Judge Dredd

It is difficult to imagine that even in the late twentieth century our nation was still paralyzed by a primitive, ineffective system of Justice. In those times, the trial of an accused criminal was often delayed for months, even years. In some cases, the accused was allowed to roam free prior to his trial, enabling him to commit further crimes before being judged for the first.

To add to this bizarre practice, the accused was allowed to hire a professional trained for the sole purpose of confusing the issue through any means possible, in order to set the accused free. This was not an overly difficult task, since accused persons were judged before a “jury of their peers”—that is, ordinary Citizens picked at random who had absolutely no knowledge of the legal system of the times.[1]

It is little wonder, then, that lawlessness was rampant in the land in those days, and no one was safe in the streets…

—History of the Mega-Cities

James Olmeyer, III

Chapter XIX: “The Way Back When”

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