The Justice System According to Clyde Shelton
Clyde Shelton was a man who lost everything. Unable to move, unable to make more than a muffled sound he watched as Clarence Darby and his accomplice Rupert Ames tortured, stabbed, violated, and finally murdered his wife and daughter in front of him, while he was left bound and gagged. The Justice System as we know it was able to find his family's murderers, but what they did with them, the bargain that they made to find even an ounce of compensation for all that Shelton lost, is what will be ripped and torn apart to understand just what our justice system should be and how it should operate.
Prosecuting attorney, Nick Rice, was hired by Shelton to find and sentence both Darby and Ames for the crimes that they committed that night. Due to contaminated evidence from the police work on the scene, Darby could not be fully convicted; he did however agree to testify against Ames, though Darby was the main offender. The deal to be made was that Darby got let off on 3rd degree murder, with a ten year prison sentence, while Ames would eventually be sent to death row. Prosecutor Rice accepted the deal, much to the chagrin of Shelton, who felt as though true justice had not been served; he had stated that he would rather have stood up in court and testified himself, risking being torn down by the defense as a result of his blackout and thus his possible inconsistencies, rather than see one of the offenders be let off at all.
This is the basis for the argument; what kind of justice does our justice system offer? Justice to the victims, or justice for the condemned? This is the point which, ten years after the case was closed, Shelton sought to make very clear. To demonstrate his point Shelton has conducted a deadly and experimental scenario. Shelton is under suspicion of murder, the brutal torture subjugated upon Ames at his execution and then Darby, whom he butchers personally. He is taken into custody and from that point on Rice tries to convict him of the murder, though there is no evidence. Shelton must provide a full confession, or there is no conviction. He then proceeds to offer Rice a deal: do as he says when he says, or suffer the consequences.
While Shelton is in prison he still manages to commit several more murders; that of his cell mate, and many others outside of the jail. All totaling, Shelton is eventually responsible for the deaths of over fifteen people that were involved in his case. While this is obviously in the wrong, the point of his triad for retribution was to make a point – and make one he did. Who should live and die is not a choice we should be allowed to make. Ultimately, however Shelton is a hypocrite, although one can imagine that he did not really expect to survive his ordeal.
He, however, is not the only hypocrite to be seen in the movie. At the end of the film, we see Rice telling Shelton that he will have to live with the decisions that he makes – for the rest of his life, decisions that cannot be reversed. Shelton decides to trigger the bomb that he had left under the committee room in the Town Hall. Little does he know that Rice and his associate have placed the bomb underneath Shelton's bed in the penitentiary. Shelton is subsequently killed, and Rice will have to live with the knowledge that he effectively was responsible for the death of Clyde Shelton.
Retribution - the Justice system under Clyde Shelton. Do unto others as they have done unto you, and your reward will match theirs. We live in a world dictated by an imperfect and impartial system, but neither can that system be 'fixed'. It may not handle justice effectively all of the time- neither is it wholly broken, nor wholly sound – but it serves the people. All of the people; whether guilty or innocent, justice is served, in some way or another. What we must learn to question is the motive. We must learn to look at the big picture. We must learn to see that what is just unto all is not always fair or right by a moral compass, but by the standards that we as a nation have set.
This is not just about one man, or one case, nor a multitude of cases, but all cases. It is about all scenarios and all instances, however different and varying they might be. The justice system may serve us all, and whatever brand of justice that we have dictated will be given unto us. But one day we will all be victims of the system that we helped to put in place. We must remember that it is for the greater good, a good that can be entirely evil if we let it. Let it not be for the greater good, for retribution, for the most justice we can get, or the deals that we make. Let justice be for the sake of the people. We are all hypocrites, in a duplicitous and cruel, very real world. Yet, even hypocrites deserve justice. If retribution ruled by anarchy were to command our lives, would we still be here, or would we, like Shelton and Rice, be left to contemplate the decisions we made, regretting them for the rest of our lives? I, for one, believe in the prevailing good of mankind.
A concerned citizen.