"I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."
Well, free will is an illusion and the world is pretty much deterministic on the large scale, so the concept of "deserving something" would itself not be fair to begin with.
But the illusion is trong enough and you could just reframe this problem avoiding the free-will problematic.
Someone who puts all his energy in to getting somewhere should be able to get there (within the reasonable). No matter the underlying origin of his motives or circumstances.
I still see your point though, but I'd say that's a further step: to acknowledge that nobody should be held responsible for himself. (EU-law is a bit further here than the US though, no retaliation by law like the death penalty)
-Marcus Cole, Babylon 5