Home

The U.S. is 5% of the World population,

and has 25% of world prisoners.

"It is endless the amount of times per week officers arrest an individual, label him a suspect-arrestee-defendant and then before arraignment or trial realize that he is innocent based on evidence. You know what they say when they realize an innocent man just had his life turned upside down?. “I guess he should have stayed at home that day he was discovered walking down the street and matching the suspects description. Oh well, he appeared to be a dirtbag anyways”. Meanwhile the falsely accused is left to pick up his life, get a new, family, friends, and sense of self worth." --Chris Dorner Manifesto

War Vet and Former L.A. Police Officer

Pasadena Police Chief to investigate statements by detective William Broghamer in misconduct case

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/government-and-politics/20140709/pasadena-police-chief-to-investigate-statements-by-detective-william-broghamer-in-misconduct-case

In an audio recording played for a Pasadena jury last week in the murder trial of Rashad McCoy, Broghamer was heard telling a colleague he would

“pin it on anybody, that’s how we roll.”

Broghamer, along with his colleagues in the homicide department Kevin Okamoto and Keith Gomez, faced several allegations in 2012 of misconduct, including complaints that the officers had beaten suspects, threatened witnesses and hidden evidence.

What is the likelihood of being falsely accused and convicted of a crime in the United States?

LEADING CAUSE OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS ARE:

#1 FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND PERJURY.

66% OF ALL EXONERATIONS IN 2021 WERE DUE TO LIARS FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND PERJURY.

95% to 99% of all defendants are convicted by way of pleading guilty regardless of innocence. In federal court fewer than 1% went to trial and won their cases, at least in the form of an acquittal... Between guilty pleas and trials, the conviction rate was 99.8% in U.S. federal courts in 2015: 126,802 convictions and 258 acquittals. That wasn’t an anomaly. In 2014 the conviction rate was 99.76% and in 2013 it was 99.75%....

A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics looking at urban defendants in state courts found that in 2009, 66 percent of those charged with felonies were convicted, while only one percent were acquitted. The vast majority of those convicted plead guilty instead of going to trial. This means that the last real chance to avoid a wrongful conviction actually occurs at the screening stage, when the prosecutor decides whether to file charges in the first place. ...

Clearly, prosecutors do file charges against innocent defendants. The instances that receive media attention tend to be intentionally wrongful, those where the evidence of innocence is overwhelming but prosecutors storm ahead anyway, out of malice or blind ambition....

USA #1 LIAR.

AMERICANS ARE NOTHING BUT LIARS, AND LIES.

PROVEN AGAIN THAT IT IS THE LAW ABIDING GOOD GUYS WHO ARE THE ACTUAL CRIMINALS. THE FALSE CRIMINALS ARE SCAPEGOATS USUALLY FOR PROFIT AND/OR POWER BY THE ACTUAL LAW ABIDING GOOD GUY CRIMINALS USING LIES AS EVIDENCE IN A CORRUPT SLAVE AUCTION SYSTEM.

LEADING CAUSES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS ARE:

#1 ACTUAL CRIMINAL LIARS FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND PERJURY.

66% OF ALL EXONERATIONS IN 2021 WERE DUE TO LIARS FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND PERJURY.

#2 ACTUAL CRIMINAL LIARS IN GUBMINT SLAVE AUCTIONS.

63% WERE DUE TO CRIMINAL ACTS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, PROSECUTORS, AND OTHER GUBMINT OFFICIALS ACTING UNDER COLOR OF LAW.

#3 ACTUAL CRIMINAL LIARS IN GUBMINT FABRICATING CRIMES WHERE NO CRIME EVER OCCURRED.

40% NO CRIME EVER OCCURRED.

#4 ACTUAL CRIMINAL LIARS RIPPING OFF THE SYSTEM, AND RIPPING OFF THE INNOCENT.

32% DUE TO PROFESSIONAL DEFENSE LIEYERS.

#5 THE INNOCENT FORCED TO LIE.

30% INNOCENT SLAVES TORTURED TO LIE IN GUILTY PLEAS.

#6 ALLIED LIARS FOR THE ACTUAL CRIMINALS.

29% WITNESS LIARS.

#7 MORE GUBMINT AND/OR ALLIED LIARS.

20% FORENSIC LIARS.

#8 MORE INNOCENTS FORCED TO LIE.

12% INNOCENT SLAVES TORTURED TO LIE IN FALSE CONFESSIONS.

64% WERE VIOLENT FELONIES. THE OTHERS WERE SERIOUS FELONIES. NO MENTION OF ANY MISDEMEANORS NOR LESS SERIOUS FELONIES. BUT MISDEMEANORS ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 80% OF ALL CASES.

THIS REPORT IS MISLEADING IN PART BECUZ ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO SERIOUS CRIMES ONLY, AND MOSTLY TO NIGGERS ONLY. BUT, MAJORITY OF INNOCENTS WRONGFULLY CONVICTED ARE NEITHER SERIOUS CRIMES NOR NIGGERS. THIS REPORT PROVES IN PART THAT NIGGERS AND SERIOUS CRIMES ARE BOTH GIVEN MORE HELP THAN OTHER CRIME GROUPS, AND RACIAL GROUPS....

2021 ANNUAL REPORT National Registry of Exonerations

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/NRE%20Annual%20Report%202021.pdf

All told, the National Registry of Exonerations recorded 2,970 exonerations in the United States from 1989 through the end of 2021.... The Registry recorded 161 exonerations in 2021. The 2021 exonerations included:

• One hundred and seven exonerations that involved Perjury or False Accusation. (66%)

• One hundred and two exonerations that involved Misconduct by Government Officials. (63%)

• Sixty-four exonerations of convictions in which No Crime actually occurred. (40%)

• Fifty-one cases involving trial defense attorneys providing an Inadequate Legal Defense for their clients. (32%)

• Forty-eight exonerations of convictions based on Guilty Pleas. (30%)

• Forty-seven exonerations that involved Mistaken Witness Identifications. (29%)

• Thirty-three cases involving False or Misleading Forensic Evidence. (20%)

• Nineteen exonerations that involved False Confessions. (12%)

• One hundred and three exonerations of Violent Felonies, including 77 homicides, and nine sexual assaults. (64%)

• Three exonerees sentenced to Death.

• Thirty exonerees sentenced to Life in Prison without Parole.

• Twenty-one exonerations of Drug Crimes.

• Nineteen exonerations based in whole or in part on DNA testing.

USA #1 LIAR

USA SLAVE AUCTIONS ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF LIES AND LIARS.

80% OF ALL EXONERATIONS IN 2020 WERE DUE TO LIARS FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND PERJURY.

67% WERE DUE TO CRIMINAL ACTS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, PROSECUTORS, AND OTHERS ACTING UNDER COLOR OF LAW.

39% NO CRIME EVER OCCURRED....

2020 ANNUAL REPORT National Registry of Exonerations

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/2021AnnualReport.pdf

There were 129 exonerations in 2020...

•One hundred and three exonerations included Perjury or False Accusation; 80%

•Eighty-seven exonerations included Misconduct by Government Officials; 67%

•Fifty-one exonerations were of convictions in which No Crime was actually committed; 39%

•Thirty exonerations involved Mistaken Witness Identifications; 23%

•Twenty-nine exonerations were for convictions based on Guilty Pleas; 22%

•Thirteen exonerations involved False Confessions; 10%

•Nineteen exonerations were based in whole or in part on DNA evidence;

LIARS = #1 CAUSE OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS.

CRIMINAL SLAVE AUCTION #2.

NO CRIME EVER OCCURRED #3.

WITNESS LIARS #4.

INNOCENT SLAVES FORCED TO PLEAD GUILTY #5.

INNOCENT SLAVES FORCED TO FALSELY CONFESS #6.

FORENSIC LIARS #7.

The National Registry of Exonerations 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations_in_2019.pdf

Contributing Factors:

1. Perjury or False Accusation: One hundred and one cases included perjury or other false accusations. (71%)

2. Official Misconduct: We know of official misconduct in 93 exonerations in 2019, almost two-thirds of the cases, including 55 murder cases—75% of murder exon-erations in 2019. (65%)

3. No Crime Cases: Fifty exonerations were for convictions in which No Crime was actually committed. (35%)

4. Mistaken Witness Identification: Forty-eight exonerations in 2019 were for convic-tions based at least in part on mistaken witness identifications. (34%)

5. Guilty Pleas: Thirty-four exonerations were for convictions based on Guilty Pleas. (24%)

6. False Confessions: Twenty-four exonerations involved false confessions. (17%)

7. False or Misleading Forensic Evidence: Twenty-four cases involved forensic evidence that was false or misleading. (17%)

The National Registry of Exonerations recorded 143 exonerations that occurred in 2019. All told, the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 2,556 exonerations that oc-curred in the United States from 1989 through the end of 2019.

The 2019 exonerations included: One hundred and seventeen exonerations of Violent Felonies, including 76 homicides, 10 child sex abuse convictions, and 11 sexual assaults on adults. Three of the homi-cide exonerees had been sentenced to death;

Nineteen exonerations were for Drug Crimes;

Seventeen exonerations were based in whole or in part on DNA evidence;...

Almost Half the cases No Crime was actually committed.

False Accusations and Perjury was the leading cause of wrongful convictions, followed by Official Misconduct. Both account for 3/4ths of all exonerations.

Guilty Pleas accounted for 1/3rd of the exonerations.

EXONERATIONS IN 2018

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations%20in%202018.pdf

151 exonerations that occurred in 2018 were distributed as follows:

Misconduct: We know of official misconduct in 107exonerations in 2018, a record number, including 54 homicides, 79% of homicide exonerations in 2018.

Mistaken Eyewitness Identification: 31 exonerations in 2018 were for convictions based at least in part on mistaken eyewitness identifications.

False Confessions: 19 exonerations involved false confessions.

Perjury or False Accusation: A record 111 cases included perjury or false accusations.

No-Crime Cases: Seventy exonerations in 2018 were cases in which we now know that no crime actually occurred, almost half the total.

All told, the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 2,372 exonerations that occurred in the United States from 1989 through the end of 2018.

The 2018 exonerations included:

•Seventy exonerations were of convictions in which No Crime was actually committed (1/2);

•One hundred and eleven exonerations included Perjury or a False Accusation (3/4);

•One hundred and seven exonerations included Misconduct by Government Officials (3/4);

•Forty nine exonerations were for convictions based on Guilty Pleas (1/3);

•Thirty one exonerations involved Mistaken Eyewitness Identifications;

•Nineteen exonerations involved False Confessions;

and

•Ninety nine exonerations were the result of work by prosecutorial Conviction Integrity Units or Innocence Organizations.

•Twenty three exonerations were based in whole or in part on DNA evidence;

Almost Half the cases No Crime was actually committed.

False Accusations and Perjury was the leading cause of wrongful convictions, followed by Official Misconduct.

NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EXONERATIONS

EXONERATIONS IN 2017 March 14, 2018

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/ExonerationsIn2017.pdf

The 139 exonerations that the National Registry of Exonerations added in 2017...

In total, the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 2,161exonerations in the United States from 1989 through the end of 2017.

•Ninety eight of the exonerations in 2017 involved Violent Felonies, including 51 homicides, 16 child sex abuse convictions, and 13 sexual assaults of adults. Four of the homicide exonerees had been sentenced to death;

•Sixteen exonerations in 2017 involved Drug Crimes;

•Seventeen 2017exonerations were based in whole or in part on DNA evidence;

•Eighty seven cases included Perjury or a False Accusation; 63%

•Eighty four cases included Misconduct by Government Officials; 60%

•Sixty six exonerations were cases in which No Crime was actually committed; 47%

•Thirty seven cases involved Mistaken Eyewitness Identification; 27%

•Thirty six exonerations were for convictions based on Guilty Pleas; 26%

•Twenty nine cases involved a False Confession; 21%

and

•Eighty exonerations in 2017 were the result of work by prosecutorial

Conviction Integrity Units or Innocence Organizations, or both.

In addition, in 2017, there were at least 96 individuals whose convictions were vacated and charges dismissed as part of group exonerations in Chicago, and 80 or more in Baltimore.

2,044 EXONERATIONS

Since the March 2017 Newsletter: a total of 44 exonerations added, 33 new exonerations, & 11 newly discovered

What We Think, What We Know, and What We Think We Know about False Convictions

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/86fc3b614e73affdc18bf5a93/files/3b73d648-dd2f-49ab-a158-ab5c18ae4f8b/SSRN_id2921678_1_.pdf

Data from one local jurisdiction strongly suggest that across the country thousands if not tens of thousands of innocent defendants a year plead guilty to misdemeanors and low level felonies in order to avoid prolonged pretrial detention. ...

Who was Exonerated, When and for What

Of the 1,900 individuals exonerated from January 1989 through October 2016:

• • 91% were men and 9% were women.

  • 47% were black, 39% were white, 12% were Hispanic and 2% were Native American, Asian or Other.

• 17% pled guilty, 76% were convicted at trial by juries and 7% were convicted by judges.

  • 23% were cleared at least in part with the help of DNA evidence and 77% were cleared without DNA evidence.

  • 80% were imprisoned for more than one year before they were released, 57% for at least 5 years, and 38% for 10 to 39 years.

As a group, the exonerated defendants spent more than 16,710 years in prison for crimes for which they should not have been convicted an average of 9 years each....

More than 80% had been convicted of crimes of violence,...

Clearly, exonerations are heavily concentrated among the most serious convictions,...

Below the level of these major violent crimes, the differences in rates of exoneration are even more stark, as I’ve mentioned: Nonviolent crimes comprise more than 80% of felony convictions but fewer than 20% of exonerations; And misdemeanor convictions out number felonies by at least 4 to 1, but account for a few percent of exonerations. The inevitable conclusion is that only a tiny fraction of innocent defendants who are convicted of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies are ever exonerated.

Why? Most innocent defendants with comparatively light crimes and short sentences probably never try to clear their names. They serve their time and do what they can to put the past behind them. If they do seek justice, they are unlikely to find help. The Center on Wrongful Convictions, for example, tells prisoners who ask for assistance that unless they have at least 10 years remaining on their sentences, the Center will not be able to help them because it is overloaded with cases where the stakes are much higher....

Most exonerations take considerable time. The average interval from conviction to exoneration in capital cases is about 15 years....

Exonerations by Crime and Contributing Factors All Cases:

False Accusation 56%, Official Misconduct 51%, Mistaken Witness Identifications 30%, False Forensic Evidence 24%, Perjury or False Confession 12%.

A lot of misconduct, in all spheres of life is successfully hidden; if not, there’d be a lot less misconduct to hide. The same applies, in force, to incompetent or ineffective legal defense. In 23% of the exonerations in the Registry we have clear evidence of what we code as “Inadequate Legal Defense” (442/1,900). We believe, however, that many more exonerated defendants perhaps a majority would not have been wrongfully convicted if their lawyers had done good work defending them. Ineffective defense attorneys may contribute to more false convictions than any other factor we have mentioned, but our data won’t tell one way or the other....

Missing Cases: Guilty Pleas: Why did these defendants plead guilty ...most pled guilty to get out of jail. In a typical case, the defendant had a criminal record and could not post the comparatively high bail that was set for him. If he pled not guilty he’d remain in jail for months before trial, and then risk years in prison if convicted. It’s hardly surprising that an innocent defendant in that situation would accept a deal to plead guilty and go home ... Dozens of defendants were framed by police who faked field tests...

Hundreds of thousands of defendants plead guilty every year to avoid pretrial detention in nondrug cases. Why wouldn’t they? Those charged with misdemeanors and light felonies may face months, even years in jail waiting for trial, but get weeks or days or no time at all if they plead guilty. How many of these defendants are innocent? We have no idea, and no way to find out. A simple drug test won’t answer the question, and nobody is going to reinvestigate a routine shoplifting, assault, or disorderly conduct case. ...

If I had to bet, I’d say the most common cause of false conviction, by far, is the prospect of prolonged pretrial detention of innocent criminal defendants ...

An innocent defendant who pleads guilty is far less likely to be exonerated than one who goes to trial. It’s much harder to convince anybody that you’re innocent when you told a court that you’re guilty; you have fewer avenues for review; and, most important, if you take a plea bargain you will get a shorter sentence, usually a much shorter sentence that’s why defendants accept plea bargains and the scarce resources it takes to reopen a case and achieve an exoneration are usually reserved for defendants with more severe punishments.

Guilty pleas account for 95% of felony convictions, but excluding drug cases only 10% of known exonerations. That’s an exoneration rate 170 times lower than for trials....

There are now more Americans in jail -- 6 million -- than there were in Stalin's Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called "Incarceration Nation."

And it's not just a relative population thing.

