How innocent people land in prison

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/06/12/151901/commentary-how-innocent-people.html

Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Foon Rhee | The Sacramento Bee

David Quindt can't escape the 15 months he spent in Sacramento County jail for a murder he didn't commit.

He moved all the way to Hawaii for a fresh start, yet he doesn't want to completely forget. Each semester, he tells his story to law school students to "open their eyes" about how criminal justice in America can go terribly wrong.

Now, Quindt has his own little piece of the new National Registry of Exonerations, the most complete database of its kind ever, about 900 cases since 1989 – and counting.

These exonerations "point to a much larger number of tragedies that we do not know about" because there are many more people who are falsely convicted but aren't able to exonerate themselves, say those who compiled the registry at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools.

[raccoon]

1. Bookmarked to read later. Reminds me of Grisham's THE INNOCENT MAN.

people get railroaded all the time.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I highly recommend searching Google for a man by the name of Jon Burge

[raccoon]

8. My lord. I just did. nt

[libodem]

2. To protect the innocent

Very little is more important.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I can think of a few reasons how innocent people land in jail.

Being flagged by "the authorities", whether it's the police or child protection.

Being without means to access good competent legal assistance.

Having a public defender who is swamped with other cases and can't give your situation the appropriate time and attention it deserves.

Having a public defender whose modus operandi is lessen your punishment, not exonerate you.

Being poor and being a defendant suggests you're guilty before you're innocent.

Not knowing your rights. As soon as you start talking to a police officer, even before you're arrested, you're helping yourself get arrested, indicted, and convicted.

Having someone with a grudge against you (spouse, child, neighbor, coworker) use the System to have you arrested or at least have an investigation on you.

I just finished a case with a woman without means. Child Protection took away her five children and had them in foster care for more than three years and never intended to return them to her. If my colleague and I didn't donate our time to help her, she would have lost her kids to adoption. BTW, the judge found no evidence of abuse or neglect and that Child Protection improperly removed her children from her custody.

[coalition_unwilling]

9. How about being an Occupier (or leftist of any stripe) and seeking to

exercise your rights? There's quite a few folks who were 'innocent' (in the larger sense of the term) who spent time in jail\prison for crimes they never committed because what they did was not really a crime at all.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. You touched upon many reasons. I can think of more, including

(1) A bad judge, one with a predisposition to convict regardless of a lack of evidence. Some judges are so smart that they don't have to hear the evidence.

(2) A client with a bad appearance. A client, for example, who displays a sullen or angry attitude is not helping his or her case.

(3) A client, who for lack of adequate nutrition or a mental defect for other reasons, cannot be coached.

(4) An attorney who will not coach a client for whatever reason. Some can view their job as that of being a sypathetic witness with legal training.

[zeemike]

14. And in an other way.

Being in the system when a private prison corporation needs to fill beds to improve it's profit...as was demonstrated by the judge that was sending kids to a private owned reform school for cash.
And another is when a prosecutor wants to run for office and he needs to brag abut having 100% conviction rate....why in the hell that is a plus I don't know.

[JDPriestly]

19. Having no money to pay a detective or investigator to really check the facts.

You often need someone to help your lawyer investigate.

[Populist_Prole]

5. How about prosecuters who want to win, no matter what? n/t

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. Some are reporting that the number of compiled exonerations is even higher.

The page at the web site for the U of Michigan has not been updated for a while.
http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx

Other reports push the number of exonerations higher.

More than 2,000 inmates and ex-cons have been exonerated since 1989, according to the database that aims to track all wrongful convictions in the United States. More than 100 had been sentenced to death.

... The researchers also identified 13 major police scandals that falsely netted 1,170 other people, ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/national-registry-of-exonerations_n_1534030.html

[coalition_unwilling]

7. And then there are the huge numbers who plead 'guilty' to

reduced charges, when they might actually be innocent, in order to avoid even lengthier prison sentences. I seem to remember reading that this frequently happens, although I cannot remember where I saw it (maybe here on DU on another thread at some point?)

