| They Call This a JUSTICE SYSTEM? |
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When people place themselves in positions of authority (lawmakers, police, prosecutors, attorneys, judges) they had better make sure that they uphold the laws that they seek to represent. We know that there are many honest people involved in the "system", but how can the public be expected to fully trust it when they read a story like the one that follows? The Wrong Men on Death Row - A Summary of a U.S. News & World Reports by Joseph P. Shapiro The American Bar Association has called for a moratorium of the death penalty since a number of people who were convicted of crimes, imprisoned and placed on death row, have since been discovered to be innocent. The reasons cited for the Bar's action were "bad lawyering and mistaken convictions". In one case, a man was convicted even though police turned up no physical evidence at the scene; the police used trickery to gain a confession (the courts often allow this technique as a means to crack savvy criminals, but woe to the simpler folk who believe that police never lie); the judge at the trial showed blatant disdain for the defendant (objective observer?); use of a jail inmate who perjured himself. In another case, two men spent 10 years on death row. Shortly after their convictions, another man confessed to the crime. Even so, prosecutors insisted they had the right men. When DNA evidence proved the prosecutors wrong, they ignored that too. During one of the men's third trial, a police officer finally admitted that he had lied in previous testimony. In January, seven police officers and prosecutors go on trial charged with conspiracy to conceal and fabricate evidence against the two men. DNA profiling has been the single most important saving grace to wrongfully convicted men and the one thing that has done more to expose the fallibility of the legal system. In the last decade, 56 innocent people have been released because of DNA testing. Ten of those released were from death row. But in 70-percent of the cases pursued by attorney Barry Scheck's "Innocence Project", police had already discarded semen, hair or other evidence needed for testing. Conclusions: The number one reason people are falsely convicted is poor legal representation. Many states cap fees for court-appointed attorneys, which means it's harder for poorer people to get competent legal aid. It's also been harder for inmates to find attorneys to handle appeals since Congress in 1996 stopped funding legal aid centers in 20 states. Perjured testimony from jailhouse snitches, faulty eyewitness accounts and false confessions (those secured by police through inappropriate means) are the other major factors in wrongful convictions. A conference at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago was expected to hear calls for the death penalty moratorium until safeguards are in place: increased legal aid, certification of capital-trial attorneys, limits on use of jail-house snitches, access to post-conviction DNA testing, the recording of all police interrogations, accreditation of forensic experts. |
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