Why the death penalty persists ...

... according to an article in Huffington Post.


In this great article about why the Supreme Court will not take a stand on the death penalty--including recent cases dealing with unknown (i.e., secret) chemicals used to carry out lethal injection--a death penalty scholar is quoted. He offers one reason why the death penalty persists in the US, in spite of the fact that its use has dramatically declined.


Part of his quote is "the Court appears happy not to be confronted with the issue" (of the death penalty).


According to the article, "One reason may be that some justices believe that problems with the death penalty plague the criminal justice system more generally, he said."


"If your chain of reasoning is that the death penalty is arbitrary and therefore unconstitutional, why are other long prison sentences not unconstitutional. If anything, the noncapital system is more arbitrary," Mandery said.


Got that? Yes, the death penalty is plagued by serious problems--arbitrariness, bias based on race and social class, wrongful conviction, etc. But then, so is all of criminal justice.


So if capital punishment is unconstitutional, so too is all criminal punishment.


Except, according to the Court, "death is different."

Innocent people in prison? I'm shocked!

CNN today actually has a lead story worth reading.

 

It is about wrongful conviction, an understudied issue in criminal justice.

They said he killed his wife, but he was innocent

Michael Morton's amazing journey

Jurors didn't believe Michael Morton when he said he didn't kill his wife. By the time DNA tests proved his innocence, Morton had lost 25 years in prison. FULL STORY

• Exonerated: Cases by the numbers
• 1st day in prison   | Why?  
• Why America imprisons so many
• 'Unreal Dream:' Thursday at 9 p.m.

Be sure to read the story linked above about why America imprisons so many; it is about the imbalance in courts where the prosecutor has all the power, the war on drugs, and how this leads to more incarceration.

More flawed evidence from NC Crime Lab

And more people were convicted on outlandish blood evidence reports and testimony.

But prosecutors say they are guilty anyway.

From the article:

"North Carolina's crime lab has found dozens more cases of mishandled blood evidence, adding to an already extensive review of years-old files, officials said Tuesday.

"The State Bureau of Investigation said it found the 74 cases after staff hand-reviewed documents from the 1990s. The files will be referred to local prosecutors to determine whether they include any improper convictions, and the SBI is continuing an internal review.

"An external examination of crime lab operations last year flagged an initial batch of more than 200 cases in which blood evidence was omitted, overstated or falsely reported.

"District attorneys said Tuesday they have reviewed all the cases in which someone was convicted - about 150 in all - and concluded that each one was supported by other evidence, such as a confession, eyewitness testimony and ballistics.

"There was additional overwhelming evidence in every one of them," said Peg Dorer, executive director of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys."

"Seriously, you can trust us." (this is my addition by the way).

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_crime_lab_mistakes.html

Rogue Justice on CNN, about NC crime lab framing innocent people

CNN recently investigated the embarrassing scandal of the NC crime lab.

Note, the program will re-air on Feb 5th and you can also watch it online.

Just search: CNN Rogue Justice.

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/correspondent-drew-griffin-investigates-for-cnn-in-%E2%80%98rogue-justice%E2%80%99-2/

New movie on wrongful conviction

This is one reason the death penalty is dying a slow death in the US. Wrongful conviction.

Now there is a movie about a real case of it.

See the original story here:

And for more on the movie, see:

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/conviction/

This is a case in which the entertainment media are doing good for society.

Yet another inmate freed after being wrongly convicted

Imagine being 20 years old and being arrested for something you did not do.

Then living in prison for your 20s, 30s, and 40s, until you are 51 and finally you are set free.

From the article:

"A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free — if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence."

He was convicted based on testimony from the crime victim, who picked him out of a photo lineup. Faulty eyewitness and victim identification is one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction.

More than 265 people have been freed from prison just by the Innocence Project alone.

Thankfully, these cases are controversial enough to be covered by even the mainstream media.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_texas