We have a system of justice in [the US] that treats you much better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes.

Stevenson is condemning structural inequality in the U.S. legal system: outcomes often track access to money—bail, private counsel, expert witnesses, and time to mount a defense—more than actual guilt or innocence. The contrast “rich and guilty” versus “poor and innocent” is deliberately stark to highlight how procedural advantages can overwhelm factual truth. The second sentence reframes the critique in systemic terms: it is not merely individual bias but a pattern in which wealth functions as a proxy for power, credibility, and leniency. The quote’s significance lies in its moral claim that justice should be keyed to culpability, not resources, and that a system failing this test is unjust even when it follows formal rules.