* So you’d like to stay out of jail …
Most Americans are comfortable in the belief that if they don’t commit any crime, they have no risk of going to jail.
Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
While most prosecutors are honest and try to do justice which allows all defendants the fair trial to which they are entitled, too many prosecutors fail to uphold this sacred obligation. There is considerable evidence, from many jurisdictions, that prosecution of the innocent, in violation of the laws which are supposed to protect all of us, is not as rare in America as we might like to believe.
Why is this so? Well, sometimes it’s not easy for a prosecutor to build a case which will convince a jury ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ even if the prosecutor believes in his or her heart that the defendant is guilty.
No prosecutor wants to be embarrassed by losing a case. No prosecutor who has ambitions can afford to lose too many cases. Faced with the possibility of losing, some prosecutors are tempted to break the law. They cheat to get a conviction.
Most often, they do this by suppressing evidence that goes against their case, evidence that would produce ‘reasonable doubt’ in a juror’s mind. Sometimes, they conspire to make up evidence which alleges guilt, for instance by planting “stoolies” who then testify about admissions by the defendant which never happened.
Don’t believe it? Think it can’t happen in America, the land of justice for all?
Consider these serious reports by very credible organizations …
· The Chicago Tribune reported that 381 murder convictions were reversed because of police or prosecutorial misconduct.
· Columbia Law School documented “chronic prosecutorial suppression of evidence of innocence.”
· Barry Scheck et al, in their disturbing book, * Actual Innocence, report numerous cases of prosecutorial misconduct, usually by suppression of evidence that would have proven innocence.
· The website of the organization * Truth in Justice cites prosecutorial misconduct as a factor in at least 2,017 cases.
· The book * In Spite of Innocence by Michael Radelet et al, published by Northeastern University Press, cites 400 wrongful convictions in murder cases.
· The powerful play * The Exonerated presents the terrible stories, in their own words, of seven persons who were wrongfully convicted
· The Sam Sheppard (* Mockery of Justice ) and Jeffrey MacDonald (* Fatal Justice ) cases are just two of many famous cases where it is now clear that mountains of evidence supporting innocence never reached a jury.
How likely is it there are many more such cases that have never come to significant public attention? Is it possible that what we do know is but the tip of the iceberg?
Wrongful prosecution could happen to anyone. It could happen to you.
Wrongful prosecution of a young man for a murder he did not commit is the core of my new novel, A Good Conviction. I explore what my fictional prosecutor did to suppress evidence, why he did it, and how Josh Blake, struggling to survive amidst the horrors of Sing Sing prison, tries to understand how his life was destroyed.
My recently posted * LISTMANIA: good and bad prosecutors ,” will direct you to many of the sources cited above and to others which describe the pressures on prosecutors, and how some crumble under that pressure.
This blog provides a forum for you to express your views on these issues.
I welcome comments from those who agree with me, and also from those who disagree.
It’s a dialogue our country needs if we’re going to seriously address the problem of prosecutorial abuse which plagues our criminal justice system and puts us all at risk.
LEW WEINSTEIN
