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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.

Perhaps realizing that their case was shaky, the police then induced the man's wife to make a false confession by (among other coercive tactics) threatening to take her kids from her unless she give up her husband. When the actual robber was eventually captured months later, the FBI was finally asked to make a detailed comparison between the defendant and the image on the video. An FBI analyst concluded that the defendant wasn't the robber, and the innocent man and his innocent wife (who was arrested despite the cop's assurance to her that she'd remain at liberty if she ratted out her husband) were freed.

Did the system work? Yes, eventually, but only because of the happy circumstance that the guilty guy finally got caught. Until then, the system ground ahead, and the husband and wife stayed behind bars.

Stories like this surface daily, while prosecutors like Marquis blithely assure us that we shouldn't worry about wrongful convictions. He says "Americans should be far more worried about the wrongfully freed than the wrongfully convicted." So much for the belief that it's better to free ten guilty men than to imprison one innocent man.

Marquis should know that there are no "wrongfully freed." Defendants go free because the government can't prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt -- and those people are constitutionally entitled to their freedom -- or (very occasionally) because the government broke the rules. If prosecutors gave more attention to making the system work rather than whining about bad press when it doesn't, wrongful convictions might finally become a less compelling problem.

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    The prosecutor pointed out in the article in question that in a study of the over 15,000,000 felony convictions that occurred between 1989 and 2003 it was discovered that 340 were exonerated. That means that the failure rate was 0.00266% and succes rate 99.99773%. The prosecutor pointed out that even if the study were off by more than 1000%, ie, there were actually 4000 that should have been exonerated, that the failure rate would be 0.02666% and success rate 99.97333% of the cases. That even one person be wrongfully convicted is bad, clearly, but what % of wrongful convictions is demanded? 0%? By definition, because there will always be mistakes and malfeasance in a system consisting of human beings, our system can only have 0.0% wrongful convictions if there are no convictions at all. That sure wouldn't seem prudent.

    That sure wouldn't seem prudent. Tell that to the family of someone wrongfully executed.

    Donna, Good point, although I think this thread is about convictions. There are dozens of threads devoted specifically to the Death Penalty on this site and it's been discussed exhaustively on them. To stay on topic, when a murdererer/rapist/whatever, is not convicted, and is then released only to go and murder/rape/whatever again, what would you say to that victim's family?

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#4)
    by Jlvngstn on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:30:43 PM EST
    SU - I do not believe there was a study of the 15,000,000 convictions. What I believe you are citing is that there were 15m convictions and thus far only 340 have been overturned. For statistical validity of your 99.9999% number, a reasonable investigation into every felony conviction would have to be instituted. The 340 cases overturned represent those where DNA was a focal part of the evidence and or available. Statistically speaking, how many of the 15m convictions had DNA available and or used as part of the conviction? The correct numbers to use here would be (for starters): Those convicted with DNA available and blood/saliva used in their trial. Those challenging the conviction. Those losing the challenge. You would then have a total of felony convictions based on blood/saliva/hair evidence, with it still available for DNA testing. A total of exonerations. A total of those truly lying and deserving of their sentence. Of the 15m convictions, how many involved blood/saliva/hair as evidence?

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#5)
    by Jlvngstn on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:33:22 PM EST
    How about as a compromise, every case where there is a violent offender who claims innocence, the state check their DNA with the evidence. For those that are exonerated, they receive 3 million a year for each year of incarceration. Those proven to be wasting the courts time because their dna makes them the 99.999999999999999999999 perpertrator, get to double their sentence.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#6)
    by Jlvngstn on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:34:17 PM EST
    PS> In the cases of exoneration, any misconduct by a prosecutor or police officer will result in a 10 year minimum sentence.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jlvngstn on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:35:36 PM EST
    Which is exactly why the gov't should not have access to our DNA. Because if there were consequences for railroading and misconduct, they would simply plant the dna on the old evidence.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#8)
    by jondee on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:37:43 PM EST
    How thoroughly can anyone "study" 15,000,000 convictions when its taken sometimes years to have the convictions of some proven innocent persons overturned? That prosecutor should go right into politics or talk radio.

