Nov. 26



COLORADO:

Judge rebuffs move for more secrecy in Holmes case


The judge in the Colorado theater shootings has rebuffed a request by the defense to further limit public access to documents in the case.

The ruling on Friday denied a defense request for the court to stop posting documents online and to deny public access to transcripts and to a weekly summary of court actions.

It marked a rare victory for public access in the case against James Holmes. A gag order prevents attorneys from discussing the issues publicly outside of court.

In his ruling, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. also noted that he has repeatedly limited public access to documents at the request of attorneys or on his own.

Holmes' lawyers argued that publicity surrounding the case threatens to make it impossible to find an unbiased jury. But Samour disagreed, saying the defense had not made a persuasive argument to suppress the transcripts and docket.

He also said the public and the media have an interest in monitoring the case and that posting documents online was the most efficient way to make records available.

Holmes, 25, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 2012 attack at a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Samour also pointed out the results of Holmes' sanity evaluation done last summer at the state mental hospital remain secret, as does a notebook that Holmes mailed before the shootings to a psychiatrist who had been treating him.

The secrecy prompted the defense to aggressively pursue the identities of confidential sources that Fox News reporter Jana Winter cited in reporting that the notebook contained violent drawings. Defense lawyers say Winter's sources violated the gag order, and they want her to reveal their names.

Winter, who is based in New York, argues state shield laws there and in Colorado protect her from having to identify her sources. She has said she won???t identify them in any event, even though she could be jailed for contempt of court.

Media groups including The Associated Press objected to the defense request to limit public access. So did some victims who want court documents for lawsuits.

A trial date is on hold while Samour considers a prosecution request for further psychiatric evaluation of Holmes.

(source: Associated Press)






ARIZONA:

Jodi Arias Trial News Update: Arias Tweets About Arizona Prison While Awaiting Retrial, Facing Death Penalty


Although Jodi Arias is currently awaiting a retrial in which she might be sentenced with the death penalty, the convicted killer seemed more concerned about how much water the prison she's locked in wasted last week.

Arias, who is being held in a women's prison in Maricopa County, Arizona, revealed in a series of tweets that one of the toilets in the prison got stuck on flush mode for over 24 hours.

"Yesterday around 4:30 p.m. a toilet upstairs got stuck on "flush"...26 hours later, it's still flushing," she tweeted Friday night.

"I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of gallons of water wasted that makes," she added.

And finally on Saturday afternoon she wrote, "The toilet finally stopped flushing. Is the Colorado River now down to a trickle?"

The California native was convicted of 1st-degree murder on May 8 in the ghastly 2008 death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix, Ariz. home. However, the same jury that found her guilty failed to reach a unanimous decision on her sentencing. As a result, a retrial will be held later this year to determine whether she should be sentenced to death, life in prison or life with a chance of release after serving 25 years.

She remains behind bars and is forbidden from accessing cell phones or computers. However, her Twitter account has remained active.

Last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens denied several requests motioned by her lawyers in her upcoming retrial.

In her ruling, Judge Stephens denied the defense's request for sequestration since she granted the defense's motion to ban live TV coverage of the retrial. However, she is permitting reporters to attend the proceedings in addition to one still camera photographer inside the courtroom.

"The Court finds the interests of justice do not require sequestration of the jury of the sentencing phase retrial in this case," wrote Stephens according to HLN-TV.

In the same ruling, Stephens said Arias' lawyers had failed to prove the media glare required a change of venue. Therefore, the retrial will take place at Maricopa County Courthouse in Arizona like Arias' 1st trial.

Stephens also denied the defense's request to individually question potential jurors during jury selection. Instead, candidates will be questioned in groups of 10 for approximately 45 minutes. She will, however, allow individual questioning only if a dispute regarding a potential juror cannot be resolved.

(source: Latino Post)






CALIFORNIA:

Visalia Man accused of killing girlfriend's child could face death penalty

Testimony continued Monday in the trial of a Visalia man accused of killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. Natalynn Miller's father Troy Miller finished up his testimony on the 6th day of Ryann Jones murder trial. Jones, the boyfriend of Natalynn's mother at the time, is accused of beating the 3-year-old to death in March of 2009.

