During the cafe, which was structured more like a Q and A this week, Judge Miller pointed out the different oaths taken by prosecutors and defense attorneys. According to these oaths, prosecutors must seek justice while defense attorneys must defend their clients zealously. It seems to me that this discrepancy highlights the intrinsic bias of the judicial system. Prosecutors do not have to do their duty “zealously”, and the defense attorneys do not have as much responsibility to the truth. So, as he spoke, the more I thought about how “justice” is often not the actual outcome.

Given the current controversies surrounding our judicial system, I cannot help but to connect this idea to the numerous police violence cases where, despite seemingly overwhelming video evidence, the accused were acquitted. In these cases, it seems that the adversarial system worked against justice.

While our society is inherently biased, it should be the chief objective of our judicial system not to be. Instead, it is systematically positioned for bias. Perhaps then one of the first steps to reaching social equality should be to demonstrate equality in our courts, focusing on the truth above all else.