The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.

How does that compare to other countries?

It's 7X-10X as high:

Japan has 63 per 100,000,

Germany has 90 per 100,000

France has 96 per 100,000

South Korea has 97 per 100,000

­Britain has 153 per 100,000

And it's also a relatively new phenomenon: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.

Today, the US is 5% of the World population and has 25% of world prisoners.

Combining the number of people in prison and jail with those under parole or probation supervision, 1 in every 31 adults, or 3.2 percent of the population is under some form of correctional control

About $70 billion dollars are spent on corrections yearly

Top reasons people are falsely imprisoned

http://nypost.com/2015/11/15/top-reasons-people-are-falsely-imprisoned/

• 55% – False accusation

• 47% – Official misconduct

• 32% – Eyewitness misidentification

• 22% – Bad forensic science

• 13% – False confessions

What if You were falsely convicted of a crime, and you were INNOCENT yet, no one believed you?

What if you had to sit years behind bars for a crime you did not do? What if you had to pay thousands of dollars in fines and other court mandated costs all the while being INNOCENT?

What if you lost your job, family, and friends because you were wrongfully convicted? What if you lost everything you ever had in life? What if you lost your Constitutional Rights because of a conviction on your record? What if Law enforcement stole all your firearms never to return them back, nor are you able to possess firearms because of the conviction on your record, yet

you are 100% INNOCENT?

You would be a victim of Wrongful Conviction.

And it happens more often than you may think.

http://www.skepticaljuror.com/2010/11/on-rate-of-wrongful-conviction-summary.html

Wrongful Conviction Rate for Serious Crimes

http://www.skepticaljuror.com/search/label/Wrongful%20Conviction%20Rate

Spencer's analysis indicates:

• 27% of the defendants are actually innocent of the crime for which they are charged.

• If those innocents face a jury, they have a 20% chance of being convicted.

• If those innocents instead elect for a bench trial, they have a 39% chance of being convicted.

• the jury convicts a factually innocent person 7.8% per conviction,

• the judge would convict an actually innocent person in 12.9% per conviction.

• The wrongful conviction rate for juries ranges from a high of 16.8% for forcible rape to a low of 4.7% for drug offenses.

• The wrongful conviction rate for bench trials ranges from a high of 26.2% for forcible rape to a low of 7.2% for drug offenses.

• Where the juries had an overall wrongful conviction rate of 11.1%, judges had an overall wrongful conviction rate of 14.5%.

• If we divide the number of wrongful convictions by the number of people who were innocent (4,168 / 10,998), we see that an innocent person who goes to trial stands a 38% chance of being wrongfully convicted.

(NOTE: The 11% to 15% overall wrongful conviction rate represent the few 5% of cases that actually go to trial. These cases represent serious crimes only. It does not consider the rate of wrongful convictions for lesser crimes. When misdemeanors and driving infractions are included, the number of flawed convictions increases exponentially. Nor does it consider the wrongful convictions from the 95% of all defendants coerced to plead guilty depriving them a fair trial of whom many are innocent. Ninety-seven percent of cases in federal court and about 95 percent in state court are resolved through negotiated pleas. Many of these citizens are innocent, and become wrongfully convicted.)

http://www.skepticaljuror.com/2010/09/on-rate-of-wrongful-conviction-chapter_07.html

Jury: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TIbPapS5nwI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/YjZzF42zjDw/s1600/Results+Jury+Trials.png

Bench: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TIbRJ47VGiI/AAAAAAAAAQg/CWpl5aHjxpE/s1600/Results+Bench+Trials.png

All Trials: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TIbReVOfs6I/AAAAAAAAAQo/BrqWLmkdSQM/s1600/Results+All+Trials.png

New Study Estimates Rate of False Convictions at 11.6%

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/NRE%20Urban%20Institute%20VA%20Study.pdf

A new report by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C estimates that the defendants were innocent in 11.6% percent of rape and rape-murder convictions in Virginia from in the 1970s and 1980s.... data from these DNA tests are “supportive of exoneration in between 8 and 15 percent” of the rape and murder convictions examined. ... But DNA testing is only available for a small minority of crimes, and those without DNA are as likely to produce wrongful convictions...

Safety from Plea-Bargains’ Hazards

https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1965&context=plr

The researchers estimated that if all death sentenced defendants were to remain under sentence of death indefinitely, at least 4.1% would be exonerated, but concluded this to be “a conservative estimate” of the proportion of false convictions among death sentences in the United States, and that it is almost certain that the actual proportion is significantly higher.

Moreover, a fascinating empirical study, initiated and funded by the State of Virginia, supports an even higher estimate of the false conviction rate about fifteen percent....

Why So Few Misdemeanor Exonerations?

http://us10.campaign-archive1.com/?u=86fc3b614e73affdc18bf5a93&id=69bf1b930d&e=4abfda3645

Fewer than 2% of the exonerations in the Registry

28 out of 1,671 are for misdemeanors,

despite the fact that they make up at least 80% of criminal convictions in the United States.

We don’t know the actual proportion because in many jurisdictions misdemeanors are never counted.

MISDEMEANOR APPEAL

https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2019/10/KING-HEISE.pdf

...appellate courts review no more than eight in ten thousand misdemeanor convictions and disturb only one conviction or sentence out of every ten thousand misdemeanor judgments.

• Nearly 100% of all misdemeanor exonerations no crime ever occurred. With one exception, all misdemeanor exonerations no crime occurred.

• 32% of felony exonerations no crime occurred.

• Guilty pleas account for some 95% of felony convictions, AND 99% of Misdemeanor convictions.

• Police Officer Misconducts in two thirds of the misdemeanor exonerations.

• Nearly 80% of misdemeanor exonerations were for convictions based on guilty pleas.

• 16% of felony exonerations involved guilty pleas.

• Particular police officers are systematically corrupt: they file false reports, steal money from suspects, solicit bribes, or plant drugs on innocent defendants.

ERRORS IN MISDEMEANOR ADJUDICATION

http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/MisdExons.BULRev.pdf

There are millions of misdemeanor convictions each year in the United States. They make up the great majority of all criminal convictions, but only about 4% of exonerations (85/2,145, as of the end of 2017). The reason is simple: exonerations are expensive, time-consuming affairs. The scarce resources they require are generally reserved for convictions that send innocent people to prison for many years. Unlike felony exonerations, the great majority of the few misdemeanor exonerations we know about were for convictions based on guilty pleas, and occurred in cases in which innocent defendants were convicted of crimes that never happened as opposed to crimes committed by other people. ... Almost all the misdemeanor exonerations depended on unlikely events that made exoneration cheap and simple—usually forensic tests that law enforcement conducted for their own purposes; sometimes previously unknown videos, or criminal investigations of dishonest police officers. These fortuitous opportunities have produced clusters of misdemeanor exonerations, but without the benefit of such rare events, innocent defendants convicted of misdemeanors are just out of luck.

There’s every reason to worry that many defendants who are convicted of misdemeanors, usually by guilty pleas, are innocent—but there are hardly any data that speak to that issue. ... at present, about 13.2 million misdemeanor cases are filed in the United States each year, producing millions of convictions. Almost none ever produce exonerations that we have been able to find and list in the Registry. Almost none, however, is not quite zero. Four percent of the exonerations we know about involve misdemeanors (85/2145), and these rare specimens provide hints at what goes on in the uncharted depths of lower criminal courts.... false misdemeanor pleas by felony defendants outnumber false felony convictions...

Like almost all misdemeanor exonerations it’s a “no-crime” exoneration. She was convicted of a crime that never happened, as opposed to one that someone else Committed....cleared by post-conviction DNA database...

Guilty pleas account for some ninety-five percent of felony convictions,... misdemeanors, where the guilty pleas may approach ninety-nine percent of all convictions,...

In fact, we have no idea how many innocent defendants plead guilty because we almost never try to find out, not for felonies and certainly not for misdemeanors...

With one exception, all eighty-five misdemeanor exonerations are no-crime cases: ... committing assaults when they themselves had been assaulted, or doing other things that never happened.

In contrast, thirty-two percent of felony exonerations are no-crime cases.

there was misconduct by police officers in two-thirds of the misdemeanor exonerations ... including three cases that also included misconduct by prosecutors. Nearly eighty percent of misdemeanor exonerations were for convictions based on guilty pleas, ... Only sixteen percent of felony exonerations involved guilty pleas. ...

Almost eighty percent of the misdemeanor exonerations we know about are from convictions based on guilty pleas ... substantial numbers of innocent defendants plead guilty to avoid pretrial detention....

A high proportion of all misdemeanor arrests are based on conduct that is observed by police officers. Inevitably, police arrest people by mistake,...Much, perhaps most, of the evidence in misdemeanor cases comes from police officers—who sometimes lie....

More than seventy percent of misdemeanor exonerations were based on forensic testing...and two DNA exonerations. All were for convictions based on guilty pleas. By contrast, nearly three-quarters of the misdemeanor exonerations that weren’t based on forensic testing...were from convictions after trial.

We’ve run into this pattern in another context. In several jurisdictions, prosecutors across the years have learned that particular police officers are systematically corrupt: they file false reports, steal money from suspects, solicit bribes, or plant drugs on innocent defendants. When that happens, a common response is to dismiss all charges based on testimony by those officers in cases that are still pending; before trial, at trial, or on appeal; but to do nothing to reopen similar convictions in closed cases.

The rate of guilty pleas by innocent defendants is probably higher for misdemeanors than for felonies, especially for misdemeanor defendants in pretrial detention, who are certain to spend significant time in custody if they don’t plead guilty. The exonerations we know about suggest that virtually none of them are ever exonerated, unless exculpatory forensic evidence appears unbidden, as if by magic.

Please SIGN & SHARE this petition. Thank YOU!

Sign the Petition to

Stop Wrongful Convictions of

Domestic Violence.

http://www.petition2congress.com/1627/stop-false-allegations-domestic-violence/?fb_action_ids=105527949643900&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Prosecutor Bias and Misconduct in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Cases

http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/Prosecutor-Bias-Misconduct-in-Domestic-Violence

Who Kills Whom? Victim-Offender Relationship

https://sites.google.com/site/korruptlaw/home/toomanylaws/Who%20Kills%20Whom.rtf?attredirects=0&d=1

Overwhelmingly, females kill family members. In fact, almost 60% of female homicide offenders kill an intimate partner, child, or other family member, such as a (step)parent, (step)sibling, or extended relative. Men, in comparison, kill a family member about 20% of the time.

A woman is as likely to use a knife to commit her homicide, a change from 20 years ago when guns were more prevalently used by female murderers.

Weapons Used in Family Violence:

2010 CRIME IN Texas - Family Violence

https://sites.google.com/site/korruptlaw/home/gun-rights/Texas%20Family%20Violence.rtf?attredirects=0&d=1

Domestic Violence Deaths in

NORTH DAKOTA

by WEAPON & GENDER

of Victim, 1992-2011:

https://sites.google.com/site/korruptlaw/home/toomanylaws/2012%20ND%20DV%20Review.rtf?attredirects=0&d=1

Although there is only one more female victim death per year than males from domestic violence in North Dakota, this report claims if you are a male in North Dakota domestic violence is all your fault 94% of the time.

North Dakota Domestic Violence Stats 1992-2011:

* 3.5 female victim DV deaths per year.

* 2.5 male victim DV deaths per year.

* 5.95 total deaths per year from domestic violence. (This compares to one typical traffic accident.)

* 2.55 firearms DV deaths per year.

* 3.4 non-firearms DV deaths per year.

* Of all the new victims of domestic violence in N.D. for year 2011 aproximately 0.14% total deaths resulted from domestic violence.

* Based on the reported percentage of female victims in N.D. (1:1 victim ratio comparison), females killed males 11 times more often during domestic violence incidences.

Hold False Accusers Accountable For Making False Accusations.

SIGN & SHARE this petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/dhs-cws-cps-and-the-court-system-hold-false-accusers-accountable-for-making-false-accusations

False accusation will cost woman $55,000

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/02/55000-ordered-paid-for-false-accusation/

False Allegations Awareness

http://falseallegationsawareness.com/

America’s legal system has become awash in false allegations of abuse, including false accusations of domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. False allegations are harmful because they:

• Take away scarce protections and services from real victims

• Can be devastating to the falsely accused

• Undermine due process and cause misuse of our legal system

• Force children into single-parent households, placing them at higher risk of social pathologies

Let’s be perfectly clear: Making a false accusation of domestic violence is a crime, and persons who make such allegations should be held liable for their actions.

June is False Allegations Awareness Month. Throughout the month, events are held around the country to raise awareness that making a false allegation of abuse is a form of abuse.

Facebook/FALSE ALLEGATIONS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MUST STOP

https://www.facebook.com/events/211233432308311/

Abusegate: teaching women to falsely accuse

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/100216

False Allegations

http://joefriday100.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-is-false-allegations-awareness.html

One in 10 Falsely Accused of domestic violence, child abuse, or sexual assault

http://toysoldier.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/one-in-10-falsely-accused-of-abuse-survey/

Just the Facts

http://joefriday100.blogspot.com/

FALSE ALLEGATIONS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

http://www.brainsyntax.com/Home/MessageDetail/1072

High Court Judge: Don't always believe claims of domestic violence, as parents can 'rewrite' history when making accusations against each other

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528681/High-Court-Judge-Dont-believe-claims-domestic-violence-parents-rewrite-history-making-accusations-against-other.html

Too many incentives, and rewards to convict people, make criminals, and create In-justices.

There are No rewards, or incentives to prove Right or Wrong, Truth, and create Justice.

20 Wrongfully Convicted Death Penalty Statistics

http://brandongaille.com/20-wrongfully-convicted-death-penalty-statistics/

With an average rate of 3.5 people being exonerated each year, there could be a number of wrongfully convicted prisoners who are telling the truth ... Executing an innocent person for a crime they did not commit is the greatest travesty of any legal system in existence right now. As of March 2014, there have been 144 total convictions that have been overturned since 1973, meaning 144 potentially innocent people were sentenced to die incorrectly.

(Any images used on this site are given credit to, and are from the following Links):

Some thought provoking Wrongful Convictions images are Linked here:

http://www.libertyforlife.com/images/usa-worlds-worst-prison-state.jpg

http://www.libertyforlife.com/jail-police/images/usa-worst-prison-state-m.jpg

http://www.libertyforlife.com/images/world-prison-pop-perc.gif

http://d22r54gnmuhwmk.cloudfront.net/photos/2/wc/xd/RFWCxDLkboknfPq-556x313-noPad.jpg

http://www.bettergov.org/assets/1/Page/New_Causes_Bar.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TPWvd1hUzmI/AAAAAAAAAS0/PWF6LyOXkr4/s1600/Chance+of+Wrongful+Conviction+Jury.png

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TPWvIMV8W4I/AAAAAAAAASw/peDt2rM2DSM/s1600/Chance+of+Wrongful+Conviction+Judge.png

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TOMQWtSw7aI/AAAAAAAAAR8/d1hpk54etiE/s1600/Wrongful+Conviction+Rate+Summary+3.png

http://wandervogeldiary.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/defect_sci_chart_21.gif

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/05/21/c1main.exonerations.reasons.jpg

http://www.truthinjustice.org/chart.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z0oFwA6DLe8/Sed-Fe-qnJI/AAAAAAAAAJA/H1XrchYlqj8/s320/r20090417-dna.gif

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2bKG28ow1go/ShQTa4xPz1I/AAAAAAAAAC0/cJd5sCKtyr8/s400/CausesOfWrongfulConvictionsGraphNYBarReport.jpg

http://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/worlds-leading-jailer.jpg

http://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/incarcerated-americans.jpg

http://www.newswise.com/images/uploads/2012/10/24/TypeofCrime3.jpg

http://www.pwc-sii.com/Research/research/pics/ground22.PNG

http://www.rit.edu/cla/wrongfulconvictions/media/images/head_logo.png

http://www.ahalelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/hiddenTruth1.png

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ajvIa8Pacyc/TIbReVOfs6I/AAAAAAAAAQo/BrqWLmkdSQM/s1600/Results+All+Trials.png

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/206/images/June%2025%20AT/PFADP%20Wrongful%20Convictions%20Tour%20graphic.jpg

http://ivolchasingjustice.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/logo.jpg?w=610

http://lodgenews.group.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/graph1.jpg

http://cache0.bdcdn.net/assets/images/book/medium/9781/5526/9781552662687.jpg

http://fsne.org/2011awards/images/fsne2011.051.jpg

http://img.scoop.it/mdDrs4JL9IH7G5sSO9T_sjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/file.php?path=/images/CQ_Researcher/r20090417-cover.jpg

http://0-library.cqpress.com.libra.naz.edu/cqresearcher/file.php?path=/images/CQ_Researcher/r20090417-xoneration.gif

http://0-library.cqpress.com.libra.naz.edu/cqresearcher/file.php?path=/images/CQ_Researcher/r20090417-convictmap.gif

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbp572Vovc1rqktsuo1_400.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdayegm0Xu1qhjt82o1_400.jpg

http://img.scoop.it/0TXRZsgllTCXpcp8FNIg4Tl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ

http://media.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/photo/eyewitness-misidentification-chartjpg-39f4d2950bbd96c0.jpg

http://stopwrongfulconvictions.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/nas5-summary31.jpg

http://www.salem-news.com/gphotos/1281825129.jpg

http://www.itcouldhappen2you.org//wp-content/uploads/2011/07/takeastand1.png

http://www.wrongfulconvictionlawsuitdefense.com/new%20poster%20hale%20WTP.jpg

http://truthinjustice.org/sad-stats.htm

http://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/falsejustice.jpg?w=197&h=300

http://bellsouthpwp2.net/a/r/arietti/women_often_aggressor.jpg

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10320348_271448936365577_3728906011658175042_n.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/US_criminal_justice_cost_timeline.gif

"THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is." - Thomas Paine

Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs.