During cross examination, defense attorneys questioned Miller on whether daughter spun herself around a lot.

"She would kind of play around but she wouldn't spin herself around until she was completely dizzy I've never seen her do that before," Miller said.

After Natalynn's father took the stand, jurors heard from family friend and Natalynn's caretaker, Jessica. She testified about bruises she would see on the 3-year-old.

Rosales became emotional at times when asked about Natalynn and also when prosecutors showed her a picture Natalynn drew for her the day that she died. Rosales testified that the 3-year-old's behavior started to change after Ryann Jones and Natalynn's mother, Nicole Lee, had been dating for a few months.

"To me she seemed scared to go over there," Rosales said. "She didn't want to go to the monster's house."

Rosales said she accidentally documented some of Madalynn's injuries because she liked to take pictures of the girl sleeping while she was babysitting her. Jurors were shown photos of injuries to the girl's head, cheek and lip and what looked like burns to her shoulder and ears. Rosales testified that one time Natalynn blamed one of her injuries on Jones the other times she'd refuse to tell her how why she was bruised.

"She was quiet she had her head down like this," Rosales said.

Rosales testified she told Natalynn's mother about the injuries. During cross examination Rosales admitted to defense attorneys that Natalynn ingested marijuana from a bag while she was watching her. Defense attorneys also showed jurors a happy picture of Ryann Jones, Nicole Lee and Natalynn Miller.

Before Jessica Rosales' testimony her brother Ernesto took the stand and talked about a statement Jones made to him about Natalynn.

"That she was a little girl and that he had no use for her around him," witness Ernesto Rosales said.

Jones' trial is expected to last 6 weeks. If convicted on all charges he faces the death penalty.

(source: KFSN news)

***************

Death penalty debate swirls


I favor the death penalty, as it would save resources at overcrowded prisons.

However, others believe government shouldn't have the power to take anyone else's life, and worry that the death penalty might be given to someone who is innocent. It is still needed in our society.

First, it takes a lot to provide for inmates, who need food, water, clothing, health care, security, rehabilitation programs, and take up room prisons don't have.

A recent news story states there have been huge increases in prison spending. Due to financial crises, states have been forced to cut their budgets and reconsider the offenders who should return to prison. In California alone, just to incarcerate one inmate a year costs $47,102.

The death penalty is a highly debatable topic, argued by many, but is needed in society.

(source: Letter to the Editor; Miguel Navarro----Santa Maria Times)

********************

Lawyers plan dismissal motion in Fairfield murder case


A Solano County judge set a February 2014 court date for a hearing on whether charges against a Fairfield man accused in the death of a 13-year-old Suisun City girl should be dismissed.

Attorneys for murder defendant Anthony Lemar Jones, 32, were in Solano County Superior Court on Monday where they asked Judge E. Bradley Nelson to set a hearing date in which they will argue that the charge be dismissed. Jones' attorneys, who recently withdrew a pair of motions seeking to ban press coverage and to seal all court records of the case said they intended to file a new motion related to an allegation that the prosecution withheld evidence.

Nelson set 10 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2014 for the hearing on a motion to dismiss.

Jones was arrested a week after the Feb. 1 discovery of Genelle Conway-Allen, whose body was found in a Fairfield park in the early morning hours.

He has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and special circumstances that could make him eligible for the death penalty.

The special circumstances include allegations accusing him of committing a murder in the course of a kidnapping, rape and during the commission of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under the age of 14.

In asking for a hearing, Jones' attorneys alleged that the prosecutor who previously handled the case withheld "exculpatory" evidence, or evidence that could go toward proving their client's innocence.

A probable cause hearing has yet to bet set in the case.

Jones remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail.

(source: The Reporter)






USA:

Counties That Send The Most People To Death Row Show A Questionable Commitment To Justice


Last week, I looked at a recent study by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) which finds that the vast majority of executions and death row inmates come from a very small percentage of counties across the country.

My prior post looked specifically at the counties responsible for the most executions. (These would be the counties where prosecutors won death sentences, not where the executions themselves took place.) Contrary to the assertion from death penalty advocates that prosecutors in these counties should be commended for "doing their job," I noted these counties also tend to have troubling records of misconduct and exonerations.

