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March 25, 2004

In need of reform

The American criminal justice system is touted as protecting the rights of the accused. It has been said that "it is better to let the guilty go free than to imprison the innocent falsely." However, the development of DNA tests has forced the country to acknowledge that the prosecutorial system is seriously flawed.

Americans have been shocked by the number of prisoners on death row across the country who have been released from prison before administration of the needle. Their innocence was indisputably established by DNA. The substantial number of these last minute reprieves has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of criminal prosecution across the country.

The Innocence Project at the Cardozo Law School in New York was established in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. Their researchers have found numerous flaws in the prosecutorial process which have led to the imprisonment of the innocent. They have categorized these flaws as: mistaken identity, police and prosecutorial misconduct, false confessions, incompetent lawyers, lying snitches, erroneous serology, junk science, and faulty DNA.

As of this month the work of The Innocence Project has led to the exoneration of 143 prisoners. Others not connected with the Project have achieved the freedom of many others. Since 1997, eight innocent black men have been freed after having been convicted in Suffolk County. Four had been charged with rape or aggravated rape, three had been charged with murder, and one had been charged with armed assault with intent to murder.

There is no capital punishment in Massachusetts, but all had been given lengthy sentences ranging from 9-25 years to life without parole. Before they were released as innocent, they had already served four years to 18 years. Any time in prison is a lot to serve for a crime you did not commit.

Another aspect of the problem gets less attention. If so many men have been released from prison as innocent of the crime for which they were convicted, then the real perpetrators are still at large. As eager as citizens might be to solve especially heinous crimes, the public is still endangered if the innocent are convicted while the real criminals roam free.

DNA evidence freed five of the men. In two of the cases it was established that eyewitness testimony was faulty. In the case of Shawn Drumgold who was convicted of murder, there is evidence of official misconduct and perjured testimony.

A basic premise of the American criminal justice system is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Over the years citizens have come to rely on the system’s legitimacy. Despite the presumption of innocence, people tend to believe that "where there’s smoke there’s fire." People believe when someone is accused of a crime, there must be a legitimate reason for the arrest.

Now that the flaws of the criminal justice system are known, society has a responsibility to establish systems to minimize the failures. Failure to do so imposes an enormous injustice on minorities and the poor who lack the financial resources to expose the inequities.

 

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