Sonny Clark
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
In an opinion piece published in Tuesday’s edition of the Baltimore Sun, former Innocence Project Attorney Colin Starger writes that our country continues to see an annual rise in the number of people who are exonerated because the justice system, overall, is overwhelmed.
In his op-ed, Starger highlights that 2014 was a record year for exonerations in the United States. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 125 people were exonerated of crimes they did not commit. That number is up from 91 the two previous years.
(1) -- 2014's record-breaking number of reversals tells the tale of a system overwhelmed.
(2) -- Risk factors that we now know lead to wrongful conviction — eyewitness misidentification, junk science, false confession, ineffective assistance of counsel and police misconduct — are present in thousands upon thousands of cases that pass through our system every year.
(3) -- One of the most significant findings of the latest National Registry of Exonerations report is that 54 percent of the reversed convictions in 2014 (67 out of 125) were obtained at the initiative of or with the cooperation of law enforcement. This is a truly significant change.
(4) -- When even prosecutors recognize the profound and persistent problem of wrongful convictions, meaningful criminal justice reform is indeed possible. With state budgets shrinking and across-the-board cuts looming, it is no longer unfathomable to envision — and to propose — a concerted policy of decarceration. We do not need to lock up so many behind bars. We are supposed to be the land of the free. For the sake of justice, let us consider another way.
Innocence Blog Op-Ed Former Innocence Project Attorney Says that System is Overwhelmed with Wrongful Convictions
How many innocent citizens do we put behind bars as a result of "Circumstantial Evidence" cases? Remember, "circumstantial evidence" cases are based on "could've been, might have been, my gut feeling tells me they're guilty, jail house snitches, and in some cases, planted evidence".
In his op-ed, Starger highlights that 2014 was a record year for exonerations in the United States. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 125 people were exonerated of crimes they did not commit. That number is up from 91 the two previous years.
(1) -- 2014's record-breaking number of reversals tells the tale of a system overwhelmed.
(2) -- Risk factors that we now know lead to wrongful conviction — eyewitness misidentification, junk science, false confession, ineffective assistance of counsel and police misconduct — are present in thousands upon thousands of cases that pass through our system every year.
(3) -- One of the most significant findings of the latest National Registry of Exonerations report is that 54 percent of the reversed convictions in 2014 (67 out of 125) were obtained at the initiative of or with the cooperation of law enforcement. This is a truly significant change.
(4) -- When even prosecutors recognize the profound and persistent problem of wrongful convictions, meaningful criminal justice reform is indeed possible. With state budgets shrinking and across-the-board cuts looming, it is no longer unfathomable to envision — and to propose — a concerted policy of decarceration. We do not need to lock up so many behind bars. We are supposed to be the land of the free. For the sake of justice, let us consider another way.
Innocence Blog Op-Ed Former Innocence Project Attorney Says that System is Overwhelmed with Wrongful Convictions
How many innocent citizens do we put behind bars as a result of "Circumstantial Evidence" cases? Remember, "circumstantial evidence" cases are based on "could've been, might have been, my gut feeling tells me they're guilty, jail house snitches, and in some cases, planted evidence".
