Last Week Tonight with John Oliver takes on prosecutors in main segment
What was Oliver’s main focus here? That it is a broken system for almost everyone involved, one in which prosecutors are not held accountable anywhere near enough for some of their own misconduct, whether it is in the courtroom or outside of it. Take, for example, prosecutors withholding evidence and only getting a tiny punishment in comparison to the people that they send away for a really long time. Prosecutors can be ruthless, cruel, and often do not give much leeway at all. There are many criminals who do need to be put away for many years, but there are also some that deserve at least humane treatment.
This entire segment is mostly a reminder of many other ones that we have seen on Last Week Tonight over the years, ones that focus on the need for some sort of attention to be paid for people who are helpless and are in need of help. There are so many people who are wrongfully convicted and because of that, they end up spending and wasting years of their lives behind bars. It was especially chilling tonight to see Oliver bring forward an interview with one prosecutor who felt like he did his job when it came to a prisoner wrongfully incarcerated for decades, mostly because the prisoner did not end up dying. We don’t know how you can look at this as a victory, but clearly there’s someone out there who can.
At the end of the segment, Oliver did not put all of the blame on the prosecutors themselves, but also on most people in America for not being more aware of who their local prosecutors are and some of what they stand for. We, as the majority, still have the ability to change things.
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