This week, I want to look at the other list in the DPIC study -- the counties that have sent the most people to death row. This is a different list, as these counties tend to be in states that aren't nearly as eager to execute as, say, Texas or Florida. They tend to be conservative counties in more left-leaning states, or counties overseen by appeals courts more skeptical of capital punishment. So they're sending people to die, but those people aren't getting executed. And just as we found with the counties that lead the country in executions, the counties most responsible for populating death rows across America also have unsettling records of misconduct and exonerations. Here's a look at a few that top the list:

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

All the way back in 1993, a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge noted in overturning a mob murder conviction that, 'Prosecutorial misconduct seems to arise in Philadelphia County more so than any other county in the commonwealth." It also happens to be the county most likely to send people to death row -- and, as the DPIC report notes, the county that pays its capital defense attorneys less than any other county in the state.

Back when that 1993 opinion came out, Philadelphia officials denied the county had any problem with prosecutor misconduct. Fast forward 20 years. Last month, after another series convictions were thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct, the Innocence Project publicly called for Philadelphia County to once again go back and look at cases dating back 30 years. And once again, Philadelphia County District Attorney Seth Williams insisted that there's nothing to worry about. (Williams himself recently pressed charges against a man for, essentially, proving that some Philadelphia police are ignorant of their own state's gun laws.)

But Philadelphia County's ranking on the death row list is largely due to former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who took over the position in 1991. Abraham, the first woman to hold the position in the county's history, was so aggressive in seeking death sentences that she earned the nickname "Queen of Death." A 2007 study by the Center for Public Integrity found 67 cases in which an appeals court overturned a Pennsylvania conviction due to prosecutorial misconduct. Of those, 41 came out of Philadelphia County.

A few other highlights from Philadelphia:

-- The DA's office withheld exculpatory evidence for more than 20 years after the conviction of Edward Ryder in 1974. Ryder's conviction was overturned in 1996. In 1999, Ryder accepted a plea bargain. In exchange for pleading guilty third-degree murder, he would be re-sentenced to time served and released from prison. Ryder and his attorneys maintained his innocence, and said his plea was the result of a tired man who didn't want to risk going back to prison

-- Just last month, a 22-year assistant prosecutor resigned from the office after she was accused of filling a false 911 report and pressuring a police officer to perjure himself in order to protect her boyfriend. Oddly, the DA's office sees no reason to go back and review her conduct in prior cases.

-- Kenneth Granger was released in 2010 after serving 28 years for a murder he says he didn't commit. It took his attorneys 27 years to get a judge to order the release of files from the district attorney's office and the Philadelphia Police Department that contained exculpatory evidence never given to Granger's attorneys.

-- More recently, last year a jury acquitted Amin Speakes of a 2009 murder. Williams decided to try Speakes even though two time-stamped videos showed he couldn't have committed the murder at the time it happened.

Duval County, Florida

Duval County leads the march to death row in Florida, a state where (a) there have been more death row exonerations than any other state, (b) more people have been sent to death row in the last 2 years than anywhere else in America, and (c) inexplicably, given (a) and (b), Gov. Rick Scott recently signed a bill to speed up executions by limiting death penalty appeals.

Given it's relatively small population, Duval County has the highest citizens-per-death-row inmate rate in the country. The current state's attorney for the judicial district that includes Duval County is Angela Corey, the prosecutor now best known for prosecuting George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. Corey's indictment of Zimmerman was widely criticized by defense attorneys and legal scholars. One prominent critic was Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. According to Dershowitz, Corey responded to his criticism by threatening to sue him, to sue Harvard University, and attempting to have Dershowitz disbarred. (She has threatened to sue other public critics as well.) She has also been accused of withholding exculpatory evidence in the case, then firing the IT worker in her office who exposed that evidence.

But Corey has a controversial history beyond the Zimmerman-Martin case. She's the prosecutor who won a 20-year prison sentence for Marissa Alexander. The 31-year-old Alexander was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadline weapon after she fired a warning shot from a gun at her abusive husband. A state appeals court granted Alexander a new trial in September. Corey won a similar conviction against Ronald Thompson, a 65-year-old man accused of firing warning shots into the ground as some teenagers attempted to force their way into a home belonging to his friend. She has also received criticism for charging a 12-year-old with murder for beating his 2-year-old brother to death, then attempting to try him as an adult.

Duval County was where 15-year-old Brenton Butler was wrongly charged, tried, and ultimately acquitted in the beating deaths of two tourists. His story is the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning. In 2007, Chad Heins was finally cleared of the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law after serving 13 years in prison. Billy Joe Holton may well also be innocent of the 1986 murder for which he was convicted. Last year a judge re-sentenced him to time served plus probation, allowing him to go free. His attorneys are still working to exonerate him completely, over objections from Corey's office.

Florida also has an odd tradition of electing its public defenders. The current head public defender for the district that includes Duval County is Matt Shirk, a guy who ran on a platform of cutting funding to the office, billing indigent defendants who are acquitted for legal services, and was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police (an odd endorsement for a public defender). One of Shirk's first acts was to fire a large portion of the office staff, including the attorneys who had worked to expose the innocence of Brenton Butler.

Maricopa County, Arizona

The home of Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" also sends convicts to death row by the truckload. Former head prosecutor Andrew Thomas was notoriously ruthless -- at one point he had 149 death penalty cases pending. He also once sought a 90-year prison sentence against a 16-year-old for downloading child pornography. When the boy's attorneys showed that the images were likely the result of malware, Thomas' office pressured him to plead guilty to three felony counts for showing a Playboy magazine to a few classmates.

Thomas also rather infamously used the power of his office to target his critics, at one point setting his sights on the owners of the Phoenix New Times. Thomas was eventually stripped of his law license, notably for abuses of power related to his targeting of political opponents, not for his conduct in day-to-day criminal cases.

Last month, an investigative series by the Arizona Republic found that of the 42 cases in which an Arizona convict sentenced to death alleged prosecutorial misconduct, 33 occurred in Maricopa County. The series include one installment devoted solely to former Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez, who sent eight people to death row, and in 1999 was named the state's "prosecutor of the year." Martinez has since been cited for misconduct by Arizona court's three times in the last year.

One of the more notorious exonerations from Maricopa County was that of Ray Krone, convicted in 1991 of murdering a Phoenix bartender. The conviction was based almost entirely on testimony from a "bite mark specialist" linking Krone's teeth to tooth marks on the victim. Krone served 10 years in prison, including four on death row, before he was exonerated by DNA testing. His attorneys later found evidence that prosecutors had withheld evidence of his innocence. In 2005, Krone won a $4.4 million settlement from Maricopa County. The prosecutors who convicted him were never disciplined. His case was later used to illustrate the junk science of bite mark testimony.

Current Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery refused to release any prosecutor personnel files for the Arizona Republic investigation, even of prosecutors no longer on the job. To do so, he said, wouldn't be in "the best interests of justice.??? Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court released new ethical guidelines stating that if prosecutors discover evidence of a convict's innocence, they must turn it over to his attorneys. (Previously, they were only obligated to do so before conviction.) Montgomery opposed the new rule.

Among the other counties with prolific histories of sending people to death row . . .

-- Riverside County, California, recently had to review more than 3,000 cases after a defense attorney that prosecutors hadn't disclosed that a crime lab technician had admitted to fraud, forgery, and perjury.

-- In Santa Clara, County, California, one prosecutor was rebuked by the state bar, and the office itself had to review thousands of sex crime cases, again due to the office's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. In 2009, defense attorneys discovered that they hadn't been informed about hundreds of cases in which crime lab technicians had disagreed over fingerprint patches. Santa Clara County DA Dolores Carr responded to these scandals by attempting to boycott the judges holding her office accountable, and then by attempting to strip the state bar of its power to discipline prosecutors.

-- Kern County, California has seen more than two dozen exonerations resulting from the ritual sex abuse panic of the 1980s and 1990s. Some were parent who went to prison after they were falsely convicted of sexually abusing their own children.

-- Between 1997 and 2009, prosecutors in Orange County, California, were cited for misconduct 58 times. One deputy district attorney in particular -- Michael Flory -- had been cited multiple times, and had his conduct deemed "unacceptable" by appeals court judges. He was never disciplined. The Orange County Register reported in January that despite 9 exonerations since 1995 based on faulty eyewitness testimony, "the Orange County district attorney has not pushed for" simple reforms to eyewitness procedures that criminologists say would radically improve their reliability. (But would of course also make it more difficult to win convictions.)

Looking back at both lists, it's far from clear, then, that execution-friendly prosecutors are "just doing their jobs." On the contrary, the counties most eager to execute seem to also have produced conviction cultures in which prosecutors have frequently been found to have bent the rules in pursuit of convictions -- and convicted the wrong people in the process.

(soure: Radley Balko, Huffington Post)

*********************

9 True Crime Books That Will Absolutely Disturb You


Lately, I have had a horrible time getting to sleep. Last night, the anxiety was so bad that I had to put on an Audrey Hepburn movie on Netflix to calm my terrifying thoughts.

Why is this going on? Stress at work? Trouble with my family? Nope, it's because I'm currently reading Truman Capote's classic, In Cold Blood, and it is scaring the hell out of me.

I openly admit that I'm probably not the ideal reader of True Crime books; I definitely think about getting murdered more than the average person does, and my overactive imagination and extreme anxiety don't make matters any better.

What is it about the True Crime genre that keeps me coming back for more, even though these stories petrify me?

The truth is, I can't help it; the suspense reels me in. Who are these people who can take a life without thinking twice about it? Why are they the way they are?

Whether or not you're as anxious and jumpy as me, I can guarantee that these books will leave you keeping the hall light on all night and/or locking every single lock on your door at night:

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Capote's classic is about the murders of four members of the Clutter family. In 1959, two men broke into the Clutter house, tied them up and shot them, one by one. Not only was the method of the murders brutal, but the criminals remained pretty much remorseless the whole time. The murders also ended up being motiveless. Though the break-in began as a robbery, there was very little money to be found (under 50 dollars), but they killed everyone any way. There have been some discrepancies between fact and Capote's outline of what happened, but the facts of the murders remain true. The 2 men were executed for their crimes.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi: Helter Skelter was written by Charles Manson's prosecutor, about both the case and the trial. That Manson managed to convince a group of people to perform a series of murders for him is chilling in and of itself. These murders were also extremely brutal - this book is not for the faint of heart. Sharon Tate (one of the murder victims) was stabbed 16 times and was 2 weeks away from giving birth to her child. Manson received the death penalty, but it was eventually outlawed in California. He is currently serving life imprisonment.

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss: In 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald was discovered slightly injured, and his pregnant wife and 2 young daughters were found murdered. MacDonald claimed that assailants had broken in, wounded him, and knocked him unconscious while they murdered his family. However, since there was no evidence of a break-in or any that anyone else had been inside the home, MacDonald ended up being tried for the murders. Though MacDonald maintains his innocence, the thought that a father could potentially murder his pregnant wife and 2 small children is absolutely terrifying. (This is another book with discrepancies. MacDonald had thought the book would prove his innocence, but instead it makes it appear that he is definitely guilty. Both Janet Malcolm and Errol Morris have written response books to McGinniss's bestseller. It still makes a horrifying read, though).

Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano: Campania, a region of Naples, Italy, has one of the highest murder rates in Europe. This is due to the Camorra, a Neapolitan mafia-like organization. The book traces the decline of Naples under the corruption of the organization, and also goes into the brutal details of how Comorra is run, and the lengths it will go to. Since 1979, 3600 people have been murdered at the hands of the Comorra, and the details of the deaths are gruesome.

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule: When Ann Rule was assigned to write a book about the as-of-yet unsolved murders of multiple women, she had no idea that the culprit would end up being someone she knew. When Ted Bundy was arrested and tried for the murders, Rule was so shocked that she hurried "to the ladies room and [threw] up." It turns out that she knew Bundy when they worked together at a suicide hotline; they were friends. It doesn't get much more unnerving than that.

For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz: In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two graduate students from wealthy families, kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old boy. Psychiatrists testified that the 2 would actually have been harmless on their own, but combined, they were a toxic pair. One of the psychologists on the case noted, "There seems to have been so little normal motivation, the matter was so long planned, so unfeelingly carried out, that it represents nothing that I have ever seen or heard of before."