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/sense4.htm

..."But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is."

..."A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some, Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge. Should the government of America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in such a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news, the fatal business might be done; and ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government. There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us, the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and treacherously by them."

..."O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her. — Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind."

* * *

Declaration of Independence

[... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of ____ is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world....

..."He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power."...

"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:"...

"For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:"...

"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."...

...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,...]

Is this a declaration against the City, State, or Federal government of the United States?

It is taken from The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 against King of Britain.

Liberty

• The condition of being free from restriction or control; freedom.

• The right to act as one chooses.

• Freedom from confinement or servitude.

Source: The American Heritage Dictionary

Man exonerated by own research gets $13M for wrongful conviction in rabbi slaying

http://ferrislawfirm.com/man-exonerated-research-gets-13m-wrongful-conviction-rabbi-slaying/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Law-Office-of-Scott-A-Ferris-PA/343498489090556

New study links sleep deprivation to false memories

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/New_Study_Links_Sleep_Deprivation_to_False_Memories.php

Prisoner exonerations are at an all-time high, and it’s not because of DNA testing

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/prisoner_exonerations_are_at_an_all-time_high/

Here's a shocker: "24% of exonerees in the registry were convicted in cases where no crime occurred."

... the exonerations listed in the registry represent just a fraction of the real number because most go unreported and do not garner media attention. Gross and his colleagues rely heavily on news articles to find out about exonerations, but have often been limited to finding only high-profile cases such as murder and rape. "What we don't know," he says, "far exceeds what we do know."

... "It shines the light on the entire criminal justice system," Brooks says. "If we're making mistakes in the biggest kinds of cases, such as death penalty cases, what does that say about lower-level crimes?"

The Innocent on Death Row

– NY Times Editorial

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/09/04/the-innocent-on-death-row-ny-times-editorial/

The exoneration of two North Carolina men who spent 30 years in prison — one on death row — provides a textbook example of so much that is broken in the American justice system. And it is further evidence (as though more were needed) that the death penalty is irretrievably flawed as well as immoral.

...Virtually everything about the arrests, confessions, trial and convictions of Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown was polluted by official error and misconduct.

...Cases of capital prosecutions based on flimsy evidence or marred by prosecutorial misconduct, not to mention racial bias, are distressingly common. Yet, even as death-penalty supporters insist that only guilty people are sent to their death, it is now clear that Justice Scalia was prepared 20 years ago to allow the execution of a man who, it turns out, was innocent.

How many more remain on death row today? Can the American people be assured that none will be killed by the state? For this reason alone, the death penalty must end.

Judge's remarks show she often assumes guilt

www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2014/09/05/judge-admits-making-inappropriate-comments/15121213/

While arraigning Daniel Bakken in February 2013 on a charge of stabbing his wife after she found love letters from his girlfriend, Jefferson District Judge Sandra McLaughlin had this to say to the defendant:

"She should have cut you."

Bakken turned out to be innocent. He was exonerated after the Louisville Metro Police surgeon determined the alleged victim's wounds were self-inflicted.

But in McLaughlin's court, the presumption of innocence — one of the most sacred principles in the American criminal justice system — is often forgotten, The Courier-Journal found in a review of videos of dozens of her arraignments.

"It is judicial misconduct of the highest order," he said. ... Sitting in briefly for another judge, David Holton, on Oct. 4, 2013, McLaughlin denied a public ...

WHAT ARE THE ODDS A USA SLAVE WILL PROVE HIS ACTUAL INNOCENCE:

1) 95% TO 99% OF ALL DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUITLY DESPITE ACTUAL INNOCENCE, AND OFTEN THEY ARE THE ACTUAL VICTIM WRONGLY LABELED THE OFFENDER.

2) FEWER THAN 1% OF ALL USA SLAVES WON THEIR CASE IN FEDERAL SLAVE AUCTION....

(OVERALL CONVICTION RATE IS 99.8% IN FEDERAL CASES. THOSE WHO GO TO TRIAL: 92% ARE CONVICTED. SOME DISTRICTS HAVE 100% CONVICTION RATE)...

99.8% Conviction Rate In U.S. Federal Courts Can Make Japanese Prosecutors Jealous

http://justicedenied.org/wordpress/archives/3190

Whether tried by a jury or a judge, it is a shaky roll of the dice for a defendant to go to trial in federal court. Only 258 of the 3,024 defendants who went to trial in 2015 were acquitted. Thus a federal defendant who decides to go to trial has about a 1 in 12 chance of an acquittal....

Between guilty pleas and trials, the conviction rate was 99.8% in U.S. federal courts in 2015: 126,802 convictions and 258 acquittals. That wasn’t an anomaly. In 2014 the conviction rate was 99.76% and in 2013 it was 99.75%....

LESS THAN 1% WON THEIR CASE AT FEDERAL SLAVE AUCTION....

Only 2% of federal criminal defendants go to trial, and most who do are found guilty

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-federal-criminal-defendants-go-to-trial-and-most-who-do-are-found-guilty

Nearly 80,000 people were defendants in federal criminal cases in fiscal 2018, but just 2% of them went to trial. The overwhelming majority (90%) pleaded guilty instead, while the remaining 8% had their cases dismissed... only 320 of 79,704 total federal defendants – fewer than 1% – went to trial and won their cases, at least in the form of an acquittal... They do not include federal defendants whose cases were handled by magistrate judges, or the much broader universe of defendants in state courts.... Individuals who choose to exercise their constitutional right to trial can face much higher sentences if they invoke the right to trial and lose,... “there is even less likelihood of a case proceeding to trial in state court than in federal court.”...

IF YOU DONT PLEAD GUILTY TO THE FALSE CHARGES YOU WILL LOSE MORE TRYING TO PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE. YOU WILL SPEND TENS OR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DULLAS, YOU WILL GET LONGER SENTENCE, YOU WILL SPEND A YEAR OR LONGER IN TRIALS CAUSING YOURSELF GRAVE EMOTIONAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND PHYSICAL DAMAGES, TO SAY THE LEAST WHICH HAVE LONGTERM DAMAGES ON YOUR PERSONAL AND BUSINESS LIFE.

AND WITH LESS THAN 1% CHANCE OF PROVING YOUR INNOCENCE YOU MIGHT DO BETTER SPENDING YOUR THOUSANDS PLAYING THE LOTTERY AS A WRONGFULLY CONVICTED USA SLAVE.

IN THE USA IT IS BETTER TO BE FALSELY GUILTY THAN TO BE THE ACTUALLY INNOCENT.

Comments Section:

We may or may not agree with the following comments. We post all comments related to the topic of this website to provide fair and equal free speech for all.

Email your comments to

NoDakWrongfullyConvicted@gmail.com

Comment: Joseph S. from Saint Paul, MN writes:

"I never thought in a million years that I would be falsely accused of a crime, especially one of violence. I'm one of the fortunate that has substantial material evidence to defend myself, but most are not so lucky. Too often, the justice system that has been designed as a shield is instead being wielded as a weapon by unscrupulous individuals. This abuse of the justice system must be stopped."

Comment: Pleading Guilty while being 100% Innocent.

Does it seem ironic that over 95% of Americans will waive their Rights, and Plead Guilty to a crime rather than Plead Innocent and go to trial.

Of those more than 95% pleading guilty many are in fact Innocent but, still plead Guilty. Ever wonder why someone would plead guilty to a crime they did not do?

Conditions imposed on defendants can be much more severe that pleading guilty is the lesser severe option. Many are basically forced to plead guilt by imposed conditions, and many are coerced and manipulated by Law Enforcement, Prosecuters, Lawyers, Alleged Victims and Witnesses, Circumstances, and a plain lack of confidence and trust in the Legal Process to produce a Fair Trial. Most believe trials are tainted with Lies, and are biased favoring women, money, and power so that equal protection under the Law is just a piece of historical past with no merit today.

Todays Judicial System is a Failure. Law is Corrupt. The Law does not protect the Innocent, and the Law does not determine true guilt. The jails are full of Innocent people, and over 1 in 4 Americans have a criminal record despite the fact of the many Innocence. The Law is not for Justice. The Law Manufactures Crime for profit.

Comment: Class - The Real Discrimination.

Class is being discriminated by Law Enforcement, and by the Court System which violates the 14th Amendment. Do poor people actually commit more crimes than rich people, or does Law Enforcement cover the rich by framing the poor for the crimes of the rich? Is this another factor of Wrongful Convictions? The poor who pays for the crimes of the rich.

Are Law Enforcement scared of rich people? Are the Courts scared of rich people? Why does the Law target poor people? Because they can, and they do, and they get away with it.

BILL OF RIGHTS: AMENDMENT XIV

...or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

To some this statement refers solely to race, or gender. Read the entirety:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Law Enforcement is more likely to arrest the poor person in a dispute with a wealthy person despite the poor person being Innocent, and even if the wealthy has instigated a crime against the poor person. And when the case goes to Court the court will most often rule in favor of the wealthy.

Comment: The Law is Big Business.

Should the Law be run like a business? Would that treat people as objects for profit.? Or should Law be about Justice.? It appears todays law is business, and the person with the money is "innocent" whereas, the poor man with no money is "guilty". It is not about who is right or wrong, it is who has the power.

Some of the blame of wrongful convictions is money. Money is the incentive for people to make false accusations, and perjure. Money is also the incentive for Official misconduct by law enforcement and the court system. Each standing to gain not only by financial rewards but, also political gain, career advancements, etc...

The citizens gain of wrongful convictions by free financial assistance programs (food, housing, medical, job assistance, education, ...) intended to help real victims, not the Liars mis-using this program. Free money comes from free government grants, and private donations. More reported cases increase crime numbers which increases free money going to these programs.

Citizen gain is often also revenge, "get even" with someone they don't like. Citizen gain can be to discredit someone for future dispute actions which will discredit the opponent putting a criminal record on the person to make that person look bad. Citizen gain can be for political, or business rivalry reasons to hold back and discredit the opponent, or push personal agendas. For gun control people, wrongfully convicting the opponent will remove more firearms from citizens by way of criminal restrictions to possess laws.

Women, and children mis-use the abuse, and domestic violence laws not only for finacial rewards they receive from these programs but, they also gain from empowerment. They use these laws to punish their parent or spouse as revenge or "get even", or to win the arguement. They mis-use the program as leverage to get what they want out of the parent or spouse ("do this and that for me or I will call the cops and you will be in jail and kicked out of the house".) So children hold the parent hostage to avoid parental discipline, and a spouse will do that to their married partner for same reason as a threat against the other as a form of control leverage.

The legal system gains from wrongful convictions also by increased crime data to increase free governemnt grants, and private donations. The more people convicted brings in more money from grants, and also from the person convicted who must pay fines, fees, court costs, attorneys, any other court ordered programs.

So to me it is clear to see why so many wrongful convictions. Because the Law and Government rewards, and places financial incentives for citizens, and the legal system in whole to Lie, make false accusations, perjure, falsify police reports, set up crime, frame, coerce false statements, etc... so that crime data can become inflated for financial gain.

Money, and any incentives must be removed entirely from law and law enforcement, and away from citizens to gain by conviction of another party. Also more needs to be done to invent and improve new and existing scientific techniques which proves innocence and guilt like DNA, Lie Detectors, etc...

Comment: Helping True Victims? Or Aiding and Abedding criminals that commit fraud, perjury, false accusations, ...

The phrase explains their mission which is not about seeking justice. Its mission is empowerment, with a little "e". Thus, their mission is to empower women by acting in small ways which are easier to hide the deceit, acting in Non-Bold ways, hoping nobody notices their Lies and fraud.

empowering women is one thing but, when it is at the expense of convicting Innocent people, and making false accusations then that itself is a crime.

And their definition of empowerment is not that women are treated fairly, and just. Rather they want to be Empowered to "Rule Over Man". They want the man to be their personal slaves. Man do this, or else I will call the cops, and your life will be ruined. This is blackmail, and threats.

They accomplish this by deceptive, fraudulent, and illegal methods. They use many organizations funded by taxpayer dollars, and some by private donations. They gain more funding from government and private grants and programs by fraudulently distorting the actual problem.

These organizations, including Rape and Abuse Clinic back the women by preplanned flow chart regardless if they are victims or not. These organizations "use" the women to make the problem appear worse than it is to increase their free funding from goodheartedness.

And the legal system backs it all up, and encourages this illegal, fraudulent, and deceptive activity as more free tax dollars pour into the legal system.

All the while many innocent victims of this deceptive activity are wrongfully convicted, and tarnished with a lifetime criminal record to prevent many job opportunities, loss of Constitutional Rights, and theft of their property and money.

For the real women who do suffer from abuse it is good they have a place to turn. And as a father I do not want my daughter or wife abused. But, it should be handled in a just manner, and to prevent fraud, deception and mis-use for financial gain; and prevent Innocent people from wrongful convictions. Nor should it be an empowerment of women. It should be fair and just.

But, in the cases of deception where the Liars are encouraged and rewarded, the "Real Criminals" are: the women making the false accusations; law enforcement and the entire legal system for allowing the fraud, and wrongfully convicting Innocent people; the government; and all the organizations misrepresenting the truth of the problem.

From Dorner Manifesto:

"Luckily I don’t have to live everyday like most of you. Concerned if the misconduct you were apart of is going to be discovered. Looking over your shoulder, scurrying at every phone call from internal affairs or from the Captains office wondering if that is the day PSB comes after you for the suspects you struck when they were cuffed months/years ago or that $500 you pocketed from the narcotics dealer, or when the other guys on your watch beat a transient nearly to death and you never reported the UOF to the supervisor. No, I don’t have that concern, I stood up for what was right but unfortunately have dealt with the reprocussions of doing the right thing and now losing my name and everything I ever stood for."

"In 8/07 I reported an officer (Ofcr. Teresa Evans/now a Sergeant), for kicking a suspect (excessive force) during a Use of Force while I was assigned as a patrol officer at LAPD’s Harbor Division. While cuffing the suspect, (Christopher Gettler), Evans kicked the suspect twice in the chest and once in the face."

"What they failed to mention in the BOR was Teresa Evans own use of force history during her career on the LAPD. She has admitted that she has a lengthy use of force record and has been flagged several times by risk management. She has a very well known nickname, Chupacabra, which she was very proud to flaunt around the division. She found it very funny and entertaining to draw blood from suspects and arrestees. At one point she even intentionally ripped the flesh off the arm of a woman we had arrested for battery (sprayed her neighbor with a garden water hose). Knowing the woman had thin elastic skin, she performed and Indian burn to the woman’s arm after cuffing her. That woman was in her mid-70′s, a mother and grandmother, and was angry at her tenants who failed to pay rent on time. Something I can completely understand and I am sure many have wanted to do toward tenants who do not pay their rent. Teresa Evans was also demoted from a senior lead officer rank/position for performance issues. During my two months of working patrol with Teresa Evans, I found her as a woman who was very angry that she had been pulled from patrol for a short time because of a domestic violence report made by Long Beach Police Department because of an incident involving her active LAPD officer boyfriend, Dominick Fuentes, and herself. Dominick Fuentes is the same officer investigated for witness tampering. She also was visibly angry on a daily basis that she was going to have to file for bankruptcy because her ex-husband, a former LAPD officer and not Dominick Fuentes, who had left the department, state, and was nowhere to be found had left her with a tax bill and debt that she was unable to pay because of a lack of financial means. Evans, you are a POS and you lied right to the BOR panel when Randy Quan asked you if you kicked Christopher Gettler. You destroyed my life and name because of your actions. Time is up. The time is now to confess to Chief Beck."

