Using a good law for a bad purpose

There was a scene in the movie The Man who Would be King  that Sean Connery's character that became a king was holding court and dispensing justice. One of the cases he dealt with was a goat herder that in effect was prostituting out his wife.

The King sentenced the man to whatever and then added another thing to the sentence 'For using a good law for a bad purpose'.

I don't look at a law for how it can be used. I look at it for how it can be abused. The example I use every so often are the state level laws regarding organized crime or RICO laws.

The federal laws are more explicit and not as subject to abuse as some of the state laws are so we can toss them aside.

Most people know what organized crime is. In a criminal organization there is a hierarchy. In the mob it's capos, lieutenants, soldiers etc. In outlaw motorcycle clubs there are officers of various levels. It is actually organized crime and a real criminal organization.

It is clearly not a group of four college students pooling a couple buck to chip in to buy a bag of weed for the big party.

However, one DA tried to wallop a couple of college kids by arguing that the kids had organized themselves to buy an illicit narcotic.

While illegal to buy the weed at the time it was clearly not organized crime. It was youthful stupidity and was probably worth a $100 fine at best.

I heard the judge rightfully tossed the case as he should have. While the jury could have refused to convict, unfortunately juries are ignorant of their duties. They seem to continue to convict people solely on 'a preponderance of the evidence'. This means that juries fail to take into consideration one other thing that is actually their duty, which is 'Does the law apply here in this case?'. 

The fact remains that good laws can be used for bad purposes. 

I am not one for laws but it should certainly be legal for someone to sue the government and government officials personally for using laws enacted in good faith for bad purposes.   


To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY