What Are We Really Learning From the Success Stories of The Innocence Project?
It seems almost daily we hear about the work of the many Innocence Project groups across the US. Well, I say we hear, but is the general public really listening and understanding what is really happening here? I only ask this because it appears that power hungry prosecutors and courts don't seem to be getting the message, even today, that the presumption of innocence, strict rules of evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt are not options, but requirements, that protect innocent persons from being wrongfully convicted and continuing this vicious cycle.
I can't help but think about how these wrongfully convicted were viewed and hated as investigators and prosecutors systematically stole the lives of these innocent people. I can't help but to think about their families, their children and of those that knew of their innocence while they stood and watched the authorities, step by step, destroy an innocent life with total disregard to their possible innocence, the lack of strong and corroborating evidence and in so many cases, unreliable eye witness testimony. And yet today, this is still happening everywhere and I just get the sense that most people look at this, with a slight glance, and say that's awful, but it doesn't really affect me.
These 'men' were hated as suspects and defendants in the public, sent to prison where the torment and mistreatment continued. Their families torn apart and loved ones lives passed while they sat in prison as an innocent person praying everyday that someone would care, find a break in their case and get them out of the nightmare so few on the outside could ever comprehend. If their prayers are answered and one of the Innocence Projects or a lawyer that really has some deep rooted passion for justice comes along, proves their innocence with the very same evidence used to convict them; those in the public that do take the time to read about these innocent lives, the response is "how tragic" and "how could this ever happen" and "I hope that they can just get on with their lives and it's just too bad this ever happened". Yes unfortunately, these are the typical emotions of the naive public in the beginning, middle and the end of this process of governmental kidnapping of innocent lives.
The problem is that I don't believe our system of justice and a jury of our peers any longer works. First of all, how can we tell who the real criminals are? The investigators, prosecutors and judges or the defendant? After all, as a result of these many exoneration's, we are shown how those we are suppose to trust, are bending and breaking the rules, time after time, to simply win their cases. Yet we as a people continue to place unquestionable trust that these things happened back then and this is now and they have learned from the errors of their ways. I don't think so. They just continue to build a better mouse trap, build bigger political alliances and sham the public with their perceived trust and credibility. Jurors are just not equipped to deal with all these variables not matter how informed they appear to be. First of all most people don't want to serve, others want to convict everyone, some will just go with the flow because they don't want to upset the rest of the jurors and a couple might genuinely care about the facts and real justice. And to think for one moment that these twelve people are going to leave their emotions, their fears and their preconceived ideas at the door is simply ridiculous. It might be easy to convict a person on a DWI or an armed robbery from obvious and comprehensible evidence that anyone can clearly understand. But in cases of rape, sexual assault and murder, where the evidence is so complicated and science driven, the average juror is going to know which side has the most credible expert, and if you don't have any experience of understand true science from junk science; real evidence from circumstantial evidence, then these jurors are playing right along with this game of Russian roulette, pointing the gun of fate at the defendant's head and pulling the trigger.
In my opinion, they need to remove the cloak of immunity from the prosecutors and judges. They need to require that when there is a possibility felony charge, that all interviews are videotaped or recorded; especially involving a minor. We need to not allow the lowering of the standards of evidence to make it easier to prosecute. And when a case hinges solely on the word of the victim against an accused and there is absolutely nothing or no-one that can positively corroborate the verbal allegation; no matter how horrible the allegation may sound; prosecutors should not be allowed to destroy innocence to be better safe than sorry. The work of the Innocence Projects has shown how hard and time consuming it is to undo a wrong once it is done. The lessons learned from the cases they have been successful with are the errors that contributed to these wrongful convictions and to stop them from happening again before they become yet another to undo at a later time and even more damaged is caused to innocent persons and their families.
I can't help but think about how these wrongfully convicted were viewed and hated as investigators and prosecutors systematically stole the lives of these innocent people. I can't help but to think about their families, their children and of those that knew of their innocence while they stood and watched the authorities, step by step, destroy an innocent life with total disregard to their possible innocence, the lack of strong and corroborating evidence and in so many cases, unreliable eye witness testimony. And yet today, this is still happening everywhere and I just get the sense that most people look at this, with a slight glance, and say that's awful, but it doesn't really affect me.
These 'men' were hated as suspects and defendants in the public, sent to prison where the torment and mistreatment continued. Their families torn apart and loved ones lives passed while they sat in prison as an innocent person praying everyday that someone would care, find a break in their case and get them out of the nightmare so few on the outside could ever comprehend. If their prayers are answered and one of the Innocence Projects or a lawyer that really has some deep rooted passion for justice comes along, proves their innocence with the very same evidence used to convict them; those in the public that do take the time to read about these innocent lives, the response is "how tragic" and "how could this ever happen" and "I hope that they can just get on with their lives and it's just too bad this ever happened". Yes unfortunately, these are the typical emotions of the naive public in the beginning, middle and the end of this process of governmental kidnapping of innocent lives.
The problem is that I don't believe our system of justice and a jury of our peers any longer works. First of all, how can we tell who the real criminals are? The investigators, prosecutors and judges or the defendant? After all, as a result of these many exoneration's, we are shown how those we are suppose to trust, are bending and breaking the rules, time after time, to simply win their cases. Yet we as a people continue to place unquestionable trust that these things happened back then and this is now and they have learned from the errors of their ways. I don't think so. They just continue to build a better mouse trap, build bigger political alliances and sham the public with their perceived trust and credibility. Jurors are just not equipped to deal with all these variables not matter how informed they appear to be. First of all most people don't want to serve, others want to convict everyone, some will just go with the flow because they don't want to upset the rest of the jurors and a couple might genuinely care about the facts and real justice. And to think for one moment that these twelve people are going to leave their emotions, their fears and their preconceived ideas at the door is simply ridiculous. It might be easy to convict a person on a DWI or an armed robbery from obvious and comprehensible evidence that anyone can clearly understand. But in cases of rape, sexual assault and murder, where the evidence is so complicated and science driven, the average juror is going to know which side has the most credible expert, and if you don't have any experience of understand true science from junk science; real evidence from circumstantial evidence, then these jurors are playing right along with this game of Russian roulette, pointing the gun of fate at the defendant's head and pulling the trigger.
In my opinion, they need to remove the cloak of immunity from the prosecutors and judges. They need to require that when there is a possibility felony charge, that all interviews are videotaped or recorded; especially involving a minor. We need to not allow the lowering of the standards of evidence to make it easier to prosecute. And when a case hinges solely on the word of the victim against an accused and there is absolutely nothing or no-one that can positively corroborate the verbal allegation; no matter how horrible the allegation may sound; prosecutors should not be allowed to destroy innocence to be better safe than sorry. The work of the Innocence Projects has shown how hard and time consuming it is to undo a wrong once it is done. The lessons learned from the cases they have been successful with are the errors that contributed to these wrongful convictions and to stop them from happening again before they become yet another to undo at a later time and even more damaged is caused to innocent persons and their families.
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