ISSUE NO. 5
November 2024
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Letters

Delusional Nut-Nut Club

David is a writer currently incarcerated in New South Wales.

Have you ever been accused of being “nuts”? Have they told you that you are “crazy”? That you need to “get help” – meaning you need to see a psychiatrist?

They then question the honesty of anything you might say? Any truth you say is considered “unsound” – a lie?

Have you owned up and pleaded guilty, honestly, only to have witnesses, police, the Crown, embellish the facts, and the truth/facts become a battle between winning and losing rather than about truth and justice?

Note the legal ads on social media: “No Win. No Pay”. As though justice and truth are reduced to gambling: winning or losing!

Truth becomes the first victim of the “war” of the legal and justice systems.

This becomes evidenced by relying on the legislation of “Tendency, Context, Consequence” to attain a conviction.

This legislation is an abuse of the justice system. It ought to be repealed immediately.

It flies in the face of “innocent until proven guilty”.

This turns the whole justice system on its head, and jurors are influenced by the clever use of semantics – using words and ideas which may sound influential and appear logical, but are founded on false premises.

For example, I may have robbed two news agencies. I honestly plead guilty.

But, because of my “tendency” to rob news agencies, they charge me with two unsolved robberies, of which I am honestly innocent.

With clever semantic arguments from the D.P.P. and Crown the jury finds me “guilty” because of my “tendency” of robbing news agencies. Truth is sacrificed on the altar of assumption.

Even worse, I feel I’m “blackmailed” into pleading guilty to obtain a percentage discount on my sentence, or to get it over with.

We humans are more influenced by emotion to make a “guilty” finding, rather than on the honest facts of evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

How many prisoners have been forced to take plea deals to get sentence discounts and plead guilty to crimes they honestly did not commit just to get it over and done with.

Some consequences to these injustices:

Men’s lives, their reputations, their families, and their friends are destroyed for life. They become so embittered. Angry. Lose all faith in our justice system and of ever believing in truth.

Has truth not only become the first victim of war but now a victim of our justice system?

When this happens, society suffers and chaos and anarchy grow. Leaders become dictators controlling the legal system, and our freedom becomes a travesty of justice. Then we may truly become “Delusional Nut-Nuts”!

God help us! Maybe joining my “delusional nut-nut” club will offer some solace?

Have you ever been accused of being “nuts”? Have they told you that you are “crazy”? That you need to “get help” – meaning you need to see a psychiatrist?

They then question the honesty of anything you might say? Any truth you say is considered “unsound” – a lie?

Have you owned up and pleaded guilty, honestly, only to have witnesses, police, the Crown, embellish the facts, and the truth/facts become a battle between winning and losing rather than about truth and justice?

Note the legal ads on social media: “No Win. No Pay”. As though justice and truth are reduced to gambling: winning or losing!

Truth becomes the first victim of the “war” of the legal and justice systems.

This becomes evidenced by relying on the legislation of “Tendency, Context, Consequence” to attain a conviction.

This legislation is an abuse of the justice system. It ought to be repealed immediately.

It flies in the face of “innocent until proven guilty”.

This turns the whole justice system on its head, and jurors are influenced by the clever use of semantics – using words and ideas which may sound influential and appear logical, but are founded on false premises.

For example, I may have robbed two news agencies. I honestly plead guilty.

But, because of my “tendency” to rob news agencies, they charge me with two unsolved robberies, of which I am honestly innocent.

With clever semantic arguments from the D.P.P. and Crown the jury finds me “guilty” because of my “tendency” of robbing news agencies. Truth is sacrificed on the altar of assumption.

Even worse, I feel I’m “blackmailed” into pleading guilty to obtain a percentage discount on my sentence, or to get it over with.

We humans are more influenced by emotion to make a “guilty” finding, rather than on the honest facts of evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

How many prisoners have been forced to take plea deals to get sentence discounts and plead guilty to crimes they honestly did not commit just to get it over and done with.

Some consequences to these injustices:

Men’s lives, their reputations, their families, and their friends are destroyed for life. They become so embittered. Angry. Lose all faith in our justice system and of ever believing in truth.

Has truth not only become the first victim of war but now a victim of our justice system?

When this happens, society suffers and chaos and anarchy grow. Leaders become dictators controlling the legal system, and our freedom becomes a travesty of justice. Then we may truly become “Delusional Nut-Nuts”!

God help us! Maybe joining my “delusional nut-nut” club will offer some solace?

This
letter
was originally printed in the
November 2024
edition of About Time.

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Welcome to About Time

About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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