"No one is saying you can’t be prejudiced or a bigot. We are all human and hold prejudices. If you state that you don’t have prejudices, your lying! But, when you act on it and victimize innocent citizens and fellow innocen officers, than that is a concern."

"Those lesbian officers in supervising positions who go to work, day in day out, with the sole intent of attempting to prove your misandrist authority (not feminism) to degrade male officers. ..."

"You allow an officer, Thaniya Sungruenyos, to attempt to hack into my credit union account and still remain on the job even when Det. Zolezzi shows the evidence that the IP address (provided by LAPFCU) that attempted to hack into my account and change my username and password leads directly to her residence. You even allow this visibly disgusting looking officer to stay on the job when she perjures (lies) in court (Clark County Family Court) to the judge’s face and denies hacking into my personal credit union online account when I attempted to get my restraint order extended. Det. Zolezzi provided the evidence and you still do nothing."

"It is endless the amount of times per week officers arrest an individual, label him a suspect-arrestee-defendant and then before arraignment or trial realize that he is innocent based on evidence. You know what they say when they realize an innocent man just had his life turned upside down?. “I guess he should have stayed at home that day he was discovered walking down the street and matching the suspects description. Oh well, he appeared to be a dirtbag anyways”. Meanwhile the falsely accused is left to pick up his life, get a new, family, friends, and sense of self worth."

image source: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ps/145/015/1450157_300.jpg

Comment: It just seems that the Law in attempts to create justice to right a wrong ends up only creating more injustice. The programs they create to correct or help become mis-used, and new crimes are actually committed by those trying to stop certain crimes.

Human Rights Committee

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CCPR/Pages/CCPRIndex.aspx

emails:

petitions@ohchr.org

InfoDesk@ohchr.org

nationalinstitutions@ohchr.org

Launch of first ever Wrongful Conviction Day October 2!

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1415542/launch-of-first-ever-wrongful-conviction-day-october-2

TORONTO, Sept. 22, 2014 /CNW/ - The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) is launching the first International Wrongful Conviction Day October 2nd, 2014. The annual event will highlight the need to prevent and remedy wrongful convictions around the world.

How the Courts Trap People Who Have Been Convicted by Bad Forensics

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/11/17/how-the-courts-trap-people-who-have-been-convicted-by-bad-forensics/

Radley Balko, investigative reporter for the Washington Post, has just published an article dealing with the justice system’s refusal/inability to deal appropriately with false, fake, unscientific, and discredited forensic evidence post conviction.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/11/17/how-the-courts-trap-people-who-were-convicted-by-bad-forensics/

Links to wrongful conviction organizations:

(The following links are listed for an information source. We may, or may not endorse them.)

www.injustice-anywhere.org/AdditionalResources.html

www.InjusticeEverywhere.com

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog,org

www.innocenceproject.org

http://victimsoflaw.net/

http://www.justicedenied.org/

http://truthinjustice.org/

http://www.provinginnocence.org/

https://www.facebook.com/SaveForFalselyAccused

http://www.blind-justice.org

http://www.americaswrongfullyconvicted.com

www.facebook.com/PAWC4Justice

www.facebook.com/itcouldhappen2u

http://www.injusticexposed.org

http://www.cotwa.info

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-Against-False-Allegations-and-Injustices/170334366405052

http://www.dvmen.org/

http://www.skepticaljuror.com/

https://sites.google.com/site/freedomfromoppresion/

SAVE for Falsely Accused | Facebook

facebook/Center for Prosecutor Integrity

Justice-Not-Politics | Facebook

(2) Wrongfully Convicted and Starting Over

Community of the Wrongly Accused

www.mediaRADAR.org

Innocents Database Now Lists More Than 4,400 Cases

February 11, 2014 at 11:48am

The Innocents Database linked to from Justice Denied's website is the world largest database of wrongly convicted people. It now lists 4,401 cases. All the cases are supported by sources for research. Those sources include court decisions, newspaper and magazine articles, and books.

The Innocents Database includes:

582 innocent people sentenced to death.

787 innocent people sentenced to life in prison.

1,663 innocent people convicted of murder were imprisoned an average of 9-1/2 years before their exoneration.

613 innocent people convicted of rape or sexual assault were imprisoned an average of 10 years before their exoneration.

554 innocent people were convicted after a false confession by him or herself or a co-defendant.

293 innocent people were convicted of a crime that never occurred.

165 innocent people were posthumously exonerated by a court or a pardon.

64 innocent people were convicted of a crime when they were in another city, state or country from where the crime occurred.

1,241 innocent people had 1 or more co-defendants. The most innocent co-defendants in any one case was 29, and ten cases had 12 or more co-defendants.

12% of wrongly convicted persons are women.

The average for all exonerated persons is 7-1/2 years imprisonment before their release.

31 is the average age when a person is wrongly convicted.

Cases of innocent people convicted in 109 countries are in the database.

2,527 cases involve a person convicted in the United States.

1,874 cases involve a person convicted in a country other than the U.S.

Innocents Database's homepage: http://forejustice.org/search_idb.htm

Open Up DNA Databases to All

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-dimond/open-up-dna-databases-to-_b_2606377.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Breaking News: All 50 States Have DNA Testing Access but, ...

http://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/dna_innocencenetwork_website.pdf

25th Anniversary of First DNA Exoneration in the U.S.

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/08/18/25th-anniversary-of-first-dna-exoneration-in-the-u-s/

...What have we learned from these DNA exonerations? Scholars have examined these cases in search of what went wrong. Among the chief contributors to the conviction of an innocent defendant are: eyewitness misidentifications; false confessions; poor decision-making by police and prosecutors; ineffective assistance of defense counsel; and the use of dubious forensic science.

...Beyond DNA exonerations, there is the issue of wrongful convictions that cannot be overturned with DNA testing. Biological evidence such as blood, saliva, skin cells and semen is found in only an estimated 10 to 20 percent of criminal cases. What’s more, this evidence is occasionally lost, destroyed or degraded.

...Even when biological evidence is available, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials are not always forthcoming in disclosing it to the defense. Add to this the hurdle of testing the evidence in compliance with legal requirements, and the challenge of proving a wrongful conviction using DNA technology is even greater.

...For this reason, DNA testing has not and cannot solve the problem of wrongful convictions. The same factors that led to the initial miscarriages of justice in the DNA exonerations appear in cases without any available biological evidence. ...

The Changing Face of Exonerations….

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/04/09/the-changing-face-of-exonerations/

From Time Magazine, by Deborah Tuerkheimer:

For all the understandable weight we give DNA evidence, it is of little if any use for the vast majority of the wrongfully convicted.

The popular image of exonerations—fueled by any number of movies and TV criminal procedurals—is of a wrongly accused rapist set free after DNA testing reveals the real perpetrator. But as a new report shows, this DNA-centric scenario is becoming increasingly less common in the real world of exonerations. Indeed, while the number of exonerations hit a record high in 2013—87 compared with the previous high of 83—only 18 of these involved DNA evidence.

These figures point to a hard truth: For all the understandable weight we give DNA evidence, it is of little if any use for the vast majority of the wrongfully convicted. While DNA remains the focus of exoneration efforts around the country, and all states have passed laws that provide for post-conviction access to testing, experts estimate that only 5% to 10% of all criminal cases involve such evidence. (http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/non-dna-exonerations.php). If we are to make meaningful progress towards freeing innocent people now serving time—a population some now place at more than 100,000 (http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/How_many_innocent_people_are_there_in_prison.php) —we need new laws designed to target miscarriages of justice that lack DNA evidence.

Such troubling cases underscore the need to reform our laws to better address the realities of all wrongful convictions. We need new avenues for post-conviction relief that reflect what we now know about the common causes of false convictions (http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/): false confessions, lying informants, eyewitness misidentification, police & official misconduct, and invalid forensic science. And we owe it to those wrongly convicted to move far more quickly—to recognize the moral imperative of overcoming the inertia of injustice.

Advances in DNA Testing Could Put Thousands of Texas Cases in Legal Limbo

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/advances-in-dna-testing-could-put-thousands-of-texas-cases-in-legal-limbo-7816089

The Houston Crime Lab, after looking at a mixed-DNA sample from semen in the woman's car, had concluded that the chances were 1 in 674,000 that another black person shared Sutton's DNA pattern. An analyst told jurors that “no two persons will have the same DNA except in the case of identical twins.” The message to jurors was unambiguous: DNA testing proved that Sutton committed the crime.

Except that it didn't. Sutton was exonerated in 2003, pardoned by Gov. Rick Perry and compensated $118,000 after a more sophisticated test revealed that, actually, the DNA profile examined could have belonged to as many as 1 in 16 black men.

Forensic science experts now worry that analysts may have been wrongly interpreting mixed-DNA test results like Sutton's for years, potentially leading to an untold number of wrongful convictions that, unlike Sutton's, haven't been caught.

And when those new test results come back, some of them could be dramatic. Previously, a prosecutor or expert witness may have told the jury that the odds are 1 in over a billion that the DNA in question belonged to someone other than the defendant; now, with the new method, that stat is more like 1 in less than 100. Which means that a growing mountain of defendants may be entitled to a retrial, if those previous faulty stats were used to convict them.

Exonerations in the United States, 1989 – 2012 Report by the National Registry of Exonerations

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/exonerations_us_1989_2012_full_report.pdf

National Registry of Exonerations:

http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx

National Registry of Exonerations

exonerationregistry.org

Center for Prosecutor Integrity to Establish ‘Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct’

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/11/22/center-for-prosecutor-integrity-to-establish-registry-of-prosecutorial-misconduct/

This (in my opinion) is huge. By now, you’re probably familiar with the National Registry of Exonerations which has established a mechanism for collecting and documenting data about wrongful convictions across the US. To date, it has logged data on 1,250 exonerations. The registry will be a very powerful tool for justice system reform and improvement, because it provides incontrovertible, hard data that can be used to make known and describe the errors that can, and do, happen in this very imperfect system of ours.

Data from the National Registry of Exonerations has already revealed that “official misconduct” (by both police and prosecutors) is a contributing factor in 42% of wrongful convictions. In a previous WCB post, Prosecutorial Misconduct – What’s to be Done? A Call to Action, it was pointed out that one of the very first things needed to begin addressing the prosecutorial misconduct cause of wrongful convictions is DATA. We know that prosecutorial misconduct happens, but our understanding of the problem, and its extent, has been only anecdotal up until now. This new Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct is a significant step forward in building a base of data that can be used by legislators, policy makers, and advocates in defining and implementing necessary changes to the laws and rules that govern prosecutorial behavior.

Fixing false convictions

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/crime/323039-fixing-false-convictions

... Once the false confession is made, a tide forms to take the case to conviction. Police are committed to the evidence they secured. You can’t unbelieve a confession, the thinking goes. Who'd confess if they weren’t guilty, reasonable jurors wonder. But law enforcement experts testify that key sources of evidence — eye witnesses, informants, forensics, along with false confessions — are too common and are often used to convict innocent defendants. Most defendants waive their Miranda rights, are naive if not dumb, even mentally impaired, are represented by incompetent lawyers, have limited resources to proceed effectively, and are carried along in a tide toward conviction and incarceration. ...

False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/false_arrests_convictions_and_imprisonments/index.html?offset=10&s=newest

Wrongfully Convicted: Scott Walker: No Pardons for 1,000s with "Compelling Case" of Innocence

http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2013/12/wrongfully-convicted-scott-walker-says.html

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker explains why he has granted no

pardons to incarcerated citizens with compelling cases.

"If you pick one there's thousands of other examples out there of

people who may not have the media or other

outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who

probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't

know about," said Walker in an interview with WKOW TV (Madison).

...Walker states there are a lot of people with compelling cases for pardons, so we should pardon none of them. This is a not a logically compelling argument.

...When Walker implies 1,000s of people do not rightfully belong in prison, and Walker justifies this state of affairs by saying not all advocacy groups and media support are, equal this seems capricious and bloodless.

Oregon Supreme Court Sets New Eyewitness Guidelines In Overturning Samuel Lawson’s Murder Conviction

http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_55/jd_issue_55.pdf

Oregon is now at the forefront of trying to ensure contested eyewitness testimony has a reasonable degree of reliability before it is admissible evidence.

"...I am an American by choice, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a military service member, I am a man who has lost complete faith in the system, when the system betrayed, slandered, and libeled me. ..." -Chris Dorner Manifesto

U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.libertyforlife.com/images/usa-worlds-worst-prison-state.jpg

http://www.libertyforlife.com/jail-police/images/usa-worst-prison-state-m.jpg

http://www.libertyforlife.com/images/world-prison-pop-perc.gif

GOOD NEWS THE PRISON POPULATION IS DOWN IN THE uNITED sLAVES BUT, THE JAILS ARE OVERFLOWING...

The Hardest Time He Served Wasn’t in Prison

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/04/23/who-begs-to-go-to-prison-california-jail-inmates

More than 175,000 people sentenced to county jails instead of state prisons in the last eight years because of sweeping changes to California’s justice system, according to an analysis of state data by The Marshall Project. The reforms were intended to ease prison overcrowding—and they have. But the changes were also supposed to help people convicted of nonviolent crimes, by letting them serve their sentences close to home in county jails with lots of education and training programs. It hasn’t worked out that way in some urban counties. Jails built to hold people for days or weeks—awaiting trial or serving short sentences for petty crimes—have strained to handle long-term inmates, many with chronic medical and mental-health problems and histories of violence....

County spending on medicine for inmates has jumped (to almost $64 million in 2017 from $38 million in 2010)...Deaths in California jails jumped by 26 percent in the years after they started receiving long-term inmates, peaking at 153 in 2014 before falling to 133 in 2017. ...

“The whole system has dropped about 220,000 people” without the surge in crime many critics feared....The state does track the size of the overall jail population, which increased briefly after a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision required California to downsize the prisons, climbing to an average of 82,000 people in 2013. But the number of people in county lockups began to drop after 2014, when state voters approved a measure to cut the length of some sentences. Last year, county jails held 72,500 people....

Sacramento County receives millions of dollars from the state each year to help offset the costs of the new measures, money which covers drug court, public defenders and prosecutors as well as jails. In 2018-2019, those payments amounted to $320 million, according to the county budget. ...

They confirmed that the main jail put people in solitary for 23-and-a-half hours a day, in conditions that were “very stark and unlikely to meet constitutional standards” and found the jails’ use of segregation “dramatically out of step” with emerging national standards on the dangers of solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners.

The medical screening process was “wholly inadequate” to identify inmates with disabilities, and inmates deemed suicide risks spent weeks locked alone in empty classrooms without toilets. ...

MOST USA JAIL POPULATION IS UNREPORTED SO THE ACTUAL JAIL POPULATION IS MUCH MUCH MORE THAN WHAT IS REPORTED HERE...

How many people in your state go to local jails every year?

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/09/18/state-jail-bookings/

Because people typically stay in jail for only a few days, weeks or months, the daily population represents a small fraction of the people who are admitted over the course of a year. But the statistic that better reflects a jail’s impact on a community – the number of people who go to jail – is rarely accessible to the public....

Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2014 - Statistical Tables

TABLE 16 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mlj0014st.pdf#page=15

Number of local jail inmates held on an average day, by state, 2000 and 2005–2014:

2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

598,397 742,261 772,334 782,592 779,704 749,449 733,775 722,735 745,965 715,554 750,128

People in Prison in 2018

https://www.vera.org/publications/people-in-prison-in-2018

The number of people in U.S. prisons fell to a nine-year low of just under 1.5 million last year, a 1.3 percent decrease...Researchers credit sentencing reductions and other criminal justice changes at the state and federal levels for the decline....

At the end of 2018, there were an estimated 1,471,200 people in state and federal prisons.

The prison incarceration rate in the United States was 450 people in prison per 100,000 residents, down from 458 per 100,000 in the previous year, representing a 1.8 percent drop. This brings the rate of prison incarceration down 15.2 percent since its peak....

People in prison under jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities:

Year Total Federal State

2010 1,613,803 209,771 1,404,032

Prison incarceration rate (per 100,000 residents):

Year Total Federal State

2007 530 66 464

Declines were not universal, however. The number of people in prison increased in 19 states in 2018...

How many prisoners in your State?

List of U.S. states by incarceration and correctional supervision rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_incarceration_and_correctional_supervision_rate

Wrongful Liberty – A Tragic Consequence of Wrongful Conviction

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/04/12/wrongful-liberty-a-tragic-consequence-of-wrongful-conviction/

When the wrong individual is incarcerated for a crime they did not commit, they suffer a terrible injustice. But they are not alone. The victims of the crime suffer in multiple ways: from a false assurance that the crime has been solved, possibly from participating as a witness leading to a wrongful conviction, and later from the consequences of exoneration.

