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How Many Innocent People Are in Prison?
Monday, February 8th, 2010My crime column this week looks at that question in light of the 25oth DNA exoneration last week.
11 Responses to “How Many Innocent People Are in Prison?”
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No doubt the stupidest response will be from people suggesting that we imagine how many guilty people aren’t in prison, and that we need to keep locking innocent people up so that one day there are none guilty walking the streets.
The streets will be empty at that point, but I digress…
I meant to emphasize aren’t as in: “…imagine how many guilty people aren’t in prison….”
I expect the number is vastly higher.
If you add in violations of laws that should never be laws I put it at about 66%.
Law enforcement is one of the only professions where lying is not only encouraged, but required as part of the job. Their most important strategy for fighting consensual “crime” is the sting, which is nothing but outright trickery to get someone to break the law in order to charge them with a crime. When they question someone, their job is to intimidate, deceive, and stress them into confessing. They have a mafia-like sense of loyalty to each other that makes them virtually immune from being discovered for falsifying evidence or telling lies under oath. The Bill of Rights is their sworn enemy.
Honesty and integrity can’t live in that kind of environment and, about all you can say about someone convicted under the justice system in the U.S. is that maybe they committed a crime. You sure as hell can’t say the country is better of for all the people they throw in prison who didn’t represent a threat to anyone.
Law enforcement in the U.S. is like everything else government related. It’s a rat infested racket that enriches some at the expense of others.
I guess you guys never went to prison because if you had you’d know that EVERYONE in prison is innocent. You should check it out……
Law enforcement divides humanity into 3 categories; cops, criminals and potential criminals…
Translation: Anyone who isn’t in the first category, belongs in jail…
I wish you would have pointed out in your article that DNA evidence is not an irrefutable science, especially when crime labs have horrible testing procedures, untrained people, and biased mandates from the state and prosecutors to find evidence for the state and make exculpatory evidence disappear. You have blogged about these topics many times over.
there are lots of (very justifiable) rants about cops, but there are LOTS of great guys who are cops and trying to do the right thing. I think they make a positive difference in many ways. These are the guys that dressed up as cops when they were kids, idolized Andy Griffith, etc…
Many issues with cops can be addressed by fixing the system.
Jailhouse guards, though, are slime. I’ve never seen a more despicable species allowed to legally exist than a guard. They’ve either tortured someone or looked the other way while someone else did. It’s always justified (in their feeble minds), because ‘these people (prisoners) deserve it’ or some other bullshit. I’ve never seen a profession that draws cruel people to it like prisons do…
Likewise, I can’t help but wonder how many Steven Avery’s are out there.
In contrast to the original article’s statements that “The certainty of DNA testing means we can be positive the 250 cases listed in the Innocence Project report didn’t commit the crimes for which they were convicted” and that “DNA evidence [can] establish definitive guilt or innocence” I’d remind the reader that DNA doesn’t establish anything, it’s people – judges and juries – that determine guilt or innocence. DNA (pre or post conviction) is just another data point to consider – though sometimes very powerful.
http://www.crimelabreport.com/library/pdf/contextual_contamination.pdf
Re: #5 divadab,
What a stupid and ridiculous statement. My wife is in prison and she was guilty of the crime she was sent there for. She’ll look you in your cowardly face and tell you so. Whether or not she got a fair sentence for a first offense is another matter, but, no, that bullshit you spout ain’t gonna fly. I’ve spent hours and hours in a visiting room in Texas over the last 3 years and trust me, everyone there isn’t squawking that they’re innocent. Actually, quite the opposite. Most of the ones what ARE guilty, will admit and accept their punishment.
Charlie O, what did your wife do and do you have any sexy pictures?