A novel where the male protagonist is a convict, where an overpopulated Earth sends their convicts to a barren planet. He and a few others end up re-creating/rebuilding a (somewhat) lawful civilization on this planet.
Remembered scenes:
he and a few thousand other newbies are dumped on the planet with a pile of supplies, turns out previous groups of convicts stake out these sites, steal the supplies and kill/leave the newbies to die.
He and other survivors begin to hike to what looks like green mountains but someone tells them the mountains aren't actually green - it's a mineral and they'll die if the go there.
One of the more established bands of convicts on the planet was (I think??) represented by a black hand??
As the group organizes (our main protagonist ends up being a sort of sheriff type ... maybe because he ends up with a gun when most everyone else doesn't have one?), they end up having a trial because one man is accused of raping another. Our protagonist decides there will be a jury trial and the jury is randomly chosen via black and white rocks.
One of the other prisoners is a political prisoner who helps advise the protagonist on how to best build a legal system.
Most of the characters, as prisoners, distrusted 'government' as they'd been screwed in various ways by it.
I don't believe the protagonist was one of the 'convicted for a crime he didn't commit' I believe he was a murderer.
As you can tell, it was one of those 'how to build a better civilization' type novels and I think it was published sometime in the 1980s, probably during the popularity of the 80s military sci fi boom. I thought it was by Harry Turtledove but I can't find it. There was, I think, a less well known/small press sequel with something like 'kill all the lawyers' in the title or subtitle. Novel might have had a red or orange themed cover in its first printing.