These events may leave the original crime victim doubly victimized; once by the criminal and then by the criminal justice system. But the wrongs may also include a third category of innocent victims. When the state arrests and incarcerates the wrong person, the true perpetrator remains at liberty. In many cases these individuals commit a series of crimes during this period of “wrongful liberty” (which we define as the period between the original crime and when the true perpetrator is arrested).

In recent years, North Carolina has seen 36 exonerations. Of these cases, we have identified nine cases where the true perpetrator of the original crime was later convicted. Looking at the period between the crime and the later arrest of the true perpetrator, we review legal and media sources to document the crimes committed during this period of “wrongful liberty.” In the well-known Picking Cotton case, for example, the true perpetrator not only committed the two brutal rapes for which Ronald Cotton was incarcerated, but he committed six more before he was eventually arrested. Thus, there were six additional victims of the “wrongful liberty” of a guilty criminal.

Our goal is to document, for one state, the number of crimes associated with such situations and thereby to expand our understanding of the social costs of wrongful incarceration.

Those most directly affected include:

a) the victims of the original crime;

b) the person wrongfully imprisoned;

c) the subsequent victims of the criminal who was wrongfully left at liberty.

Advocates for victim services are natural allies of the innocence movement but they are rarely part of the conversation partly, we think, because the crimes of wrongful liberty have never been fully recognized. We focus on North Carolina as a first step and to document the feasibility of such a project, but we hope that our project will form the basis for studies in other states as well.

http://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/wrongfulliberty2014.pdf

The Effects of Wrongful Convictions

http://www.thevoiceoftheinnocent.com/effects-and-causes.html

While it takes only little effort and time to accuse someone of a crime, the effects are long-lasting and may even stay with the person for the rest of their life. People who have been wrongfully convicted, imprisoned or even just wrongfully accused of a crime, face many psychological, physical and social consequences. Some examples include but are not limited to: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, trouble sleeping and eating, health problems, personality change, breaking up of families, having trouble re-integrating into society, inability to find a job, and of course a loss of reputation.

The Psychological Impact of Wrongful Conviction

http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=clb

“It Never, Ever Ends”: The Psychological Impact of. Wrongful Conviction.

Wrongfully Convicted Suffer Long-Term Psychological ...

http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_29/stop_rape_jd29.pdf

the wrongly convicted experience a sense of being “frozen in time” ... “I haven’t been able to pick up the pieces and I don’t know if I ever will.”

Man, 49, who spent 12 YEARS in isolation in prison fights for reform

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2955130/Man-49-spent-12-YEARS-solitary-confinement-prison-wrongfully-convicted-murder-fights-reform-Texas-criminal-justice-system.html

Anthony Graves, now 49, was sentenced to death in 1994 after being found guilty of killing two adults and four children in Somerville, Texas, in 1992 based on a co-defendant's false testimony.

Despite prosecutors failing to present any physical evidence, he was forced to spend 18 years behind bars and was scheduled for a lethal injection twice before eventually being freed in 2010.

For 12 of his years in prison, Graves was held in solidarity confinement, which saw him spend at least 22 hours a day locked alone in a tiny concrete cell with a metal bed and a toilet.

'Solitary confinement is designed to break a man's will to live,' he said. 'You're sitting there, in a little cage, day in and day out, year in and year out, waiting for the state to execute you or release you.'

Those who were released went into the outside word 'with a lot of baggage', including PTSD and hypersensitivity, he said, adding that he himself would often burst into tears for no reason.

'The first three years I was out…I couldn't even hold a conversation with people without crying,' he said. Graves also suffered from difficulty sleeping

'We're driving people crazy. And this is our criminal justice system that's supposed to serve and protect us.

'But we are literally driving men insane. And those that are already insane, we're just putting them in the casket. That's all we're doing. There's no rehabilitation.'

Life after wrongful conviction

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kimberley_Clow/publication/265907833_Life_after_wrongful_conviction/links/5670288608aececfd5531039.pdf?origin=publication_list

This chapter reviews the literature on the consequences of wrongful

conviction, highlights current psychological research on the topic, offers suggestions for future

research, and explores the impact research may have on policy and practice. Although some of

the topics discussed may affect both offenders and wrongly convicted persons, the consequences

of these factors may be particularly damaging for the innocent.

"The ultimate tyranny in a society is not control by martial law. It is control by the psychological manipulation of consciousness, through which reality is defined so that those who exist within it do not even realize that they are in prison. They do not even realize that there is something outside of where they exist." -Bringers of the Dawn

Wrongful Conviction and Government Compensation

http://www.limonwhitaker.com/2013/01/wrongful-conviction-and-government-compensation

Police, Prosecutors: Costs Are High When Misconduct Contributes to Wrongful Conviction

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/03/18/police-prosecutors-costs-are-high-when-misconduct-contributes-to-wrongful-conviction/

Senate Panel OKs Increased Prosecutor Accountability

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/12/morton-urges-improved-prosecutor-accountability/

Manufacturing Crime: Process, Pretext, and Criminal Justice

http://georgetownlawjournal.org/articles/manufacturing-crime-process-pretext-and-criminal-justice/

America’s Corrupt Legal System

http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-s-corrupt-legal-system

Rigged courts, bribed judges, phony trials, extortion by lawyers, and over 2 million prisoners in the USA gulag

America's Corrupt Legal System -

A Danger to All

http://www.injusticexposed.org/

• Concentration camps with concrete walls;

• USA torture and illegal jailing overseas starts with USA domestic torture and illegal jailing at home;

• America's lawyers are controlled by the judges and don't really work for you - that's why they sell you out to the government or to the big companies that pay bribes;

• Innocent and being arrested - they don't like to admit a mistake in America;

• Multi-millionaires and big corporations vs. everybody else;

• The Hollywood image versus the grim reality;

• No recourse against crime and fraud by judges and lawyers in America;

• Dealing with American lawyers if you have no other choice;

• The growing American nightmare

Why I Think the US Justice System is Broken – and Why It’s Not Getting Fixed

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/02/20/why-i-think-the-us-justice-system-is-broken-and-why-its-not-getting-fixed/

America No Longer Has a Functioning Judicial System

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/07/america-no-longer-has-a-functioning-judiciary.html

Two former U.S. Supreme Court Justices have warned that America is sliding into tyranny. A former U.S. President, and many other high-level American officials agree. In addition to attacks on the judiciary by the White House and Congress, judges are voluntarily gutting the justice system … and laying down in lapdog-obeisance to D.C.

One Disturbing Reason For Our Exploding Prison Population

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/private-prisons_n_3955686.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Most quotas require at least 90 percent of the beds in a prison to be filled, according to a new report by the advocacy group In the Public Interest, and quotas were part of nearly two-thirds of the contracts the group analyzed. Prison companies use the profits to expand, effectively pulling the strings on state prison populations as lawmakers must incarcerate a certain number of people — or pay. The state of Arizona recently paid the prison company Management & Training Corp. $3 million for empty beds when a 97 percent quota wasn't met, reported HuffPost's Chris Kirkham.

The U.S. leads the world in incarcerating its residents, with one in 100 adults behind bars. Over the past 30 years the prison population has more than quadrupled, mostly due to an increase in drug offenses.

SHOCKING: CCA’s Prison Lobby is Destroying America

http://www.occupyhln.org/american-judicial-system/shocking-ccas-prison-lobby-destroying-america/

Even the law is corrupt

http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Even-the-law-is-corrupt-4418627.php

Corrupt Quotes:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/corrupt.html

Corrupt America, Malicious Prosecution

http://corruptjusticesystem.com/

Expose Corrupt Courts

http://exposecorruptcourts.blogspot.com/

Is the U.S. government corrupt?

http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-u-s-government-corrupt

How the Government Breaks the Law

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/policy-report/2004/11/cpr-26n6-1.pdf

... If the Constitution is enforced selectively, according to the contemporary wants and needs of the government, we will continue to see public trials in some cities and secret trials in others; free speech suppressed on inexplicable whims; police targeting the weak and killing the innocent; and government lying to its citizens, stealing their property, tricking them into criminal acts, bribing its witnesses against them, making a mockery of legal reasoning, and breaking the laws in order to enforce them.

...This is not the type of government we, the people, have authorized to exist, and it is not the type of government that we should tolerate. We can do better. If government crimes are not checked, our Constitution will be meaningless, and our attempts to understand it, enforce it, and rely on it will be chaotic.

Business Anti-Corruption Portal - United States of America Country Profile

-Corruption Levels

http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/the-americas/united-states-of-america/corruption-levels.aspx

-Police

http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/the-americas/united-states-of-america/corruption-levels/police.aspx

-Judicial System

http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/the-americas/united-states-of-america/corruption-levels/judicial-system.aspx

- News Archive

http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/the-americas/united-states-of-america/news-archive.aspx

FAQ on American Judicial and Legal Corruption

http://faqusajudicialcorruption.blogspot.com/

Sharing Views on Prosecutorial Reform

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2015/06/25/sharing-views-on-prosecutorial-reform/

If you've read much of my stuff on this blog, you must know that prosecutors, as a group, are not my favorite people. I am a person driven by logic, ...they’re supposed to be “ministers of justice,” but my observation is that’s so often not the case. I will grant that because of the work that I do, I routinely have exposure to prosecutorial behavior that is less than ethical, is not in the interest of true justice, and is sometimes just criminal. And because they’re “prosecutors,” they get away with it.

From 158 families, half the cash for ’16 race

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/10/10/from-families-half-cash-for-race/moOjS3imu6ipZanKz73OxM/story.html

A few wealthy families provide most cash for presidential race...

Just 158 families, along with companies they control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the presidential campaign — well over half the money in the presidential election.

Mississippi judge:

'People charged with crimes, they are criminals'

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/fault-lines/articles/2015/10/17/mississippi-judge-people-charged-with-crimes-they-are-criminals.html

Fault Lines correspondent Anjali Kamat spoke to Judge Gordon about the pattern of pretrial detention in his jurisdiction and asked him to respond to allegations that his policies are violating inmates’ constitutional rights. An edited version of the conversation follows:...

Do you think public defenders have enough time to do the proper investigation?

In most cases they don’t have enough time. Those people work hard.

The inmates we spoke to said they spent maybe 10 minutes with their public defender, and they met their public defender for the first time a few days before trial.

....people charged with crimes, they are criminals.

...The criminal system is a system of criminals. Sure, their rights are violated. But not all rights are violated.

But these people are spending months before speaking to counsel.

Well that may be true. That’s the hardship of the criminal system.

Are their rights being violated?

Lady, the criminal system is a system of criminals. Sure, their rights are violated. But not all rights are violated that you’re calling violation.

People are being held in jail not seeing a lawyer for months on end—whether they are innocent or guilty. They are being held for up to a year, over a year, and violations are happening. What do you think is the solution?

That’s my policy.

You do acknowledge that because of this policy, some prisoners’ rights are being violated?

I do not acknowledge that. I do know that there are innocent people, who are charged and go through the system who are not guilty, in the penitentiary. But there is nothing I can do about that.

Whose responsibility is it to provide oversight, to make sure rights aren’t violated?

Go talk to the governor. Talk to the legislature. I do not have responsibility. I don’t have the time. And I don’t have the damn energy to do it all.

Forensic Pseudoscience

The Unheralded Crisis of Criminal Justice

http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/nathan-robinson-forensic-pseudoscience-criminal-justice

The Innocence Project’s M. Chris Fabricant and legal scholar Tucker Carrington classify the kind of hair analysis the FBI performs as “magic,” and it is not hard to see why. By the Bureau’s own account, its hair analysis investigations were unscientific, and the evidence presented at trial unreliable. In more than 95 percent of cases, analysts overstated their conclusions in a way that favored prosecutors. The false testimony occurred in hundreds of trials, including thirty-two death penalty cases. Not only that, but the FBI also acknowledged it had “trained hundreds of state hair examiners in annual two-week training courses,” implying that countless state convictions had also been procured using consistently defective techniques....

ut questions of forensic science’s reliability go well beyond hair analysis, and the FBI’s blunders aren’t the only reason to wonder how often fantasy passes for science in courtrooms. Recent years have seen a wave of scandal,...

There have also been scores of individual cases in which forensic science failures have led to wrongful convictions...

Some wrongful convictions can never be righted...Texas Commission on Forensic Science concluded that the arson science used to convict him was worthless, and independent fire experts condemned the investigation as a travesty. But those findings came too late to do Willingham any good. ...

Law is a poor vehicle for the interpretation of scientific results....

One serious problem with those tests is that they allow for high levels of subjectivity. The NAS authors wrote that fingerprint analysis, for example, is “deliberately” left to human interpretation, so that “the outcome of a friction ridge analysis is not necessarily repeatable from examiner to examiner.”...

Yet forensic science involves both knowledge and practice, and while the science behind DNA is far from the prosecutorial voodoo of jeans and bite marks, its analysis must be conducted within a similar institutional framework. Analysts themselves can be fallible and inept; the risk of corruption and incompetence is no less pronounced simply because the biology has been peer-reviewed.

Such risk isn’t merely theoretical. While Florida exoneree Chad Heins had DNA to thank for the overturning of his conviction, DNA was also responsible for the conviction itself, with an analyst giving faulty testimony about DNA found at the site where Heins’s sister-in-law was murdered....

Earlier this year in San Francisco, thousands of convictions were thrown into doubt after a DNA technician and her supervisor were found to have failed a proficiency exam. In preparing evidence for a trial, the two had also covered up missing data and lied about the completeness of a genetic profile, despite having been disciplined internally for previous faulty DNA analyses....

The high degree of confidence placed in DNA is especially worrying because successful DNA analysis requires human institutional processes to function smoothly and without mistakes...

Prisoners Exonerated, Prosecutors Exposed

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/opinion/prisoners-exonerated-prosecutors-exposed.html

Last year’s group spent an average of more than 14 years behind bars. Five had been sentenced to death. Amazingly, half of the exonerations involved cases in which no crime occurred at all...

In nearly half of all 2015 exonerations, the defendant pleaded guilty before trial. These numbers are a bracing reminder that admissions of guilt are unreliable far more often than is generally believed....

Official misconduct — including perjury, withholding of exculpatory evidence and coercive interrogation practices — occurred in three of every four exonerations involving homicide, and it was an important factor in many other cases as well....

Can you catch a killer using only teeth marks?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35564041

"[Bite mark evidence] resulted in thousands of convictions, and at least 24 wrongful convictions and indictments."...The Innocence Project noticed how many of their DNA exoneration cases involved bite mark evidence, and have been highly critical of the technique since. "People's teeth are not unique like fingerprints," ...human teeth sets are actually more similar to one another than expected.

Trying to See: Crime labs and humans:

A combustible combination

http://www.tillamookheadlightherald.com/fenceposts/trying-to-see-crime-labs-and-humans-a-combustible-combination/article_0cda8936-5d87-11e6-8e14-970300fee27c.html

In “The Atlantic” (April 20, 2015), an article about flawed forensic science noted that most crime labs are agencies of the state and consequently are seen as resources for the prosecutor and police. Pressures (sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit) on analysts in such places push them toward convictions rather than acquittals. When some prosecutors’ offices hire private labs to do their forensic work, those labs can feel pressure to present results that support guilty verdicts rather than acquittals if the labs want to gain future work.

In a 2013 issue of “Criminal Justice Ethics” (Vol. 32, #2) investigators claimed that the US criminal justice system creates incentives for false convictions, and that the rate of false convictions runs high in this country.

...The weakest link in forensic analysis lies in the humans making judgments in each instance about what the technology seems to show.

...The National Registry of Exonerations noted in July that official misconduct, perjury and false accusations were present in a high percent of wrongful convictions of people who were later exonerated for serious crimes such as homicide (68%), sexual assault (37%) and child abuse (84%). Such a situation cries out for better checks and balances against human imperfections (laziness, cynicism, indifference, outright dishonesty) than exist today in our adversarial justice system.

...Errors in procedure, mishandling and contamination of DNA samples and other material evidence; pressure on lab analysts from prosecutors and police; outright lying to support convictions; incompetence of analysts and lack of thoroughness on the part of poorly paid, court appointed defense attorneys: all these point to the fact that the true value of these forensic tools are totally dependent on the integrity and skills of criminal justice professionals. As with many areas of human activity, integrity and skills are sometimes reeds too thin to lean on.

2015 Innocents Database Exoneration Report:

http://www.justicedenied.org/2015idbreport.html

In the year 2015:

184 exonerations involved a case in which no crime was committed. That was 58% of exonerations.

* 58% OF ALL CASES NO CRIME EVER OCCURRED.