[WingDinger]

10. And if you claim innocence, you are disallowed parole.

[Xyzse]

11. One must also consider the current "Plea" method in courts

Lawyers routinely suggest that a defendant plead guilty to get the lesser charge or gain some sort of leniency, even if they did not actually commit the crime. --http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122286337 "there are lots of defendants who are facing, let's say, the death penalty, who are facing really severe mandatory minimums or really severe sanctions under the federal sentencing guidelines that will plea guilty to crimes that they didn't commit. "

This also happens with Police keeping people detained for questioning, not letting them leave till they confess, even if they really didn't do anything either. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144489360/how-a-teens-coerced-confession-set-her-free

So yeah, Innocent people can and will plead guilty at times due to many different situations. Either way, the more money you have for a lawyer, the better you can get away with things.

[1StrongBlackMan]

22. I know I've told this tale before; but ...

it bears repeating.

During Law School, I volunteered in a Public Defender's Office. I witnessed a conversation between a freshly minted first year in practice attorney and the PD Office's star performer.

The new attorney was clearly overwhelmed by her caseload, so the veteran gave her the following advice:

"Take a couple of days to thoroughly review your entire caseload and a couple more days to meet your clients. Then, sit down with a bottle of your libation of choice and divide your caseload into three piles. The first pile is for the cases that you believe the clients are sympathetic and that you can win. This pile should be no more than 5% of your caseload. These are the cases you will fight on ... you won't have the time to invest into anymore than that.

The third pile are the ones that you believe you have no shot at winning. This pile will be about 30% of your caseload. These cases you take the prosecutor's offer, and maybe, argue them down a little; but it is your job to sell your client to accept the deal.

The third pile is all the rest. As you work the cases, you will see that each of your cases will soon fall into either the first or third pile.

He offerred this advice to help her maintain her sanity; but my take away was ... justice is nowhere in this system.

[Xyzse]

25. I believe you

Sad, understandable, but still sad.
It just goes to show that the only way you can have some sort of justice is if you are willing and able to pay for it.

[Uben]

13. I've seen it firsthand!

Had a friend back in the seventies who was arrested for a robbery he did not commit. He was just a victim of circumstance.....in the wrong place at the wrong time. He spent 6 months in jail before the person who actually committed the crime was arrested for another robbery and confessed to the crime my friend was accused of.

The kicker.....he failed a polygraph and they automatically assumed he was guilty. I will never submit to one...ever. There were no eye-witnesses, and the robber wore a ski mask during the robbery, and his means of escape was unknown. It was a convenience store robbery, and my friend happened to be the first one to enter the store after the robbery. There was no one behind the counter when he entered, he waited a couple of minutes, then left the store. As he was leaving the parking lot, the store clerk, who had been bound in the back of the store, freed himself and saw my friend's car leaving the lot. He phoned in the description of the vehicle he saw to the police and my friend was pulled over a mile or so away. There were no clothes in the vehicle that the clerk had described the perp as wearing, no money....absolutely no evidence tying him to the crime, yet he was arrested and held for six months because he could not afford bail!

I wonder how many are sitting in prison, innocent of any crimes? Some prosecutors are so hungry to build themselves up as crime-fighters that they are willing to go after anyone who they think they can convict, regardless of guilt., and that just sucks.

[1StrongBlackMan]

15. I have advocated a strategy ...

that would significantly reduce the incidence of judicial/prosecutorial/law enforcement misconduct, and would cost nothing to implement ...

The legislature could pass a law indicating where ever judicial/prosecutorial/law enforcement misconduct is found, and proven, the bad actor(s) shall stand in the place of the accused. IOW, whatever penalty the accused would face, is the penalty the bad actor(s) will suffer.

Knowing this, no party would knowingly display misconduct.

[The Magistrate]

17. Hear Hear, Sir!

A chief reason for the conviction of innocents is that subornation of perjury by prosecutors, and perjury and torture by police officers, is never punished. It ought to be, and severely.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. I would say ...

the chief reason for the conviction of innocents are the lies of ommission and withholding of exculpatory evidence by the prosecution.

That, and a system devoid of justice; but based on the prosecutors' win/loss record.

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. I'd vote for that. n/t

[duhneece]

16. The War on Drugs

For those folks who use responsibly, don't drive under the influence or neglect/abuse their kids, who haven't stolen or committed fraud, theft, etc., in my opinion, the millions of substance abuse offenders who are or have been in prison are innocent,t oo.

[sorefeet]

21. America has exploited an industry by warehousing humans for profit.

They don't really care if you are innocent or guilty or if the so called crime has harmed anyone or not. It is barbaric, draconian,immoral and criminal in itself.

[TrogL]

23. Google 'The Reid technique'

[me b zola]

24. Recommended~n/t