    Jl, you're probably right - the study, while accurate about it's research, is not specific to the point the author of the article is trying to make. I think that's why the author of the article based his opinion on a made-up number of 4000 innocents convicted - a number over 1000% higher than the 340 actual exonerations that the study found - to try to give some sort of seat the pants extrapolation. Probably way innacurate, 4000 could be wildly high or low, but, hey, this was the article chosen by TL as the basis for this thread...

    Your .pdf link doesn't work. http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/PW0UQ9DZ.pdf

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#11)
    by Jlvngstn on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 02:59:16 PM EST
    SU - I am just glad I am not in the 340 group........

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 03:02:33 PM EST
    Perhaps the Prosecutor should check this site. And it should be noted that everytime there is a false conviction 2 crimes are committed.

    Jl, ...also be glad you're not in the group that's convicted but innocent and still not exonerated. It's human system - some innocents will be convicted and some guilty will go free to continue to harm other innocents. The only way to have absolutely no innocents convicted is to have absolutely no convictions.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#14)
    by squeaky on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 03:19:26 PM EST
    Sailor-
    And it should be noted that everytime there is a false conviction 2 crimes are committed.
    Not to mention that the true criminal is out on the streets probably continuing to commit more crimes.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#15)
    by TChris on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 03:22:14 PM EST
    Link fixed. Thanks for reporting the problem.

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#16)
    by baked potato on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 05:33:41 PM EST
    "The only way to have absolutely no innocents convicted is to have absolutely no convictions." As our debate teacher used to say, if logic fails, there's always...Reductio ad absurdum! Yes, why try to be decent when we can't be perfect!

    Re: Prosecutor Discounts Reality of Wrongful Convi (none / 0) (#17)
    by jimcee on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 06:13:27 PM EST
    This is a tough question. Locally, Utica NY, there was a case where a young girl, 16, was murdered in my neighborhood. She was a prostitute and was hanging out with the 'crack' crowd. She was found stabbed to death in an empty flat that was being used as a both a crack score point and prostitution landing pad. The police found DNA evidence on her that matched a certain local Corrections Officer. He was tried by the DA, not one of his subalterns and he was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The victims family praised the jury conviction and proclaimed justice was done..... Except the real murderer was ratted out by one of his drug dealing compadres in a jail-house confession. It turns out that there was the original 'convict's' DNA on the victims's body and it was there by shall I say, mutual agreement. It turns out he was in love with this young lass, a tragic love but in his mind, love just the same. He wanted to save her from her life underground. She didn't think she needed saving. He was a thirty something man with a balding pate and a high school mentality. When her body was found in that empty flat her born again mom railed against the DA until the local police came up with a suspect and convicted him. The wrong 'him' as things turned out. In the end the man who was wrongly convicted settled for a pittance and left the area, heart-broken and sad. He had not only lost his love but was ill served by the system that he himself was part of. The local detectives resigned/retired from thier positions after all was said and done. IMHO they and the DA got off too easy. This is the kind of thing that operas are written about and the saddest of arias could be written about this episode. A love, unrequited and used, a violent death, a false conviction, vindication and a truly broken heart. DNA is not the be all to end all. If anyone is interested, the case was in Oneida County, New York and the victim's name was Desiree Case.

    "...a success rate of 99.973 percent. Most industries would like to claim such a record of efficiency." This guy has not a $%&Ā§ clue about todays quality standards. Sure, 99.973% sounds impressive. But it isnĀ“t. Actually itĀ“s pretty bad. Just a little comparison: Today most automotive companies demand that their suppliers reach a quality level of "Six Sigma". To cut a long story short this basically means that a maximum of 3.4 Defects (Errors) per million opportunities are acceptable. Every conviction is an opportunity for a defect. 15 Million convictions means that in order to reach a quality level of Six Sigma only 51 wrong convictions can be accepted, but surely not 340. I work in quality management for BMW. Today a supplier offering a quality level below Six Sigma has absolutely no chance of getting a contract with anyone in the whole automotive industry. Most companies would not even consider answering them... Sometimes 99.973% accuracy can be a piece of crap. Think about it next time you sit in your car and drive past the courthouse or local prison...