Why do Wrongful Convictions Continue to Happen?

What haven't we learned yet? The cost of innocence is not only represented by the loss of one’s liberties as a result of a wrongful conviction; but also by the financial struggle of affording a good defense that is many times over-powered by the unlimited budgets and resources of local prosecutors. Conviction stats generate funding and political support that translates into “credibility” of the system and it’s process. Coupled by the collusion that exists between local agencies such as law enforcement, social services, contracted “experts” and others that all have a financial gain with their relationships to one another. For example if a contracted counseling agency doesn’t produce “favorable results” for the prosecutors office, that contract may get replaced by one that does. And as we continue to watch the number of exonerations climb and hear more about defective lab testing, expert testimony and shoddy police work; how can the common citizen have faith and confidence that true justice can be served by a system that consistently fails by the same errors over and over again? If we analyze the failures in the cases of these people that have been wrongfully convicted; how can we accept that the prosecutors prosecuted and “unbiased” jurors convicted without any definitive or corroborated proof positive? The assumed credibility of government and it’s witnesses seems to outweigh that of the accused and places “beyond a reasonable doubt” completely off the map!

At a press conference in Albany, exoneree Steven Barnes joined past New York State Bar Association presidents and Senate and Assembly members to present 6 new bills aimed at protecting New Yorkers from wrongful convictions. Read more about these proposed bills here:


NYS Bar Association - Wrongful Convictions Bills 

Comments

  1. Dave SimmonsJune 13, 2010 at 5:56 PM

    The following is taken from a quote used in an opinion reversing a conviction due to the misconduct of a prosecutor:

    "A prosecuting attorney is a public officer, acting in a quasi judicial capacity. It is his duty to use all fair, honorable, reasonable, and lawful means to secure the conviction of the guilty who are or may be indicted in the courts of his judicial circuit. He should see that they have a fair and impartial trial and avoid convictions contrary to law."

    "Nothing should tempt him to appeal to prejudices, to pervert the testimony, or make statements to the jury, which whether true or not, have not been proved. The desire for success should never induce him to endeavor to obtain a verdict by arguments based on anything except the evidence in the case, and the conclusions legitimately deducible from the law applicable to the same..."

    It seems that they (the prosecutors) frequently exert their skill and ingenuity to see how far they can trespass upon the verge of error, and generally in so doing they transgress upon the rights of the accused."
    "It is the duty of the prosecutor to see that a defendant has a fair trial, and that nothing but competent evidence is submitted to the jury, and above all things he should guard against anything that would prejudice the minds of the jurors, and tend to hinder them from considering only the evidence introduced"

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