Law and Its Limitations; or, Why It Sucks to Be Michael Evans

I first heard the story of Michael Evans about a year ago – when the verdict came down. How could a jury could award zero damages to a person who had been wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years? “No problem,” I thought. “It will sort itself out on appeal.”

Nope.

Last month, the Seventh Circuit upheld the verdict. Unless the court reverses itself en banc or the Supremes say otherwise, Michael Evans will get no more money for his trouble than the $160,000 that was granted to him by the State of Illinois.

I’m not criticizing the Seventh Circuit’s decision (and, as an aside, I must say “hats off” the the City’s attorneys for an amazing result). My disgust stems from my own naivete in thinking that our legal system was equipped to redress Michael Evans’ wrong. I am reminded of Alan Dershowitz’s warning: “Don’t love the law. It will inevitably disappoint you.”

It’s true. Much in the law is not all that great. The death penalty is the law. The “Patriot Act” is the law.

In fact, as a public defender I feel like ignoring the law nearly every day . I want to tell jurors not to find my clients guilty because, even though they are guilty, they don’t deserve to go to prison for the mandatory minimum of ___ years. I want to tell them to let certain clients go because, even though it’s a crime to possess marijuana, it’s a stupid crime and people shouldn’t be punished for it.

This, of course, I never do. I never break the law and many would say that that’s very noble of me. Often, however, adherence to law does not feel ennobling. Instead, it feels somewhat degrading – as though I’m suppressing my own sense of right to the service of a legal system that occasionally feels fair, but mostly feels arbitrary and cruel. Again, I am reminded of Thoreau, who said “[l]aw never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.”

And so it goes for Michael Evans.

Maybe $160,000 for 27 years of wrongful incarceration really is the legally required result. That’s a question for the Academy, I guess.

Ask the average person on the street though, and I’m sure they’ll tell you – legally required or not – there’s no justice in it.