More than 51% of the people exonerated in 2015 were convicted by a jury,

20% were convicted after a bench (judge only) trial,

and 29% pled guilty.

* NEARLY A THIRD OF ALL CASES THE DEFENDANT PLED GUILTY TO A CRIME HE DID NOT EVEN DO.

* HALF OF ALL CASES THE JURY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED HIM.

11% of the exonerations involved a false confession by either the exonerated person (9%) or a co-defendant (2%). That is comparable to the average for the ten years from 2006 to 2015 when 10% of exonerations involved a false confession: 8.5% by the exonerated person and 1.5% by a co-defendant.

Combining false confessions and guilty pleas:

40% of persons exonerated in 2015 falsely admitted guilt.

* ALMOST HALF OF ALL DEFENDANTS WERE FORCED TO ADMIT GUILT TO A CRIME HE DID NOT DO.

In the U.S. there are over a million felony convictions yearly in state court, and more than 125,000 convictions in federal court, so even given only a 2% wrongful conviction rate – and there are estimates the actual rate is 10% or more – there would be more than 22,000 wrongful convictions per year.

So the 316 cases in the database for 2015 is little more than 1% of that number. What is unknown – and for the foreseeable future it will remain unknown – is exactly how many innocent people have had their wrongful conviction(s) overturned. Also unknown is the infinitely larger number of innocent people

– possibly totaling over a million – who have not, and never will have their wrongful conviction(s) overturned: those people will forever be officially branded as a criminal for a crime committed by another person, or that may not have even occurred. Thus, the known exonerations are a miniscule representation of the actual number of wrongly convicted persons.

(Keep in mind this data were for serious crimes only. Less serious crimes and misdemeanors are not given any considerations. The wrongful convictions of lesser crimes increase exponentially.

Also consider that only 1% to 5% of all cases in the USA actually go to trial. 95% of all USA defendants are forced/coerced to plead guilty. Many are innocent to a crime they did not do.)

6,515 Cases Currently Listed in the Innocents Database

(7-7-2016)

• • There are cases from 116 countries.

  • 4,043 cases are from the United States

  • 2,472 cases are from a country other than the U.S.

  • 569 people were sentenced to death.

  • 911 people were sentenced to life in prison.

  • 2,090 people were convicted of a homicide related crime.

  • 1,013 people were convicted of a sexual assault related crime.

  • 219 people were posthumously exonerated by a court or a pardon

U.S. Cases

1989 - 2015

3,159 = Total

2,772 = Males

356 = Females

31 = Other (Businesses, etc.)

Preventing Juror Misconduct is a Big Challenge

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202772885686/Preventing-Juror-Misconduct-is-a-Big-Challenge?slreturn=20161021212318

One in nine criminals may have been wrongly convicted (in the Netherlands)

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/11/one-in-nine-criminals-may-be-wrongly-convicted-dutch-research/

As many as one in nine people convicted of a crime in the Netherlands may have suffered a miscarriage of justice – and the figure could be higher for serious offences, a new book has claimed....

Ton Derksen calculated that the wrongful conviction rate in the criminal courts was between four and 11 per cent, equivalent to around 1,000 people a year. For murder, rape and other offences that attract the heaviest penalties the estimated rate of error is between 7 and 15 per cent....

A study in Norway found that judges are more likely to accept flimsy or incomplete evidence when trying serious offences, increasing the risk of miscarriages of justice in cases such as murder and rape....

The chance of having a conviction overturned on such grounds in the Netherlands is low compared to other countries.

Corrupt Cop Story: Heartwarming or Disconcerting -

https://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/corrupt-cop-story-heartwarming-or-disconcerting-mlyd/

This man alone was responsible for 50-60 false convictions... That would conservatively equate to some 28% of our prison population being wrongfully imprisoned at the hands of corrupt officers ...

The U.S. Justice System Is Criminal

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-u-s-justice-system-is-criminal/5571774

Today the criminal justice system is largely indifferent to a defendant’s guilt or innocence. This is a far worse problem than racism. It is the main reason that there are so many false convictions in the US and so many wrongfully convicted Americans in prison. ...

To be clear: The primary reason for wrongful conviction is that the success indicator for police, prosecutor, and judge is conviction, not justice. Crimes are solved by wrongful convictions. High conviction rates boost the careers of prosecutors, and high profile convictions boost their political careers. The key to rapid and numerous convictions is the plea bargain. And plea bargains suit judges as they keep the court docket clear. Today 97% of felony cases are settled with a plea bargain. This means police evidence and a prosecutor’s case are tested only three times out of 100. When the evidence and case are tested in court, the test confronts a vast array of prosecutorial misconduct, such as suborned perjury and the withholding of exculpatory evidence. In America, everything is loaded against Justice.

In a plea bargain police do not have to present evidence, prosecutors do not have to bring a case, and judges do not have to pay attention to the case and be troubled by a growing backlog as trials consume days and weeks.

In a plea bargain the defendant, innocent or guilty, is told that he can plead to this or that offence, which carries a lighter sentence than the crime that allegedly has actually occurred and on which the defendant is arrested, or the defendant can go to trial where he will face more serious charges that carry much harsher penalties. As it has become routine for police to falsify evidence, for prosecutors to suborn perjury and withhold exculpatory evidence, for jurors naively to trust police and prosecutors, and for judges to look the other way, attorneys advise defendants to accept a plea deal. In other words, no one expects a fair trial or for real evidence to play a role in the outcome....

Top 6 Causes for Wrongful Convictions

(Part 1) — Snitches

http://www.paduiblog.com/pa-dui/top-6-causes-wrongful-convictions-part-1-snitch-testimony/

Top 6 Causes for Wrongful Convictions

(Part 3) — Bad Forensics

http://www.paduiblog.com/pa-dui/top-6-causes-wrongful-convictions-part-3-improper-forensic-science/

NULLIFY ALL UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS... NULLIFY

New Hampshire House Passes Bill That Would Require Courts to Fully Inform Juries

http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2017/02/new-hampshire-house-passes-bill-that-would-require-courts-to-fully-inform-juries/

CONCORD, N.H. (Feb. 15, 2017) – A New Hampshire bill that would require state courts to fully inform jurors of their right to nullify passed the House today.

NULLIFY NULLIFY Nullify Nullify

America Behind Bars

https://studybreaks.com/2017/03/23/prison-3/

The United States holds 5 percent of the world’s population, yet the country incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. So, why is the U.S. playing judge? ...Since the 1970s, the state prison population has grown 700 percent.

The Science of Innocence and the Silence of Innocents

http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202781810947/The-Science-of-Innocence-and-the-Silence-of-Innocents?slreturn=20170230193726

"Wrongful conviction, the ultimate sign of a criminal justice system's breakdown and failure, has been documented in too many cases," ...

"Among the more than 2.2 million inmates in U.S. prisons and jails, countless may have been convicted using unreliable or fabricated forensic science. The U.S. has an abiding and unfulfilled moral obligation to free citizens who were imprisoned by such questionable means."...

While the Supreme Court bates its breath over standalone innocence, New York has found it in People v. Hamilton , 115 A.D.3d 12, 21 (2d Dept. 2014), based on due process [N.Y. Const., art I, §6] and cruel and unusual punishment [N.Y. Const., art I, § 5], and extended it to guilty pleas in People v. Tiger , 2017 NY Slip Op. 1575 at 7 (2d Dept. 2017).

In 2016 More Than $263 Million Was Awarded Or Paid To Wrongly Convicted Persons In U.S.

http://justicedenied.org/wordpress/archives/3585

DNA evidence isn't enough to keep innocent people out of jail: criminal justice professor

http://www.metro.us/news/dna-evidence

DNA evidence doesn’t exist in most criminal cases....“One of the issues of DNA is that it creates the appearance of solving the problem of ‘innocent man convicted,’ but it really doesn’t because so few cases actually involve biological evidence,” Medwed said. That means there’s less chance of correcting a wrong conviction when there’s no DNA evidence involved, unless we look at why wrongful convictions happen in the first place...that means many other cases without DNA evidence probably have errors, too,...DNA is most often involved in sexual assault and murder cases, Medwed said, but usually doesn’t appear in cases involving such crimes as robbery, street theft and murder by firearm. “It’s much harder to overturn those other cases when you don’t have the magic bullet of science,” he said. The success of DNA evidence is basically a distraction, Medwed said, from the other ways our criminal justice system fails innocent people. “I think the system has begun to rely on DNA, that’s part of my concern,” Medwed said. “As great a tool it is, DNA doesn't appear in many cases, and we don’t want the impression that problems are solved.”

Panel of wrongly convicted Virginians discuss how 'you never get your life back'

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/uva/panel-of-wrongly-convicted-virginians-discuss-how-you-never-get/article_cba51b88-256e-11e7-b1f8-ab18aa46e6d6.html

University of Virginia School of Law on Wednesday, four men and one woman spoke about their experiences with being falsely accused of heinous crimes, imprisoned and — eventually — freed....the panel cut to the bone of how difficult it can be to fight a broken justice system. “Every wrongful conviction case is worthy of a book,” Grisham said. “The whole system failed. That’s why these stories are so fascinating.”...

Grisham said police and prosecutors sometimes do whatever it takes to close a case. “Prison is beyond description when you deserve it,” he said. “I can’t imagine being there when you’re innocent.” ...

“It’s been a long time, and you never get your life back.”...Monroe said...

“Having to go through that experience, y’all wouldn’t understand it,” Weakley said.

Because of police pressure and intense interrogation techniques, Weakley said he falsely confessed against his friends,...“By screwing up your case, the murderer got away,” Grisham said. They didn’t care if we did it or not,” Weakley said. “They just wanted to solve the case.” ...

“Injustice does happen. There are people that are innocent.” “To everybody else who is locked up, going through the same thing we are, just have faith in God,”...

For Hash, a jail snitch led to his conviction. A man with whom he never spoke more than three words to stood in court — under oath — and said Hash confessed the crime to him. “I was just astounded,” Hash said. “It’s not unusual,” said Grisham. “They almost always have a sweetheart deal with the prosecutor, which they will deny under oath. The cops and prosecutors are in the know and the judges are asleep. Their job is to exclude this crap and they play along.” ...

Davis, on the other hand, said detectives coerced him into admitting his own involvement. He agreed to an Alford plea in exchange for a 23-year sentence, he said.

As a high-school student, Davis said he had no idea what was happening and was forced to sit through a seven-hour interrogation with no breaks....

“Wrongful convictions and coerced confessions do happen,” Davis said after the panel. “It’s up to us to figure out how to change that.”...

“You say, ‘I didn’t do this. I didn’t do this,’ but your words fall on deaf ears,” he said....

“It was just their word against mine,” he said.

Wrongfully Convicted Entitled to Refunds, Rules Supreme Court

http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/tns-scotus-wrongful-conviction.html

People who are freed from prison when their convictions are reversed deserve a refund of what they paid in fees, court costs and restitution, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. "They are entitled to be presumed innocent" once their convictions are thrown out, said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the state "has zero claim" to their money....

A blind person was used by prosecution as an eyewitness. LMFAO...

Blind Eyewitness Frees Convicted Murder After 25 Years

http://www.legalreader.com/18465-2/

Last week, a Portland, Maine, judge Joyce Wheeler released 44-year-old Anthony Sanborn, Jr., on bail set at $25,000 after serving 25 years in prison. The overturned conviction came after Hope Cady, a blind eyewitness, whose testimony helped send Sanborn to jail for murder, said police had pressured her to testify against him and she didn’t actually witness the crime....

Cady said she was legally blind at the time of the 1989 murder and wasn’t even in the area at the time the incident occurred. She said she testified against Sanborn after allegedly being coerced by detectives and a state prosecutor. Cady says investigators shouted at her, called her inappropriate names and even threatened to send her to prison if she didn’t comply. “They basically told me what to say,” Cady, said of the detectives after she finally broke down. She acted as a “blind eyewtiness”, added she could barely see the lawyer standing about seven feet from her in the Portland courtroom let alone serve as a reliable eyewitness to a crime and that Sanborn deserved to go free.

The detectives have denied Cady’s allegations. However, the blind eyewitness and her recantation was supported by the notes of a social worker who was appointed as Cady’s guardian just weeks before the trial. Cady’s medical history and her caseworker’s notes were not released to Sanborn’s attorneys prior to the trial, which may have eliminated her as a reliable witness. A note in the prosecutor’s file from a police report urging that three other witness statements not be turned over to the defense was also kept hidden. A profiler for Sanborn’s attorneys says the crime may actually be linked to a serial killer and that this person was left free to going about killing others while Sanborn was doing time. ...

Why New Orleans Leads the U.S. in Wrongful Convictions

https://www.citylab.com/crime/2017/06/why-new-orleans-leads-the-us-in-wrongful/529389/

1,143 of every 100,000 people in the state, Louisiana incarcerates at nearly twice the national average rate—and six times over Mexico’s incarceration rate.... half of the people in its jails haven’t even been convicted of any crime. ... These district attorneys are also placing a lot of people in jail for crimes they didn’t do—the state has the second highest rate of exonerations per capita in the country,... prosecutors presented no evidence whatsoever in close to 60 percent of the trials monitored in 2016. ...“The fact that over 57 percent of all trials seen by court watchers contain no physical evidence, no scientific evidence, nor any eyewitness testimony is problematic and should be a good starting point for future improvement,” ... DAs have been issuing fake subpoenas to crime victims to force them to testify in court, often under threat of incarceration....

Just lie to me, and get paid...

$100,000 To Snitch? Perks For Jailhouse Informants Come Under Scrutiny

http://publicradioeast.org/post/100000-snitch-perks-jailhouse-informants-come-under-scrutiny

Today, inmates still trade information for rewards -– sometimes big ones. Two Southern California tipsters pulled in more than $300,000 between 2011 and 2015 informing on fellow inmates. ..."I'm concerned about the veracity of the information. I might incriminate you at $100,000 dollars a year. That could be a sideline business in prison," ..."It's the taxpayers' money...."They're giving the government information in exchange for a benefit," ..."As one court has said, it's hard to imagine a greater inducement to fabricate than the promise of one's own liberty," ...

Woman 'made up sex attack claims against 15 men and sent innocent man to jail for 7 years'

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3793066/woman-made-up-sex-attack-claims-against-15-men-and-sent-innocent-man-to-jail-for-7-years/

LYING Jemma Beale, 25, made false rape and sex assault claims against 15 different men — and sent an innocent man to jail for seven years, a court was told.

Beale made allegations over three years but they were “grotesque inventions”

The US Criminal “Justice System” is Devoid of Justice

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-criminal-justice-system-is-devoid-of-justice/5595805

10 Wrongful Convictions Based On False Confessions

https://www.top10lists.today/10-wrongful-convictions-based-on-false-confessions/

DNA Evidence Frees the Innocent

http://reason.com/archives/2017/07/18/dna-evidence-frees-the-innocen

This essay is adapted from Exonerated: A History of the Innocence Movement

Odds stacked against the wrongly convicted

Exonerations are rare and "over-charges"/convictions common

https://www.outandaboutnashville.com/story/odds-stacked-against-wrongly-convicted/51793#.WWAY0OmQzv8

Jailhouse snitches face greater scrutiny

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/article/Jailhouse-snitches-face-greater-scrutiny-11735206.php

In a report released late last year, the commission noted 33 percent of the nondrug-related exonerations it reviewed had false accusations as a contributing factor leading to wrongful convictions...

In 2009, Texas became one of the first states to regulate testimony from jailhouse snitches by prohibiting the conviction of defendants based solely on their testimony without corroborating evidence...

A criminal defendant is innocent until proven guilty, but it does not always work out that way in Texas. The state has earned a reputation for sending the wrong person to prison....

Our Criminal Injustice System

http://natmonitor.com/2017/08/24/our-criminal-injustice-system/

So, I’ll say it again: being accused of a crime is not the same as being guilty of a crime. ...

Being accused of a crime is very expensive. And if you can’t afford it, you’re in trouble. ...All this without a conviction, without a trial, and most likely, without any evidence. Here comes the best part. If you can’t afford thousands of dollars for a defense attorney, you get a public defender... public defenders are overworked. ..They don’t have the time to sit down and talk with their clients, to review any evidence, or basically anything. ...Add to this that 95% of all convictions are plea bargains ...

The Deal Prosecutors Offer When They Have No Cards Left to Play

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/what-does-an-innocent-man-have-to-do-to-go-free-plead-guilty/539001/

When DNA evidence exonerated two men convicted in a 1987 murder, one took his chances on a retrial to overturn his conviction. The other accepted a special deal and left prison immediately—as a convicted killer.

