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There have been a few but really not many, compared to the number of murder convictions yearly. For me, Sam Shepard comes to mind right away. Now, how about asking the same question turned around? How many people have been acquitted that did commit murder or should have been convicted? I think we can all think of a few in the past 20 years. It is less likely the wrong person will be found guilty of murder today. Why? mainly DNA plus better quality of investigating.
There have been a few but really not many, compared to the number of murder convictions yearly. For me, Sam Shepard comes to mind right away. Now, how about asking the same question turned around? How many people have been acquitted that did commit murder or should have been convicted? I think we can all think of a few in the past 20 years. It is less likely the wrong person will be found guilty of murder today. Why? mainly DNA plus better quality of investigating.
Of course you have to get the backing and legal support to continue the investigation -- I'm sure many people convicted of something they didn't do figure that's as far as they can go, and give up.
I'm not so sure about Sam Sheppard being innocent. Even if the DNA showed a match to the window washer, who's to say Sam didn't kill her because he caught them together or something?
I think the prosecutor profession attracts a high number of psychopaths. It's hard to explain the behavior of many prosecutors otherwise. When you have no empathy (which psychopaths are incapable of having) then you don't feel bad when innocent people go to prison if it helps your career. And you don't feel immoral when you knowingly hide evidence or knowingly prosecute someone who is innocent.
There have been a few but really not many, compared to the number of murder convictions yearly. For me, Sam Shepard comes to mind right away. Now, how about asking the same question turned around? How many people have been acquitted that did commit murder or should have been convicted? I think we can all think of a few in the past 20 years. It is less likely the wrong person will be found guilty of murder today. Why? mainly DNA plus better quality of investigating.
You and I have different notions of what constitutes 'many'.
With regards to the awesome power of the state being mustered to put an innocent person in prison, either temporarily, until they die, or until the state can get around to executing them, to me this is 'many': https://www.law.umich.edu/special/ex...es/browse.aspx
Note that this is an incomplete listing of known wrongful convictions, and known wrongful convictions are obviously - to those not belaboring under the fantasy that the system that wrongfully convicts people is perfect at ultimately uncovering those wrongful convictions - only a subset of all that occur.
And why should we turn the question around? What possible relevance is there that some people who commit crimes go unpunished? Do you think that somehow mitigates wrongful convictions? If not, I fail to see your attempt to shift this attempt of yours to shift the focus away from wrongful convictions. And if so, I am baffled at such a way of thinking.
I am far more concerned about the virtually boundless power of the state to imprison and kill people than I am about the potential murderer next door. And so should any thinking person. It was the famous English jurist William Blackstone who stated: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"
And Blackstone was only rephrasing a principle that had been articulated for centuries before him. That's right - even amidst the primitive judicial barbarity of the middle ages, it was understood that wrongful convictions were a far greater uinjustice than failed prosecutions.
And DNA is hardly a magic elixir. Read about many of those who are wrongfully convicted, and how prosecutors fight tooth and nail to prevent DNA testing that would definitively indicate guilt or innocence (semen from a rape, skin/blood under the victim's nails, etc.). With most wrongful convictions, if it wasn't obvious that the wrongfully convicted person was innocent there were very strong doubts to be had about it. And those doubts were intentionally ignored or hidden. DNA is irrelevant when a prosecutor manages to suppress it.
"Yeah, but some people get away with murder, and besides I'm pretty sure we don't imprison quite as many people as we used to!" is a pretty feeble excuse for the absolutely unacceptable and inexcuseable occurrance of the state imprisoning people, and in some cases executing them, for what they did not do.
I think the prosecutor profession attracts a high number of psychopaths. It's hard to explain the behavior of many prosecutors otherwise. When you have no empathy (which psychopaths are incapable of having) then you don't feel bad when innocent people go to prison if it helps your career. And you don't feel immoral when you knowingly hide evidence or knowingly prosecute someone who is innocent.
I get enraged when I read about injustice.
You think this is a common problem? I hear about very little about this.
You think this is a common problem? I hear about very little about this.
I don't know how common it is or what could be defined as common. But, I think the prosecutor profession attracts a higher number of psychopaths than your standard law firm. It's really hard to explain the behavior of some prosecutors otherwise. Quite a few of them are just evil.
I don't know how common it is or what could be defined as common. But, I think the prosecutor profession attracts a higher number of psychopaths than your standard law firm. It's really hard to explain the behavior of some prosecutors otherwise. Quite a few of them are just evil.
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Sounds fair to me. Tit for Tat.
