Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convictions
by TChris
It isn't surprising that a prosecutor seized upon DNA testing proving that Roger Coleman wasn't wrongfully executed as evidence that wrongful convictions aren't a serious problem. The self-righteous belief that the government rarely makes a false accusation, that the police never cheat, and that appellate courts inevitably restore freedom to those few who are wrongly convicted, is common among prosecutors. Delusional, but common.
Joshua Marquis, who wrote this op-ed, only needed to click TalkLeft's "Innocence Cases" link to realize how frequently the innocent are convicted. He could also have considered appellate decisions like this one (click "opinion" to open a pdf), released six days ago by the Seventh Circuit, describing how the police decided to arrest a man for bank robbery because he resembled the image of the robber captured on a surveillance camera, and because the man was having some financial problems, without first checking his alibi and without regard to glaring differences between his appearance and the description of the robber that witnesses provided.
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