Holding the mirror to a bigot society

I listened to "Behind the Staircase" after having seen the Staircase documentary on Netflix and was utterly shocked by both. Throughout the documentary and the audiobook I thought that this tells a lot about a society that longs for justice but is incapable of overcoming the limitations and fallacies of the average human mind.
It is especially bitter to see how easily people are willing to prejudge someone based on limited and uncertain information. How easy it is to be manipulated and how easy it is to follow a preconceived opinions. As an observer from Germany I wondered if this could happen here as well. I know about some cases of justice errors, but those were about less severe offenses with lesser stakes. Also in Germany the verdict is not rendered by some randomly chosen average people, but by a judge who is trained in law and advised by lay judges. The system of trial by jury is a very democratic thought. But as the Peterson case like many others show it's doomed to fail again and again because average people untrained in scientific thinking and deliberation will always be easy to manipulate by a DA who actually has to gain from convicting as many people as possible. That leads to the next difference. Judges and DAs in Germany are not elected but appointed. They don't have to prove that they are "tough on crime". It's all about finding the truth and passing righteous judgement.
Moreover the judge has to write a detailed explanation about the verdict outlining the reasons and arguments that lead to this verdict. This makes the weighing of arguments and facts transparent and the verdict easier revisable in case of an appeal. In Germany appeal judges actually look at all the aspects of the sentencing and check if there has been made any error from a law perspective even in weighing certain aspects in the explanatory statement.

When it comes to prisons the inhumaneness continues as Mr. Peterson describes vividly in his book. Here too Germany takes an entirely different approach with the effect of lower crime rates and lower recidivism rates. Just type "60 minutes German prison program" in Youtube to get an idea of the differences.

The American justice system was designed out of democratic ideals and good motives. Trial by peers. Elected officials. But its designers didn't think of the disastrous side effects it would have this way. A system that leads by design to unfair trial doesn't honor the victims of crimes and accidents and doesn't protect the citizens from being crushed like Mr. Peterson was. Like in so many aspects America needs to take a step back from populist approaches to fighting crime and upholding justice, turn to reason and science and also learn from other countries that are doing much better in these fields. It's good that Mr. Peterson left an account of the events around his wife's death and his trial and held the mirror to the society he lives in. This way there is at least a chance that all will learn from this and work towards a systemic change.

On a personal level I could very much relate to Mr. Peterson's thoughts about life, religion and sexuality. I'm a gay man and an agnostic. So I sympathised a lot with this whole experience of being put in a position where you don't match the common conventions of "normal" and people suddenly looking for reasons to villainise your character. None of that made any sense but being at the wrong time in the wrong place, your fate in the hands of short sighted people, it's hard to find an exit. I respect that Mr. Peterson despite all that he was put through didn't take the opportunity of this book for vengeful words and thoughts. I don't know if I had had that leniency.

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