Posted on 08/01/2005 9:42:05 AM PDT by TheOtherOne
Very sad. His life and the lives of his children were put through this...all the while the real rapist is on the loose.
The "R" under some mug shots seems obviously prejudicial to me.
Knowing your chances of parole get easier if you 'accept' responsibility and still not doing it- That in my book takes courage and is probably a measure of his innocence (of course in absence of the DNA test it would not mean much, but still...)
How does a person reclaim their life after this? There's no amount of money to compensate someone like this....
There seem to be a lot of cases with innocent people released from prison lately... It's very sad that so many years were stolen from them...
But, I do wonder, are these all cases of people proven innocent, or just of people not guilty thanks to a technicality?
For example, there was a rape/murder in my city years ago for which two men were arrested and confessed. But then DNA tests released them. The one guy was guilty - his confession corroborated with the other guy's story. But I guess he didn't "leave evidence," and whoever else the young woman - a college student - "saw" that night before the rape never stepped forward (probably a married man).
Having the semen not containing the DNA of the accused is a technicality?
The guy was prosecuted for rape. The DNA didn't match. That's beyond reasonable doubt, that approaches No Friggin' Way.
Imagine if he had been put to death for this...
Your criminal justice system at work. This guy does 18 years, O.J. plays golf.
A problem with our system is the adversarial nature of prosecutor versus the defense as opposed to seeking the truth, no matter what it might be. In this case, as in many others, the prosecutor had more interest in protecting his side than in the truth or the life of the person wrongly convicted. Our system pits lawyerly skills against each other and truth is often the loser.
Some women are unwilling to acknowledge having sex with another person.
I can't tell what you are talking about. Do you have a link to that case. People are not just realeased by DNA tests. What about these "DNA tests released them" as you say? Why do you say they were guilty...what was the evidence used to convict them? Were they convited at trial, then released later? Your scant facts don't seem to make any point.
Prosecutors should be forbidden from running for any other public office. Then the truth, rather than padding their record, might take precedence.
Cases like this almost make you think maybe the people who falsely identified him the first time ought to do some time.
I'm sure (or at least hope) it was a mistake on their part, but when they IDd him, I assume they were asked if they were SURE. Not almost, sorta-kinda sure.
I have that same problem with the system. It works fine for me in civil litigation. In criminal cases I have often thought there should be a Third party, a neutral party, representing neither the prosecution or the defense, but to bring forward additional facts. I know it would be costly, but I think, as you noted, our current adversarial system does not seek out truth...it seeks victory.
bump
True, but the state should try. A million dollars for each year might be a good start, IMHO...
This is what disgusts me. They tried to stop it. Had they succeeded he would have continued to rot in prison.
WHO IS THIS PROSECUTOR? I WANT HIS NAME.
I know its P-BS, but it's a ggod show.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/burden/
In essence all the prosecution normally cares about is a guilty verdict, and hence they will strive to block testimonies and evidence that might get the guy off. And all the defence wants is the inverse, and thus they will do their best to get their guy off. Things like true innocence and such are for fools and martyrs when it comes to courts of law (on Earth that is). Give me a crack team of lawyers anyday! There are few things as bad as knowing you are innocent and yet be inside a cell. I think that must be worse than death even.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.