Justice for all?

     What a busy summer this has been so far! Lots of visiting with old friends and getting settled in back home for the next three months. Yesterday, however, the big news locally was the acquittal of Dr. James Corasanti, who ran over an 18 year old girl on a skateboard last July. Corasanti never stopped, claiming in court he had not known he had hit a person on his drive home that evening, despite the fact that two woman rushed out of their houses hundreds of feet away at the sound of the impact and the collision formed a buckle in the hood of his car that rose up 8 inches. He refused a breathalyzer test two hours after the incident, and a blood test taken five hours later still pegged his alcohol level as over the legal limit.

     Perhaps the most disturbing part of the case was the fact that this is a man who is expected, as a Medical Doctor, to help people. Yet, upon inspecting the vehicle in his garage and seeing the damage and the blood and body tissue from the incident, his first call was not to 911 but rather to his attorney. Despite what seemed to be a fairly strong case against Corasanti, the jury acquitted him after 13 hours of deliberations of all felony charges and convicted him only of a misdemeanor DWI. Even the seemingly apparent charge of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, resulting in death, which could have carried a sentence of 2 1/2 to 7 years in prison, was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

     The overwhelming opinion of the community in regards to this verdict seems to be there was a miscarriage of justice yesterday. Cases such as this can remind us all that human justice is imperfect because it is determined by imperfect humans. Many people openly ridicule the difficult job 12 men and women did in deciding this case, yet I would guess a large number of the disgruntled either have or would do everything in their power to attempt to get out of jury duty. It is an awfully difficult task to try to determine whether someone is guilty or innocent, and many people feel unable or are unwilling to commit the time or mental anguish to perform this necessary public service. Let us be thankful God is more steadfast in his pursuit of justice than we.

     I pray that the family of the victim is comforted with the knowledge that there are higher courts than the one that ruled "not guilty" yesterday. First, there is the court of conscience. If Dr. Corasanti kept driving that night despite knowing there was even a chance he had struck another human being, then that is knowledge he will have to live with the rest of his life. Above all, the judgement that God will render on each one of us at the end of our lives is perfectly just and unerring. The Lord's verdict cannot be swayed by money or prestige. On the last day, we shall all be held accountable for our failures and missteps.