I think everyone realises that the US is the last country on...

I think everyone realises that the US is the last country on earth to preach about justice to anyone.

In the US 90% of cases end in plea bargains which really means that the suspect, whether guilty or not is legally bludgeoned into pleading guilty. The choice is 50 years min if it goes to trial(and they will get a conviction because the prosecution will load the accused up with so charges something will stick) or 5 or 10 with the plea. The rational thing to do is accept the plea, which is how the system works.The cops get a conviction the prosecutor gets a conviction, the government gets to say how hard they are on crime and look at the clearup rate, the only bunny is the suspect.

Then there was the case a few years back where the state of Illinois had to suspend all executions because of an investigation by journalism students into the cases of those on death row which prima facie suggested many unsafe convictions, a view that was later shown to be correct.If investigative journalism students can identify bogus cases of people on death row, what does that say about a system that they were processed by and missed the lack of evidence( other than they were black)

The problem is that ones chances in the US and to perhaps a lesser extent in Australia depend on how much money you have.

Compare those kids in gaol for the rest of their lives with Bernie Madoff who is sitting at home after scamming 50bn or Phil Spector who has managed to avoid gaol for 3 years over a murder.