Check out these five myths about the justice system. And remember them every time you encounter a cop who starts asking you questions. If that’s not enough, Radley Balko has a few more.
Category Archives: Justice system failure
Red tape is delaying executions and letting perfectly innocent people off the hook!
I’ll let the highlights speak for themselves, but you can read the full story on The Agitator.
- Florida State Rep. Matt Gaetz [chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee in the Florida House of Representatives] is fed up with death row inmates and their endless appeals.
- Since Florida resumed executions in the 1970’s, 24 wrong-fully convicted Death Row prisoners have been exonerated while 74 prisoners have been executed. “That’s one exoneration for every three executions,” said Mark Elliott, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP),
- …at least six of Florida’s death row exonorees spent more than 10 years in prison. That means at least six (and probably more) were likely saved by those lengthy appeals that Gaetz wants to eliminate.
- This year, Florida has 21 new death sentences out of 78 nationally—that’s more than one quarter (26.9 percent) of all new death sentences in the U.S.
- But it isn’t just Gaetz. Most of the rest of the state’s legislators, prosecutors and public officials seem just as determined.
Hey, that’s just being “tough on crime”. Just ask the Florida voters that keep reelecting these self-serving headline grabbers. I am not apposed to the death penalty in principle. I just oppose state sanctioned execution of innocent people which is inevitable in any system, especially one where there are no repercussions for such mistakes.
Real forensic “science” ain’t like they show it on TV
Radley Balko posted a two part investigative article over at HuffPo that tells the story of self-proclaimed forensic specialists Steven Hayne and Michael West of Mississippi who helped convict and ruin the lives of numerous innocent people, while the real perpetrators remained at large to victimize more people. No one can relate his story better than Balko, since he has been investigating these two characters for years.
When I channel hop, I am always amazed at how many TV shows I stumble across that are based on crime investigation and prosecution. There can be no profession more glorified by Hollywood than law enforcement. It’s no wonder jurors walk into a court room ready to convict on the word of a forensic expert. And yet, many forensic methods and conclusions are not based on real science but rather the mere fact that expert witnesses have been making the same claims for so long that they are now treated as indisputable fact. But, thanks to people like Radley Balko, those claims are coming under more scrutiny and incompetent practitioners like West and Hayne are finally being exposed.