The Truth is Out There. Find It.
Our nation has 200 thousand murders that have not been solved since 1960. Detroit Michigan alone has 1000 homicides from the last 3 years that are unsolved. Technology has advanced to the point where police can search 50 million fingerprints in a database in a matter of 2 hours. Federal Agents have a DNA database of 1 million genetic profiles of convicted felons.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights guarantee three things:
A) Innocent until proven guilty
B) An Appeal Process
C) Trial by Jury of our peers
Sometimes, the only way you can obtain these rights is if you have enough money and have a very competent team of defense lawyers. The illegal and immoral taking of your freedom is the worst possible wrong that a free society can commit against one of its citizens. As of May 15, 2008, 217 “Free” exonerees (individuals who have spent time in prison but did not commit a crime) who have been wrongfully convicted and are now trying to mold their lives back together from a free society that tore them apart. Innocent Projects in several states have worked diligently to bring these cases to light.
Wrongful conviction cases or miscarriages of justice remain controversial. Almost every criminal justice system in the world is against changing its mind when a mistake has happened. A wrongful conviction will be overturned only when the evidence against the conviction is overwhelming. The result is that many wrongly-convicted people spend many years in jail before they are released.
There are several reasons for a miscarriage of justice:
- withholding or destruction of evidence
- bias on the part of investigators
- fabrication of evidence
- false witness identification
- fictitious expert testimony
- contaminated evidence
- faulty forensic tests or “Junk Science”
- false confessions
- perjury by investigators, suspects and or accomplices
- false evidence of confession given by jailhouse informants
The risk of wrongful imprisonment is the main argument against the death penalty. Even when a wrongly-convicted person is not executed, spending years in jail often has an effect on the person that is irreversible. It can be argued that there is no difference between the death penalty and a wrongly convicted person, except that the later is murdered slowly. The beginnings of a wrongful conviction can start with prosecutors who collaborate over and over again, case after case with the same police officers, forensic scientists, expert witnesses and judges. Trust between each other develops into bonds that sometimes lead to shortcuts. When the evidence is weak, it becomes easy to ignore or rule out. One of the most prominent and fastest growing causes of wrongful convictions is police officer TUNNEL VISION. In a society where the ever increasing pace has lead us to fast food, instant messaging, and Internet, we have grown accustom to immediate gratification. Television dramas such as CSI, and Law and Order allow us to live in a temporary world where the perpetrator is apprehended and prosecuted in an hour; case closed. Juries are persuaded by these quick results that can be seen on television. Modern day investigators attempt to model their style after these programs. Public pressure to solve high profile cases has never been higher. Investigator’s “rush to judgement” is the single biggest cause of wrongful convictions; winning out over police officer misconduct and incompetence.