Columbine by Dave Cullen: Cullen's nonfiction work about the Columbine mass shooting covers two topics: the killers' lives preceding the attack, and the survivors' struggles with the aftermath of the tragedy. There are also graphic depictions of the shooting. The book addresses many myths associated with Columbine. According to the author, the massacre had nothing to do with bullying, goth culture or Marilyn Manson. It is even more chilling when Cullen discusses that the attack was not initially intended as a shooting, but rather as a bombing. The shooters had wanted to create the worst terrorist attack in American history.

A Mind for Murder by Alston Chase: Chase's book describes the life of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who, from 1978 to 1995, sent 16 bombs to targets including universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring 23. Chase argues that Kaczynski wasn't the wild mountain man that the media assumed him to be and that, though Kaczynski was a cold-blooded killer, his ideas were actually pretty close to those of mainstream America.

The Last Victim by Jason Moss: This book deals with not one, but five serial killers. Moss explores his fascination with the psychology of serial killers and begins to correspond with several of America's most infamous ones as part of his honors thesis in college: John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, Henry Lee Lucas, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Charles Manson. He formed the strongest relationship with Gacy (who sexually assaulted and killed at least 33 teen boys and young men between 1972 and 1978). Gacy maintained his innocence to Moss. The book gets its title in what is ultimately the most chilling aspect of the book: when Moss goes to visit Gacy, Gacy tries to murder him.

(source: Zoe Triska, Huffington Post)

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The Register's Editorial: Miscarriages of justice are not just in history----They still occur, as Council Bluffs murder case and a congressman's cocaine case show


The state of Alabama last week posthumously pardoned three black men falsely convicted of rape in 1931.

It was a long overdue effort by one state to come to terms with a shameful piece of its history. Though one may wonder why it took 80 years, Alabama certainly deserves credit for confronting this painful episode from its past.

There is a lesson here for criminal justice in every state, however, even though we like to think everything in this country has changed for the better.

In the Scottsboro Boys case, 9 black teenagers were accused in connection with the rape of two white women. Within a matter of weeks, 8 of them were tried, convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death. The trial of the youngest defendant ended with a hung jury, and prosecutors eventually dropped rape charges against 5 of the men after appeals and subsequent trials. One accuser later recanted.

4 of the original 9 were later paroled, and 1 was pardoned by Gov. George Wallace in 1976. Last week's pardons finally cleared the names of the remaining 3.

"The Scottsboro Boys have finally received justice," Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley said in a prepared statement. Alas, none of them is alive to appreciate the sentiment.

Miscarriages of justice may not be as flagrant today, but they exist and to pretend otherwise runs the risks of perpetuating mistakes.

Earlier this fall, the city of Council Bluffs paid a $6 million settlement with 2 black men wrongfully convicted in the fatal shooting of a retired city police officer. The 2 spent 25 years in prison before they were released after new evidence turned up revealing gross prosecutorial misconduct. Earlier, Pottawattamie County paid a $12 million settlement in the case.

In Williamson County, Texas, a former prosecutor and state judge was recently sentenced to 10 days in jail, paid a $500 fine and was disbarred for his role in the conviction of an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison. He apologized, but denied any misconduct, blaming failures in the system instead.

These are not isolated examples. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 143 convicts have been released from death row since 1971 based on new evidence, new trials or pardons.

The problem is not just errors in the criminal justice system. Justice can go off the tracks early in the process when police and prosecutors decide whom to charge - or not to charge. Case in point: A member of Congress was recently arrested by an undercover cop who sold him 3.5 grams of cocaine in a Washington, D.C., sting operation.

U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, for which he will serve 1 year of probation and undergo substance-abuse treatment. Meanwhile, it is not hard to imagine a far different outcome for a young, black male arrested for a drug crime in another part of the nation's capital, or any other city for that matter.

This nation has come a long way in the 80 years since nine young black men were pulled off a train in Alabama and railroaded by a judge and jury. It's easy to work up rage about such clear injustice today, but the system is not perfect, and likely never will be. The best we can expect is that mistakes will be caught and rectified before it is too late.

(source: Editorial, The Register)

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