Paying for Miscarriages of Justice
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11 responses to “Paying for Miscarriages of Justice”
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The criminal justice system is as fallible as any other human institution, and the stories of these seven men reminds us that the public needs to be forever vigilant. Every institution needs checks and balances to help ensure accountability. Virginians owe a debt of gratitude to the Innocence Project for bringing these miscarriages of justice to light.
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A good post that took some time and effort to put together and is equal to or better than what might appear in the print media. thank you.
On the falsely convicted. Some of them sound pretty egregious. Witnesses lying? (DO they get charged?).
Most of them have several things that have gone sideways – supposedly the checks and balances designed to protect the innocent.
On the flip side, there are folks who literally get away with crimes including murder and I think prosecutors, some, might sometimes be motivated to cross the line but seldom are they brought to account when they do.
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I stopped supporting the death penalty during the OJ Simpson trial. It seems obvious to me that money can buy a great legal team and a great legal team can get a jury to do whatever it wants.
Did AG Herring investigate these cases and hold those who lied or withheld exculpatory evidence accountable for their actions?
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will the current AG?
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I don’t believe the AG has the authority to bring perjury charges against individuals who have testified falsely in a criminal trial. That is the responsibility of the local CA. I don’t know if any charges were brought against the persons involved in these cases.
As for withholding exculpatory evidence, that was the work of the prosecutor and, perhaps, law enforcement. The only way to hold these folks accountable is to fire the cop and defeat the CA in an election. The accountability measure most commonly used is the overturning of the verdict.
However, the burden of bringing that about rests on the convicted person and it is difficult to do. Even if one is successful, as Walter Smith points
out below, there is the issue of immunity. There was a case argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealing with whether an individual could sue the police for not informing him of his Miranda rights before questioning him. That
decision could have ramifications regarding other rights such as those involved
in these cases.-
Thanks. I guess I would argue that more than a few of these cases seem to involve misconduct that resulted in someone loses their liberty and being wrongly incarcerated.
If the consequences for that conduct were categorized as a crime against the state, just like felonies are, and handled the same way, less of this kind of conduct would take place.
When cops and prosecutors go over the line, the consequences are that justice is perverted and not served AND there are some obvious remedies to it.
One other aspect is the financial ability of the victim.
A good (and costly) legal team would likely challenge more effectively what appears to be misconduct.
A poor person with minimal resources gets a minimal defense up against a much stronger team trying to convict.
Our goal – ought to be not only to remedy wrong convictions but to address how they happen in the first place and make misconduct harder and more accountable.
imho.
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I agree with all that you say. These miscarriages did not result from “human fallibility” as Jim claims, but from cops and prosecutors not doing, for various reasons, what the law requires them to do.
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TY, DHS, for reminding all of the fallibility of criminal justice. When it fails, lives are destroyed.
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None of these sound like they really pass the reasonable doubt question to me.
And if these guys had a top tier defense lawyer, probably would have fared better.
If you are poor and you get arrested for a felony, you’re in a heap of trouble.
If you are rich and get arrested for a felony, it often takes a serious effort on the part of the police and prosecutor to get the conviction and even then some go free.
Walter’s comments as a lawyer himself are interesting IMHO.
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How many of these have prosecutorial abuse? Some had forced confessions. This is why an honest CA is extremely important as a check on the “justice” system. And so are the Judges. The judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse case was how judges are supposed to be. Prosecutorial discretion used to be a good thing when properly used, not as an excuse to let criminals go free like Chesa Boudin currently ruining LA.
As to the money… I believe the $55k is tax free, so more equivalent to $80k or so, and this requires balancing because taxpayers have rights, too.
Another issue is that the bad actor government employees have immunity. Sovereign immunity is generally a good thing…but what about these types of cases. There should be personal liability for bad faith actors in some way…-
Oops – Chesa Boudin is ruining SF. George Gaston is ruining LA.
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