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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the Oct. 10, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Will a rich person and a poor person be treated equally before the courts when they steal a loaf of bread? To ask this question is to answer it. Especially in a society where 1 percent of the population controls 50 percent of the wealth, while 50 million people live in dire poverty.
Whether or not you go to jail and for how long depends less on the crime you commit than on how much power and money you have. The punishment the courts issue will depend not on the evidence, but rather on which class you come from. Both the law and the media treat you differently.
On Sept. 24 John E. du Pont was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial for murder in the killing of wrestling champion Dave Schultz last January. Du Pont had gunned down the wrestler in cold blood on the du Pont estate, where Schultz was training for the 1996 Olympics. Schultz had won a gold medal in the 1988 Olympics.
Not only won't du Pont go to jail-he won't even stand trial. Instead, it's off to a plush care facility for John du Pont.
When the police went to arrest du Pont at his 800-acre estate called Foxcatcher Farms, they waited patiently for him until he was forced out by lack of food. There were no bomb squads, no tear gas, no National Guard, no SWAT teams, no fire hoses-although everyone knew du Pont had gunned down his hired wrestler, and he was refusing to surrender.
Du Pont is a member of one of the wealthiest families in the country. The state of Delaware is completely under their control. Courts in the United States are set up so that ruling-class members like John du Pont are protected.
News reports of the court hearing emphasized that interviews with du Pont conducted by psychiatrists and lawyers prove his incompetence. But an assistant superintendent at the Delaware County Prison, where du Pont was held, testified during the week that he overheard the defense lawyer say to his client, "You don't know your name," as du Pont was preparing to meet with psychiatrists.
This is a classic example of just what happens when a member of the ruling class gets caught committing a heinous act. The case has been played down in the media. You don't see daily news coverage about the case as you did with the O.J. Simpson trial.
Nor has Pennsylvania's police apparatus treated du Pont anything like it treated political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. This African American journalist has been on death row for 14 years. If it weren't for public pressure on the state and the courts, Abu-Jamal would have been executed in the summer of 1995, when an international campaign postponed the state-sanctioned murder.
This disparity between punishment for a person of color and punishment for a member of the ruling class shows why the state really exists. Only under socialism can this racist and oppressive system they call criminal justice be eliminated.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)