 What does the outcome of Zeckler's trial suggest about the modern legal system?
Interplanetary ruling. "You've committed the most heinous crime these creatures can imagine, and they're going to get you for it if it's the last thing they do. But occasionally a situation arose where the civilization and social practices of the alien victims made it unwise to tamper with them. You'd have realized that they have to start fighting for individual rights almost as soon as they're born. They've built up the most confusing and impossible system of barter and trade imaginable, aimed at individual survival, with land as the value behind the credit. Lying is the time-honored tradition, with their entire legal system built around it." "As we understand legal systems, I suppose they don't have one. They have only the haziest idea what truth represents, and they've shrugged off the idea as impossible and useless." Encroachment on private property is legal grounds for murder on this planet, and twelve of them descended on the same chunk of land at the same time, all armed with title-deeds." "By Interplanetary Rules, they have to give you a trial in Terran legal form—judge, jury, court procedure, all that folderol. They think it's a big joke—after all, what could a judicial oath mean to them?—but they agreed. "At least you've got a courtroom, a judge, and a jury for this mess. Finally the question of precedent seemed to be settled, and a group of the Altairians filed in, in order of stature, stalking across the room in flowing black robes, pug-nosed faces glowering with self-importance. They descended upon the jury box, grunting and scrapping with each other for the first-row seats, and the judge took his place with obvious satisfaction behind the heavy wooden bench. Finally, the prosecuting attorney appeared, flanked by two clerks, who took their places beside him. Finally the judge glared down at Zeckler with all three eyes, and pounded the bench top with a wooden mallet until the roar of activity subsided. The jurymen wriggled uncomfortably in their seats, exchanging winks, and finally turned their attention to the front of the court. "We are reading the case of the people of Altair I," the judge's voice roared out, "against one Harry Zeckler—" he paused for a long, impressive moment—"Terran." Four separate and distinct charges of jail-break and bribery—" The judge pounded the bench for order—"Espionage with the accursed scum of Altair II in preparation for interplanetary invasion."
 The better lawyer a defendant has, the more likely they are to clear their names.
 The legal system is set up to benefit those with more power and wealth.  For a defendant in the legal system, there is no desirable outcome.  The better lawyer a defendant has, the more likely they are to clear their names.  Sometimes it is more optimal to lie and make a guilty plea, than to tell the truth and be found guilty.