Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Good point. Gawd only knows how many innocents have been executed over the years...
Certainly many witches I guess...but even in modern times many, I'm sure. Justice is not always just.
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As a former prosector, however, I can tell you that we do the best we can. I've never worked a death penalty case, but I have sent men to prison for life for sexual offenses. I had a bright-eyed law student ask me a few years ago if I ever felt guilt over that, and my answer was no. If I didn't think that the evidence supported a case, I wouldn't have prosecuted it. As technology changes, so too does the profession. Shows like Law and Order and CSI give the public, and juries, the mistaken impression that you can run DNA tests off in 30 seconds. It could take months for a DNA test to come back from the state crime lab when i was a prosecutor. The "CSI Jury" is part of why I transitioned out of criminal law.
It is easy to be appalled, in hindsight, at a wrongful conviction just so much as the salem witch trials as travesties of injustice. But its also easy to forget that newspapers don't report it when DNA evidence proves that the prosecution and police at the time got it right. That doesn't sell papers, after all. And I don't know the particulars of this trial. It could have been an egregious miscarriage of justice by all involved - the arresting officers, the witnesses, the prosecution, AND the jury. So please, don't take my comments to refer to that particular case.
The Innocence Project was in its infancy when I was in lawschool, and I appreciate the work that they do. It keeps folks in my old job honest. They are largely made up of volunteer attorney's and law students trying to make a difference, and I applaud that. I am always just a little nervous that when one of these cases gets alot of attention that it paints too many in the criminal judicial system with the "crooked" moniker.
Just my view from the other side of the fence.