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Uncommon Sense

Thomas Paine wrote that “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” The title of the book where this is written is what I believe should be the high law of the land: Common Sense.
The Untied States has no common sense left in it. I'll use a favorite example of mine, the criminal justice system. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject, but I know enough to make a semi-educated rant on it. The justice (and I use that term very loosely) in this country is appalling. The court system is a ludicrously rigid, yet oddly vague, system of inconsistencies. To get someone convicted of a crime you have to jump through these hoops, walk barefoot over this bed of coals, translate a four-hundred page document from Latin to Greek to English, and go plead before some random people that you are right. One misstep and it's all over.
What's wrong with a system that helps keep the innocent out of prison? It also keeps the guilty free too. From what I understand, if a man (or woman) confesses to the police before their Miranda Rights are read to them, if due process is not followed, they can still walk free. That's not even the part that gets me. It's how incredibly long it takes to get anything done. After an offense is committed, it could take months to get a preliminary hearing, and years to get a real trial. Then, with mistrials and troubles with the jury, a decade or more could go by before a verdict is handed down.
I know many of you lawyers are at this moment drafting hateful letters saying, “You're wrong if you think this...” and “E Pluribus that,” but I still think the justice system could use a serious injection of common sense. If that murderer confesses, lock him up. If a young cop forgets to read the rights immediately upon arrest, cut him some slack. I can see where this would be seriously taken advantage of, and I don't suggest...