DNA lab techniques, pioneered in New York, now under fire

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/09/09/dna-lab-techniques-pioneered-new-york-now-under-fire/OaJjRSZR6WnsCpQ0v1AAcK/story.html

Two techniques for analyzing DNA evidence that were once considered cutting edge are now under fire amid questions about their reliability, and criminal defense attorneys in New York have asked a state agency to investigate the renowned lab that once used both methods....Both techniques have been phased out in favor of new technology. But the lab says it’s used its forensic statistical tool developed in-house in 1,350 cases over the past six years and used what’s called low copy number analysis in about 3,450 cases over the past 11 years. Once New York was the only lab in the country that used the latter method... and we can’t tell if it’s accurate or not....

All the Lies About the Origins of ‘Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire’

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/liar-liar-pants-on-fire-origin-phrase-history

5 Ways That Innocent African Americans End Up Behind Bars

https://newsone.com/3740742/5-ways-that-innocent-african-americans-end-up-behind-bars/

The U.S. prison population is about 2.3 million (the largest in the history of the world), with most of its inmates in jail for nonviolent offenses. If our prison population were a city, it would be the size of Houston, Texas.... Here’s look at the systemic failures that fill prisons, jails, and detention centers with people who shouldn’t be there. 1.Overburdened Defense Lawyers ...2.Forensic Evidence...3. Law Enforcement Corruption...4. Lack Of Speedy Trials...5. Money...

STUDY: Worst Crimes Carry Highest Risk of Bad Evidence, Wrongful Convictions

http://www.socialistwebzine.com/?p=4320

Two professors of sociology and criminology who reviewed more than 1500 cases in which convicted prisoners were later exonerated have found a direct relationship between the seriousness of the crime and miscarriages of justice: “the ‘worst of the worst crimes,’” they say, “produce the ‘worst of the worst evidence.'” ... “as the seriousness of a crime increases, so too does the chance of a wrongful conviction.” Prosecutions for the most serious crimes tend to involve the most inaccurate and unreliable evidence, they said, and the risks are greatest in cases producing murder convictions and death sentences. “The types of vile crimes in which the state is most apt to seek the death penalty are the same crimes in which the state is most apt to participate in the production of erroneous evidence…, from false confession to untruthful snitches, government misconduct, and bad science.” Delving into the phenomenon of false confessions, the professors found that “[a]s the seriousness of a particular crime increases, or the seriousness of the general crime problem increases, police interrogation becomes more aggressive. In turn, aggressive interrogation produces more true confessions and more false confessions.” They say police officers are under institutional pressures to solve high-profile cases and the “most heinous” and serious crimes, which leads than to use more aggressive tactics to obtain a confession....

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 234 of those 1535 exonerated from 1989 through 2014 falsely confessed, 22 of whom were sentenced to death. The sociologists found that 21% of those convicted of murder falsely confessed, as compared with only 7% of those convicted of less serious crimes. In exoneration cases in which DNA evidence bolstered claims of innocence, 41% of those wrongly convicted of murder had confessed, a false confessions rate that was seven times higher than those convicted of crimes other than murder. As for death-row exonerees, 39% of people who were convicted of the most heinous murders confessed, five times the false confession rate (7%) of those who convicted of murders the researchers had determined were less heinous. Phillips and Richardson also found that the heinousness of the murder predicts “the government’s reliance on an untruthful snitch, government misconduct, and bad science.” Of the death-row exonerations, the state committed misconduct in 86% percent of high-heinous murders, compared to 66% percent of low-heinous murders; the state used prison informant testimony implicating the wrong suspect in 42% of high-heinous murders, as compared to 15% of low-heinous murders; and bad science was presented in 39% of high heinous murders, compared to 23% of low heinous murders.

Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1354604

This study found that in the bulk of these trials of innocent defendants - 82 cases or 60% - forensic analysts called by the prosecution provided invalid testimony at trial - that is, testimony with conclusions misstating empirical data or wholly unsupported by empirical data. ...

Defense counsel rarely cross-examined analysts concerning invalid testimony and rarely obtained experts of their own. In the few cases in which invalid forensic science was challenged, judges seldom provided relief....

Bath man who framed Frances Avis to appear on Channel 5 show The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/news/bath-news/bath-man-who-framed-frances-579534

A Bath man who was jailed for 15 months for framing his neighbour ... Mark Webb pleaded guilty to four counts of perverting the course of justice in June after forging four letters incriminating Frances Avis.

Channel 5 filmed with Webb last year after he complained about his neighbour, who was convicted and sentenced as a result of the false allegations he had made.... Since it started in 2014, the documentary series has followed some of the most extreme cases of fallouts between neighbours all over the country...

ABA project will use e-discovery software to identify wrongful conviction trends

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/aba_project_will_use_e_discovery_software_to_identify_wrongful_conviction_t

The ABA Center for Innovation and software developer Relativity on Tuesday announced the project known as DFENDR, an acronym for Distributed Forensic Expert Network Delegating Review. The project will analyze data on cases to determine whether bias or other factors could have contributed to wrongful convictions, according to the Bar Leader....

“We’re looking forward to setting an example of how the legal community can use technology to fight injustices caused by incorrect assumptions about human behavior.”

The DFNDER Project to Improve Review of Wrongful Convictions in the United States

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-dfnder-project-to-improve-review-of-wrongful-convictions-in-the-united-states-300541020.html

Senate passes sweeping criminal justice reform bill

http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/79709

“In 1982, about one of every 127 Massachusetts residents was under correctional control or supervision. Now that number is about 1 out of 25. ...“It is a major achievement to pass a criminal justice package of this magnitude, and I am proud of the Senate’s efforts to reform our broken system.”

Poole juror: Jurors voted guilty because they just wanted to go home

https://www.myhorrynews.com/poole-juror-jurors-voted-guilty-because-they-just-wanted-to/article_9bb8dd0e-6043-11e8-bc97-5b14f7b77e92.html

Hardee says he believed during the 10 hours of jury deliberations that Kimberly Renee Poole should not be found guilty, but he bowed to pressure, joined the majority that just wanted to go home, changed his vote to guilty and sealed her fate....“It wasn’t really a matter of if she was guilty or not guilty, they just didn’t prove it,” he said....

Although a jury is allowed smoke breaks while a trial is going on, it isn’t allowed to leave the room once deliberations start. Food is brought in, and smoke breaks are gone.

Hardee says one of the reasons he gave in was because he so desperately wanted a cigarette. “Those are very coercive tactics,” he said....“From what her lawyer told me, it’s going to be hard to get her out. I mean she was convicted on no evidence at all,” he said....

Step One to Stop False Accusations: Exposure

https://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2018/05/31/step-one-to-stop-false-accusations-exposure-n2485897

Incontrovertible fact: People lie.... Often, the reasons for manufacturing devastating fables are indiscernible or unfathomable. But this much is clear: If there are no consequences for lying about crime, false accusations will continue to ruin the lives of innocents ... Wrongful convictions are based on a rotten foundation of lies and untruths constructed by a village of false accusers, including jailhouse snitches, biased investigators, corrupt crime lab analysts, faulty eyewitnesses, and ruthless prosecutors acting in bad faith....

Reform begins with confronting, instead of denying, reality. The cure for ignorance is exposure. Bias of all kinds destroys lives. People lie about everything under the sun. Women do lie about rape. Judges, prosecutors and police are not infallible. The system does fail.

Plea deals punish the innocent in Gun Trace Task Force scandal

https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/plea-deals-punish-the-innocent-in-gun-trace-task-force-scandal/

The wrongful conviction of people who plead guilty due to police misconduct “is a disturbingly common feature of the criminal justice system,”

Not Guilty—But Not Free

https://thecrimereport.org/2018/06/19/not-guilty-but-not-free/

Phillips said there are programs in place for former prisoners, but when you have been declared not guilty “You’re on your own.” ...Given that they have to try to reconcile and come to terms with their experience of wrongful imprisonment, exonerees might have the highest incidence of PTSD of all former inmates.... only 37 percent of those exonerated receive any funding from the state at all....Unlike parolees and probationers, exonerees often don’t have services to help them re-enter society. Only three states have dedicated re-entry services for the exonerated. ...

The Era of Mass Incarceration Isn’t Over. This New Report Shows Why.

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/06/the-era-of-mass-incarceration-isnt-over-this-new-report-shows-why

A new report, however, says something critical has been overlooked in the mass incarceration discussion: local jails.... although the national prison population has gone down, in some parts of the country, the incarcerated population, particularly in local jails, has actually increased....

focusing solely on prison rates obscures what’s actually going on. “Those [national] declines are really uneven, and they’re mixed with incredible growth in some states and some counties, even in some states that are overall seeing declines. It’s a complicated picture.”...

compare them in terms of rate, the [incarceration rate of the] small county is about three times larger per capita compared to the NYC jail.”...

In response to pressure from criminal justice reform advocates, some states have simply reclassified felony crimes as misdemeanors, emptying prisons while filling up jails. The report says that between 2010 and 2015, 11 states decreased their prison populations while concurrently increasing their jail populations. This means that, in addition to perpetuating mass incarceration, more people are serving sentences meant for prison in jail, which are supposed to serve pre-trial detainees, not long-term inmates.

In addition, some states are actually doing the opposite and sending more people to prison rather than jail, a phenomenon the authors acknowledge merits more research. The report speculates that a possible reason for this could be that counties are motivated to send inmates to the state prison instead of the county jail, because the state foots the bill for the former.

Everyone pays when an innocent person is wrongfully convicted

http://www.sj-r.com/opinion/20181001/guest-view-everyone-pays-when-innocent-person-is-wrongfully-convicted

Oct. 2, is “International Wrongful Conviction Day.”... 2,271 individuals nationwide, have been exonerated from the most serious of wrongful convictions — murder, sexual assault, armed robbery and other high-level felonies. No one knows how many have been exonerated from “lesser” offenses, because such results are too many to track. ... In Illinois, the annual cost of housing one person for one year in the Department of Corrections is $44,967. ...

Kavanaugh confirmation exemplifies divided system that favors wealth

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2018/10/07/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-divided-justice-system-policing-usa/1493756002/

“It is worse to be poor and innocent than rich and guilty” in America. That's what a capital defense attorney once told me.

LOL VIDEO...

Forensic Science: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

https://youtu.be/ScmJvmzDcG0

1 in 55 U.S. Adults Is on Probation or Parole

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/10/31/1-in-55-us-adults-is-on-probation-or-parole

about half of the roughly 2.3 million people who complete their probation and parole terms each year do so successfully, nearly a third fail for a range of reasons, and almost 350,000 of those individuals return to jail or prison, often for violating the rules rather than committing new crimes. ...

North Dakota: 1 in 82 adults is under community supervision...

UNITED SLAVES GUBMINT & LAW IS A CRIMINAL GANG AND A TERROST REGIME. GUBMINT AND LAW IS A PROTECTION RACKET FOR THE MASTAS. THEY CREATE, FABRICATE, PROVOKE, INSTIGATE, ATTACK, etc., ... DANGERS WHICH THEY THEN EXTORT JOHN SLAVES TO PAY THEM FOR PROTECTION. FROM POLICE RACKETS, ATTORNEY RACKET, TO COURTROOM RACKET THE ENTIRE LEGAL PROFESSIONS PROFITS FROM EVERY CASE STEALING MONEY FROM JOHN SLAVE. NO WONDER USA IS #1 LEADING JAILER. GUBMINT MASTAS ALSO RUN A PROTECTION RACKET TO FOREIGN NATIONS PROVOKING WARS WITH SOME NATIONS SO THEY CAN SELL PROTECTION TO OTHER NATIONS...

Protection racket

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket

A protection racket is a scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law—in other words, a racket that sells security, traditionally physical security but now also computer security. Through the credible threat of violence, the racketeers deter people from swindling, robbing, injuring, sabotaging or otherwise harming their clients. Protection rackets tend to appear in markets where the police and judiciary cannot be counted on to provide legal protection, either because of incompetence (as in weak or failed states) or illegality (black markets).

Protection rackets are indistinguishable in practice from extortion rackets, and distinguishable from private security, by some degree of implied threat that the racketeers themselves may attack the business if it fails to pay for their protection. A distinction is possible between a "pure" extortion racket, in which the racketeers might only agree not to attack a business, and a broader protection racket offering some real private security along with some extortion on the side, in which the criminals might agree to defend a business from any attack by either themselves or third parties (other criminal gangs). However, this distinction is moot in reality because extortion racketeers may have to defend their clients against rival gangs if only to avoid losing their cash cows. By corollary, criminal gangs may have to maintain control of territories (turfs), because local businesses don't have enough revenue to feed countless parasites without financially collapsing and thus the parasites must compete for hosts....

Government protection rackets: Government officials may demand bribes to look the other way or extort something of value from citizens or corporations in the form of a kickback. It need not always be money. A lucrative job after leaving office may have been in exchange for protection offered when in office. Payment may also show up indirectly in the form of a campaign contribution. Stopping governments agencies as a whole, and buying protection in the government is called regulatory capture.

129,610 Cases Now In Innocents Database

http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_72/jd_issue_72.pdf

129,610 Cases Now In Innocents Database The Innocents Database now includes 129,610 cases: 27,303 from the U.S.,and 102,307 from 119 other countries. The database includes 26,389 U.S. cases from 2018 to 1989, when the first DNA exoneration occurred. The Innocents Database is the world’s largest database of exonerated persons, and it includes all identifiable exonerations in the United States, as well as internationally.

The Innocents Database includes:

● 605 innocent people sentenced to death.

● 1,101 innocent people sentenced to life in prison.

● 2,324 innocent people convicted of a homicide related crime.

● 1,153 innocent people convicted of a sexual assault related crime.

● 839 innocent people were convicted after a false confession by him or herself or a co-defendant.

● 124,314 innocent people were convicted of a crime that never occurred.

● 233 innocent people were posthumously exonerated by a court or a pardon.

● 90 people were convicted of a crime when they were in another city, state or country from where the crime occurred.

● 2,068 innocent people had 1 or more codefendants. The most innocent codefendants in any one case was 36, and 25 cases had 10 or more co-defendants.

● 12% of wrongly convicted persons are women.

● The average for all exonerated persons is 7-1/8 years imprisonment before their release.

● 31 is the average age when a person is wrongly imprisoned.

● Cases of innocent people convicted in 120 countries are in the database.

● 27,303 cases involve a person convicted in the United States.

● 102,307 cases involve a person convicted in a country other than the U.S.

Click here to go to the Innocents Database at www.forejustice.org/exonerations.htm

The Rising Tide of Wrongful Convictions

https://longreads.com/2018/11/28/the-rising-tide-of-wrongful-convictions/

Fifty-five percent of the first sixteen hundred exoneration cases involve false testimony — not mistaken identifications, but flat-out lies. Witnesses lie for many reasons: some to protect themselves or someone else, some because law enforcement has coached, coerced, or promised them a reward. Some witnesses lie out of plain malice. Lying under oath is perjury, which is a state and federal crime, though it is among the least prosecuted...

USA SLAVES ARE FORCED TO PLEAD GUILTY TO MADE UP FICTION SO THAT THEY CAN BE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED WHEN THE SLAVE AUCTION HAS NO REAL ACTUAL FACTS....

Fictional Pleas

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3273691

A fictional plea is one in which the defendant pleads guilty to a crime he has not committed with the knowledge of the defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. ... where there is no creative option based on the underlying facts of the allegation, the attorneys must turn to fiction. ... But this Article is also an examination of how this seemingly empathetic practice is made possible by the nature of the modern adversarial process – namely, that the criminal system has continually traded away accuracy in exchange for efficiency via the plea bargain process. In this sense, fictional pleas serve as a case study in criminal justice problem solving. Faced with the moral quandary of mandatory collateral consequences, the system adjusts by discarding truth and focusing solely on resolution. The fictional plea lays bare the soul of an institution where everything has become a bargaining chip: not merely collateral consequences, but truth itself. Rather than a grounding principle, truth is nothing more than another factor to negotiate around.

How Misdemeanors Turn Innocent People Into Criminals

https://theintercept.com/2019/01/13/misdemeanor-justice-system-alexandra-natapoff/

The misdemeanor system represents 80 percent of the state criminal dockets in this country...

We need a misdemeanor system that is capable of punishing low-level crime in a way that’s proportionate and fair, but our misdemeanor system has ballooned to encompass all kinds of other things: to create tools for police to engage in order-maintenance regulation of high crime and/or poor neighborhoods of color; to enforce gentrification boundaries; to collect information; to meet performance metrics in their own department. The misdemeanor system has always exceeded its core purpose of crime control and always reached into the outer corners of social control and social regulation....

We know that approximately a quarter of the American adult population has a criminal record. That’s a terrible public policy....And the whole system, writ large, really incentivizes the guilty plea....

