Flawed judicial system leads to conviction of the innocent

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 15, 2002 | by G.B. Hall

Our system of justice is broken, as has been shown by so many convicts having been proved to be innocent [see "Compensation for Injustice" Oct. 1-14].

The problem is the adversarial system, coupled with the political ambitions of prosecutors and the overwhelming resources the state can use to prosecute.

In the English system, the judge, the prosecutor and the defense counsel are all in a "search" for truth. The function of the defense of a guilty party is to mitigate the penalty if feasible, not to fool a jury.

In the U.S. system, the prosecutor and the defense counsel "duke it out" with no holds barred. Prosecutors do not hesitate to ignore evidence of innocence, and even to doctor or conceal evidence, with little fear of consequence. Consider the Randy Weaver (Ruby Ridge) trial. The U.S. attorney was cited by the judge for tampering with evidence and putting on the stand federal agents who he knew would blatantly perjure themselves. The punishment? An admonition and a small fine, which in turn was paid by the taxpayers.

Case after case of this sort of thing could be listed. The major question is: why no public outcry?

I have switched from being a death-penalty proponent to an opponent. I think the death penalty sometimes is appropriate, but only if the guilty are those that are executed.

G.B. Hall
Montgomery, Alt.