due process don't really exist in the Wizarding World - there's no
right to a trial (if there was, then sirius would've had one - and I'm
surprized he didn't for another reason - if the high-ups in the wizarding
world had REALLY believed he'd been the secret keeper, then they should've
felt that a trial would be cathartic for the population, the way that some
clearly did about the Lestrange/Crouch trial), there seem to be no
attorneys, and the system seems more predicated on hearing what the accused
has to say, than on what evidence can be presented. Although that might just
be in the Death Eater trials - and we only saw portions of 2 of those (the
Karkaroff thing wasn't really a trial - more like a parole hearing.

> We have hope, however, in the figure of Harry Potter.  Harry has the
> thirst to find out the true story, the assistance of Ron and Hermione
> (among others) in uncovering it, the courage to face it, and the
> patience to hear it all.

Peg says he has the thirst to find out....but we haven't seen him seeking
things out until they are more or less in his face - he didn't try to find
out what Draco was talking about when he said, in Book 3, that Harry should
want to find sirius himself, he doesn't read anything about his parents or
the rise of Voldemort, even though some of that might make him better
prepared to fight whatever is coming. He does have the assistance, the
courage and the patience - which will help make an impact - but I can't but
hope that he's going to learn a little next time before the last possible
minute, so he can digest what he has learned and use it in a more
levelheaded fashion.
'Course, I don't expect him to do that - the whole Learn At The Last Minute
thing adds so much good stuff to the suspense and excitement of the stories!