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Well, people shouldn’t commit crimes, and those who do should feel remorse and turn themselves in. The legal system, though, is constructed to make sure that innocent people aren’t punished–and to do that (reasonably) well, it has to err on the side of helping some guilty people get off. It’s really that simple. Also, what the focus of the news doesn’t show is that the vast majority of people charged with crimes are convicted (usually by pleading guilty). It’s only at the margins that there is even a trial, much less one that gets publicity.</p>