Only the greatest lawyer ever could manage to consistently get not guilty verdicts in the justice system presented in this game. It makes kangaroo courts look fair. There’s third world dictatorships with better criminal justice systems. I know it’s supposed to be a courtroom drama game but it is a very troubling picture. Just a few points:
[ul]
[li]The prosecutors office regularly suppresses evidence and does witness tampering to try to convict the person that’s been arrested rather than the person who obviously actually did it.[/li][li]Witnesses can purger themselves repeatedly and still have some of their testimony allowed as evidence for the prosecution.[/li][li]OpalCat regularly acts as judge.[/li][li]The defense doesn’t get to examine evidence or question witnesses before the trial. In fact the prosecution works to prevent the defense from being able to do any of this.[/li][li]The judge can render a verdict based on circumstantial evidence before the defense can even rebut any of it (not that he does in the game but the statements indicate he can).[/li][li]It’s not enough to provide a massive pile of evidence that my client didn’t commit a crime, I have to conclusively demonstrate that someone else did it.[/li][/ul]
The only consolation I can take is that the “trials” in Phoenix Wright may be something more along the lines of Grand Jury hearings, but those are essentially rubber stamps and it Wright can regularly beat them then he’s an even more impressive lawyer than I thought. Let’s see Matlock beat that!
That’s why PW is said to take place in “the future”. It’s a future where no trial can take more than three days, and defendants are guilty until proven innocent.
OpalCat is Udgey? Wow. I’d have never guessed–with that big gray beard and all…
This is worse than guilty until proven innocent. They’re still guilty after proven innocent unless someone else is proven guilty of the same crime by the defense.
My favorite (?) part in terms of totally nutso court proceedings is how useless the Judge is. He’s a total idiot, easily swayed by evidence that makes absolutely no sense, actively hates Phoenix, and is occasionally open to simply being told what to do by the prosecution (like when you’re arguing against Baron Von Karma, who tells the Judge to shut up and go to hell several times during your deliberation… and the terrified Judge does).
Objection sustained. The court takes judicial notice that Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird is the greatest fictional lawyer in history, closely followed by that Australian defense counsel in Breaker Morant.
All right, so their clients were convicted, but still…
I’ve read about the Phoenix Wright series before and it sounds like fun, but I just don’t know if I could bring myself to play it. It seems like it would be like having one of those dreams where you’re at work except everything’s topsy-turvy and weird and nothing works like it’s supposed to, and then you wake up and have to go to work for real.
Both Matlock and Perry Mason have only one loss. In Mason’s loss the person he was defending wasn’t really the person he was defending. Matlock’s defendant was later cleared, I think.
Phoenix has also lost a case. (spoiler from game 2)
But that’s understandable since he eventually finds out his client is actually guilty. Despite knowing this, he’s able to steer the guilt toward someone else for part of the trial, in order to attempt to foil the client’s blackmailing. That’s quite some lawyer mojo.
I’m a legal assistant, and while playing the game I kept wishing that this was the way the court systems really worked so I could spend my days following Phoenix around instead of making copies.
I do highly recommend the games to anyone who hasn’t played them. The first game sucks you in right away, and the buildup and payoff of various storylines in cases 1-4 is epic. I couldn’t put down my DS for a week.
