by Fr. Michael Reilly
Saturday, March 26, 2005

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  Mrs. Schindler is like any normal American mother: she loves her daughter with her whole heart and just wants to be allowed to care for her.

In total contrast, every network features legal analysts familiar with every nook and cranny in the bowels of our justice system. Their continuous presence in the media analyzing the details cases like Michael Jackson's and Robert Blake's has been tiresome at best.

They are experts in procedural requirements, jury selection, and various lines of reasoning. The Schindlers are not.

For example, the legal experts know that the Supreme Court will only accept an appeal printed on paper, not an appeal sent electronically, as if that's more important than whether a young woman lives or dies.

Now the family has to waste precious hours making certain that the appeal is delivered to the Justices on acceptable paper as Schiavo starves. Is there a disconnect here?

And so the issue becomes not whether this woman can be rehabilitated, but rather, what color paper the judge prefers, what he likes for breakfast or whether or not he likes the attorney's tie. Is that what American justice has become?

But Robert Blake and O. J. Simpson and Michael Jackson can afford attorneys who know what kind of tie the judge likes, etc. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Remember how F. Lee Bailey pronounced Mark Fuhrman's name during the O. J. trial?

American justice is for wealthy celebrities whose legal maneuverings can be parsed by well-paid commentators on networks like Court TV for the entertainment of their audiences.

What's really sad is that average Americans like Bob and Mary Schindler - and you and I - have no access to justice in the American judiciary.

Editor's note: