| The Court Ststem, And It’s Capability To Put Innocent People Into Jail Or To Death As Seen In The Book A Tale Of Two Cities Essay, Research Paper
English Paper
Topic: The court system, and it’s capability to put innocent people into jail or to death.
James Laurie
There are many examples in the book A Tale of Two Cities of mistakes made by the legal system. The legal system has the capability to punish innocent men, and to set free or even reward a guilty one. Though it usually makes a just decision, the legal system can sometimes err.
Throughout the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Charles Darnay, a character in the book, was put to trial many times. He was put to trial in France because of his noble ancestry, over which he had no control. Because he had left France to get away from his family’s past he was persecuted and prosecuted when he tried to return to help one of his family’s loyal and innocent servants, Gabelle. Though he had not committed any real crime, he was sentenced to death because he had left France. This is an example of the court’s capability to punish innocent men.
The legal system is made to protect the innocent and to punish the guilty, but during the French revolution it was difficult to make a distinction between the two. The general population, described in the book as “blue flies” wanted to see the nobles against whom they had struggled for so long, die. They were hungry for carnage, and the courts were happy to oblige. Charles Darnay was sentenced to death not because he had left France, or committed treason by betraying it in any way, but because his family was so despised by the public. He had done no real wrong, but because of the crimes of his father and uncle he was jailed and scheduled to be killed.
The laws must not be made arbitrarily or else people will be punished unfairly. All that the legal system does is uphold the law, but if the law is unfair then the ruling of the courts will be unfair. The laws also must be clear and specific, otherwise the innocent can be punished for not knowing the law, or violating a law that they did not understand, and the prosecution can manipulate the law until it is in their favor.
The legal system also had the capability to punish innocent men when given false information. During the first trial of Darnay, in which he was accused of being a spy, Barsad and Cly gave false evidence to the court, and had this not been discovered it is very likely that Darnay would have been convicted of this crime, and he probably would have faced the death penalty. This could happen in any legal system.
The court system, though it has the capability to punish the innocent and set free or even reward the guilty, is a beneficial and necessary system. Without it, there would be no way to uphold the rights for the common man, and there would be no way to fairly determine whether or not a man is guilty or innocent. There would also be no way to fairly determine and administer punishment.
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