Sadly, the justice system in the U.S. often fails at providing justice. Recent stories on NPR discuss the increase of people exonerated from their crimes when the evidence proves their innocence. I heard a discussion on WBUR (but I can’t find the related article) about the challenge for the judicial system to hold prosecutors accountable for withholding evidence in past cases. This concept doesn’t make sense to me, but I can imagine how this type of protection helps their careers.
- Texas has freed more than 40 people, including Michael Morton who was convicted when relevant evidence was hidden by county District Attorney.
- FBI Forensics Misconduct
- Reports of FBI evidence that could exonerate people in prison for crimes they didn’t commit
- DNA test undermines basis for Texas Execution
- 4 Men from Chicago freed after 15 years when the evidence points to another man as the perpetrator
- The documentary Paradise Lost tells the story of three boys convicted of murder, and even though they have been released from prison, they have not been exonerated of the crime. A new film West of Memphis gives new evidence in the case not previously told.
- Mississippi Governor pardons 208 criminals
- The Innocence Project based in New York work to free two innocent men, including a Texan held for more than 30 years.
- Prosecutors hid evidence that could have helped Senator Ted Stevens defend himself.
- Federal Prosecutor cleared of charges
- The Brady Standard not working well enough
- Long term effects of people proven innocent as they wait for the system to clear the record.
- Damien Echols tells his story at the Moth
Until there are repercussions for such actions, this behavior will surely continue.
Other related stories:
- Unprocessed Rape Kits in Detroit
- Unprocessed Rape Kits in LA
- Anatomy of a Bad Confession
- On Point discussion about the racial bias (racial profiling although they only mention racism) in our legal system. I amazed by the discussion point that when comparing the same small crime, a white person will get away with it and joke about it with friends, but a black person will be convicted of a crime and have a criminal record to limit their future opportunities. Especially for a group of people with limited opportunities, to have these added limitations of a criminal record makes it even more difficult to pull themselves out of poverty.
- TV show where two families trade lives, one Black one White.
Enhance The Human Experience 
Someone incredibly close to me got incarcerated for something that they did not do. It is ridiculously sad how hard it is to get out of prison once you are put in there, especially if the judge sort of knows that they messed up. It’s hard enough for us to admit we were wrong about what movie to see, never mind to admit we were wrong for incarcerating someone who did not deserve it. I don’t know how judges do it, but the system is seriously flawed.
I hope they have cleared their name and can move on from this trajedy. Unfortunately mistakes happen every day and we must learn from those experiences to improve the system. What is really frightening is the number of instances where the mistake was not accidental and the error was known. How can our society tolerate this behavior?