It is interesting to observe how the frame of reference dictates the response to the hypothetical case of a drug carrying mule tried in an American court of law, and how the frame of reference applies to the law of evidence regarding the amount of drugs carried, the number of trips the mule may have made, as well as the time of year and other considerations. There is another element in the frame of reference, not discussed, which is location. There are places in this world where the mule would have been summarily dispatched, regardless of quantity of drugs, regardless of number of trips, regardless of time of year. If he were lucky to be caught in a lenient society, he might get a mere forty years in jail, other places he would be beheaded. It is only in the West in general, and the United States in particular, that the justice system insists on an accurate count of the number of smiling angels dancing on the head of the pin.

 

 

Your honor, as counsel for defense

I submit to you the case

That this young man in every sense

Should never have to face

The possibility that he

Might serve a term in jail

And so I ask you set him free

And please return his bail

My client says he never had

A single ounce of drugs

He knows that stuff is really bad

He’s not one of those thugs

We realize your honor that

Red-handed he was caught

But I am here to go to bat

‘Cause that’s how I was taught

The calendar says it is June

The poppies are not ripe

We all agree he had a spoon

As well a well-used pipe

As for the airport locker keys

He met a friend that night

He’d not arrived from overseas

He never made that flight

As to the tiny bags of smack

They found inside his coat

He says if you will send him back

Next time he’ll take a boat