Of course, defendants are under the most extraordinary pressure to plead guilty....

This seems like a nearly perfect system for convicting the innocent. It is a setup for a wrongful conviction because it’s fast, it’s sloppy; because the evidence is not scrutinized, because there is such an enormous pressure on defendants to plead guilty, and such enormous pressure on all the official players to get them to plead guilty regardless of the evidence. Indeed, much of the time, the evidence will never be checked, and the pressure to plead will overwhelm what we think of as the true function of the criminal system, which is to actually figure out whether anybody has committed a crime or not....

HOW BAD ARE THE AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS?

SO BAD THAT EVEN THE SLAVE AUCTION IS CATCHING TYPHUS FROM THE PO'LICE...

‘Absolutely terrifying’: Deputy city attorney says she contracted Typhus

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-city-hall-typhus-20190209-story.html

typhus. “It was absolutely terrifying,” Greenwood said, describing symptoms that included a 102-degree fever, “the worst headache I have ever had in my life,” and dizziness so severe that she needed help walking to the bathroom. Greenwood’s experience — and her willingness to speak publicly about it — was a driving factor in this week’s admission by city officials that Los Angeles’ iconic seat of government is infested with vermin....

PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT = ABOLUTE POWERS = IMMUNITY...

Indiana seeks to uphold conviction after hypnosis bolstered identification

https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2019/indiana-seeks-to-uphold-conviction-after-hypnosis-bolstered-identification/

But across the country, instances of apparent misconduct by prosecutors seldom are reported, and prosecutors rarely face disciplinary action, according to legal experts. Disciplinary complaints are not public, and there is little information about how often instances are even reported. But experts say that attorneys and judges are reluctant to file complaints.

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges “all swim around in the same fishbowl together and nobody wants to be a snitch and rat someone out they interact with on a regular basis,” says Lara Bazelon, associate professor at the University of San Francisco Law School.

Bazelon said defense attorneys might fear prosecutors would retaliate against future clients of theirs, and judges, who often face re-election or retention bids, would face electoral backlash. Prosecutorial misconduct, but often no discipline

Past studies have shown that prosecutorial misconduct happens with some regularity, and in the worst cases leads to wrongful convictions....

The National Registry for Exonerations found in 2017 that 84 exonerations that year—about 60 percent— were the result of “official misconduct,” the great majority of which deals with police or prosecutors withholding potentially exculpatory evidence. Earlier, the Center for Public Integrity found more than 2,000 cases nationwide in which convictions were partly or fully reversed based, at least in part, on prosecutorial misconduct; But only 44 of these cases resulted in any kind of discipline of the prosecutor. John Hollway, the director of the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Quattrone Center, cited several reasons prosecutors often go undisciplined for misconduct: Many judges are former prosecutors. The disciplinary boards also are often staffed by former prosecutors. And judges often have rapport with prosecutors in their courtroom.

Additionally, experts note the difficulty in establishing that the misconduct is willful and not accidental....

How Data Can Help Curb Wrongful Convictions

https://www.smartdatacollective.com/how-data-is-helping-the-wrongfully-accused-prove-innocence/

According to a federally funded study conducted on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, it’s believed that wrongful convictions in cases with a sexual assault component occur at a rate of 11.6 percent.... While DNA has helped exonerate hundreds of people, it’s not always the only factor involved in a case. Whether it’s a case with or without DNA, the wrongfully accused often find themselves behind bars because of an inability to provide a documented alibi...

Danny Kay, 26, had been jailed after a woman accused him of rape following a sexual encounter. His conviction was largely rooted in a string of Facebook messages that appeared to show him apologizing for sex and lying about his age. However, it turned out that the accuser had actually selectively deleted messages in order to prove her version of the story. When Kay’s sister-in-law did some digging around, she was able to find the original message thread in an archived format. It showed that the sexual encounters were quite consensual...

Beyond ‘Brady’: The Ethical Implications When a Prosecutor Learns That an Officer Fabricated Evidence

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/05/09/beyond-brady-the-ethical-implications-when-a-prosecutor-learns-that-an-officer-fabricated-evidence/

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office recently announced the indictment of NYPD detective Joseph Franco, who was charged with numerous counts of perjury and official misconduct. The indictment alleges that Detective Franco, a 19-year veteran of the Manhattan narcotics squad, fabricated evidence and testified falsely in at least three cases where the defendants pled guilty and received prison sentences. In the aftermath of the indictment, defense attorneys have called on prosecutors in Manhattan and the Bronx to conduct an investigation into other cases involving Detective Franco in order to determine whether more convictions should be vacated....

This article addresses a prosecutor’s ethical obligations under the New York Rules of Professional Conduct (the Rules) upon learning of new evidence that might exonerate a convicted defendant.... See Rule 3.8 Cmnt. In particular, the rule recognizes: “The prosecutor’s duty to seek justice has traditionally been understood to require the prosecutor to take precautions to avoid convicting innocent individuals, but also requires the prosecutor to take reasonable remedial measures when it appears likely that an innocent person was wrongly convicted.” Id., Cmnt. [6A]....

The Opinion concludes that Rule 3.8(c) may be triggered by, among other things, “new evidence that tends to discredit the proof at trial, such as … information impeaching a key witness.” The Opinion also concludes that Rule 3.8(c) applies equally to guilty pleas as a conviction after trial “since a guilty plea does not foreclose the possibility that the defendant was in fact innocent.” This is particularly important here since all three of the cases on which Detective Franco’s indictment is based involved guilty pleas....

LMFAO. HOW CORRUPT ARE USA SLAVE AUCTIONS? READ ON...

Testimony from legally blind eyewitness results in murder conviction; case now under review

https://www.theblaze.com/news/witness-in-murder-case-was-blind

The murder conviction of a Chicago man is under review in Illinois, after it was revealed following trial that the key witness — who purportedly saw the crime and identified the perpetrator — is legally blind.

Dexter Saffold swore under oath five years ago that he saw Darien Harris kill a man at a South Side gas station in 2011. While there was no physical evidence linking Harris to the crime, and surveillance footage did not show the shooting or the suspect's face, Cook County Circuit Judge Nicholas Ford found Saffold to be an "honest witness" who gave an "unblemished" testimony, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Based on that, Ford found Harris guilty of murder and sentenced him to 76 years in prison, where he remains. There was no jury trial, and the Illinois appellate court upheld the conviction in 2016.

What Ford didn't know at the time was that Saffold was legally blind, despite claiming in court that he had no problem seeing. Injustice Watch revealed "Saffold's vision problems have been documented in lawsuits he's filed over a span of 16 years against colleges, a landlord and two employers" for discriminating against him for his visual disability.

Doctors and the U.S. government deemed Saffold blind from his advanced glaucoma years before his testimony.

Never mind the fact that the sole witness whose testimony led to Harris's conviction is blind, he lied about that fact in court, attorneys for Harris contend. They are fighting to have their client's conviction overturned on that basis.

There were other witnesses present during at the shooting. Two of them initially claimed Harris was the perpetrator, but later recanted, alleging they were pressured by detectives to point the finger at Harris. The gas station attendant working that night also said he saw who committed the murder and recognized the suspect, but insisted Harris was not the guy who did it. That witness was not called to testify.

Anything else?

Illinois courts have started taking a second look at eyewitness testimony of late. The state's Supreme Court noted in 2017 that one-third of the 150 wrongful convictions in the state since 1989 were based on mistaken eyewitness testimony, according to attorney James Dimeas.

DNA is cracking mysteries and cold cases. But is genome sleuthing the ‘unregulated wild west?’

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/14/heres-how-dna-cracking-cold-cases-and-exonerating-innocent/1159571001/

With DNA becoming the gold standard for forensic science, it has also shined light on flaws in other disciplines like bite mark comparisons, according to Potkin. She also added that most crimes don’t lend themselves to being resolved through DNA given that only 10% of violent crimes have DNA to test. Potkin added that advances in DNA technology have helped the public understand how wrongful convictions happen, noting that 28% of DNA exonerations involved people who confessed to crimes they didn’t commit. “Without DNA that would hard for people to understand,” she said. “Having DNA prove that that happens and happens at such alarming rates has forced people to go back and say ‘what are people doing in the interrogation room?’”... DNA evidence isn’t just used to convict criminals in unsolved cases, it’s also being used to free innocent people who have spent decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit....

LAW ABIDING GOOD GUYS MURDERED AN INNOCENT MAN, USING THE LAW TO MURDER...

It's Never Too Late to Clear the Name of an Innocent Loved One Executed. We Know First Hand

https://www.newsweek.com/cameron-todd-willingham-sedley-alley-trial-fire-1427060

Our son and cousin, Cameron Todd Willingham, was convicted of killing his three baby girls by arson. His conviction rested on junk science and a jailhouse informant. In the days before Todd’s execution in February 2004, a nationally recognized arson expert, Dr. Gerald Hurst, submitted a detailed report to Governor Rick Perry and Texas courts showing that the arson evidence was false. It was based on false assumptions that had been discredited a decade earlier. Todd didn't spread accelerant around his house and start a fire. No chemical evidence of accelerant was found in the debris.

The fire was accidental—there was no crime at all. Governor Perry and the Texas courts, to our dismay, ignored this finding which has since been confirmed many times over by independent experts and eventually the Texas Forensic Science Commission. A number of arson convictions have been overturned.

After Todd’s conviction, the District Attorney illegally reduced the sentence of the jailhouse informant who falsely testified that Todd confessed to him about starting the fire by spreading accelerant and hid that fact, and the informant’s efforts to recant, from Todd’s lawyers. Todd was only 36 when Texas took his life by lethal injection and shattered the Willingham family forever. ...

Illinois Man Sentenced to 76 Years in Prison Based on Testimony From a Legally Blind Person

https://communityjournal.net/tag/wrongful-conviction/

However, new evidence — in the form of a 2013 discrimination lawsuit — shows that Saffold suffered from glaucoma, a disease that made him legally blind. He was also found to be receiving disability benefits about 10 years before the shooting, more proving his visual impairment. During the trial, Saffold was asked if his diabetes affected his vision, in which he initially answered yes and then quickly changed his answer.

Harris’ attorney, Jodi Garvey, claimed that Saffold’s testimony should be tossed out due to his inconsistencies. She wrote in a July court filing, “Considering the fact that Mr. Saffold is admittedly legally blind, a matter he denied during his testimony, his identification is worthless.”

Aside from that, Garvey said a surveillance video showed a man on the scooter, presumably Saffold, approaching the gas station after the shooting and after the gunman left which would contradict Saffold’s testimony that he saw the incident and he bumped into the gunman. Garvey said the surveillance video wasn’t presented at the trial.

Another eye-witness, Jodie Toney, who was working at the gas station at that time said that Harris was not the gunman. He said the lead detectives on the case, Isaac Lambert and Devinn Jones, told him beforehand to point to Harris in the lineup but he refused. He did not also spot the actual shooter on the lineup. He wasn’t contacted to testify to the case.

Moreover, Harris’ 41-year-old mother, Nakesha Harris, said his son was at home watching NBA with his father when the shooting occurred. No physical evidence was found linking Harris to the crime....

Innocent Until Proven Guilty? Well, That Depends

https://researchblog.duke.edu/2019/07/22/innocent-until-proven-guilty-well-that-depends/

a recent study conducted at Duke University finds that jurors assessment of guilt is less reliant on the type of evidence and more on the severity of the crime. Mock jurors in the study were more likely to find someone charged with murder guilty than someone charged with robbery.... It may be that jurors use moral and emotional responses to various crimes as reasoning for the decisions they make regarding the defendant’s guilt.... It appeared that the more threat or outrage they felt toward crime type, the more likely they were to find the defendant guilty. ... Notably for jurors, crime type highly influenced their perception of confidence in guilt. The study showed a positive correlation between personal, emotional, and moral biases and “adjudicative bias,’ or the likelihood of conviction. And while jurors did show more of a trend in this finding, practicing lawyers and prosecutors also exhibited a crime-type bias correlation with the seriousness of crime, ... The study’s results model how punishment, outrage, and threat are almost entirely dependent on crime effect and crime scenario. This indicates that despite how much evidence was presented, crime type alone influenced jurors decisions to charge someone as guilty of that crime more frequently. ...

Study finds jail before trial doubles incarceration chances in Oregon

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2019/07/study-finds-jail-before-trial-doubles-incarceration-chances-in-oregon.html

Defendants detained in Oregon jails were more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as part of their sentence compared to those released before court proceedings began, according to a study presented in May.... The study also found that defendants who spent long periods in jail before trial faced a greater likelihood of receiving incarceration as a part of their sentence. The findings are consistent with other states’ findings.... For instance, some defendants may pose a flight risk. Some may have a mental health crisis and need to stay under supervision. Some people simply cannot post bail.... Certain charges, such as domestic violence, can automatically keep a defendant in jail....

The study also found a defendant was more likely to be incarcerated after their 30th day in jail. Some other studies suggest defendants are more likely to agree to a plea deal after a month in jail so they can leave quicker, likely through probation or time served, the report said....

“When you start to see how who stays in and who gets out relates to prison (populations), it really sets up a pretty bad picture of wealth being an important aspect of whether or not you’re going end up going to prison,”

The right to counsel in rural America is often a right without a remedy

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/man-who-had-no-lawyer/593470

Yet since 2008, urban jail populations have shrunk dramatically, while rural ones continue to rise; the highest incarceration rates are now in rural counties, whereas 20 years ago, they were in urban ones. “This dynamic has profound national implications because it means that people in an enormous swath of the country are being left behind,” Christian Henrichson, research director for the Vera Institute’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections, told me.

Some of this can be attributed to the use of jails as a moneymaker for rural places with few other industries. Government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provide money for counties to build jails as a form of economic stimulus. Counties, in turn, build bigger jails. The space is used in part to house state or federal inmates in exchange for “rent.” Vera and other organizations have pointed out that jail construction isn’t a fail-safe path to economic development, especially because if jails close due to unconstitutionally poor conditions, the county is left footing the bill, which can bankrupt local governments.

But many of these rural jails house a large number of local defendants who are awaiting trial, as Keene was. According to Vera, while urban pretrial populations began to level off and then decline in the early 2000s, those populations kept growing in rural counties, eventually eclipsing urban ones. In 2013, rural counties had 265 pretrial detainees per 100,000 people, almost one-third higher than the urban rate....

While it is well known that public defenders’ caseloads are untenably high in jurisdictions nationwide, prompting lawsuits, the situation is particularly dire in largely rural states such as Louisiana. These so-called legal deserts may have only one or two defense attorneys, who are usually near retirement with no one to take their place. In Mississippi, defendants routinely wait up to a year to even get assigned counsel. In Minnesota, counties can span hundreds of miles and court may sit only twice a month, requiring staff and lawyers to drive an hour each way....

they shouldn’t be kept in jail indefinitely without adequate representation simply because appropriate lawyers weren’t, and would perhaps never be, available....

Wrongful Conviction Day

https://innocencecanada.com/wrongful-conviction-day

Wrongful Conviction Day was launched by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) now Innocence Canada on October 2, 2014. Every year organizations, schools, businesses and individuals representing countries from around the world are involved in raising awareness concerning wrongful convictions....

While Wrongful Conviction Day takes place on October 2nd of every year, awareness and fundraising events take place throughout the entire month of October.

SLAVE AUCTIONS IN GHANA REQUIRE EVIDENCE WHICH IS WHY A LOW PROSECUTION RATE THERE FOR FALSE DV ACCUSATIONS.

IN THE UNITED SLAVES THAT IS NOT THE CASE. IN THE USA NIGGAZ ARE FORCED TO PLEAD GUILTY TO THE FALSE CHARGES TO BECOME WRONGFULLY CONVICTED SLAVES FOR THE USA...

Low prosecutions in domestic violence cases due to insufficient evidence

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Low-prosecutions-in-domestic-violence-cases-due-to-insufficient-evidence-DOVVSU-Prosecutor-775983

A prosecutor with the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, Inspector Ohene Asiedu says the inability of victims of domestic violence to protect useful evidence is a key factor hampering the rate in successfully prosecution of cases his outfit handles.

Speaking during a discussion centred on combating domestic violence in Accra, Inspector Asiedu said various factors account for the very low success rates in the country presently.

According to the Inspector, making a case for prosecuting domestic violence cases rely heavily on the availability of evidence. He said victims of domestic violence mostly turn-up to their outfit with vital evidence either destroyed or tampered with.

“Most of the time people are not able to protect the evidence and we work according to the law. If you want to prosecute you need more evidence to back up your case, most people come and they don’t have evidence...

How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/repeatarrests.html

federal survey, finding that at least 4.9 million people are arrested and jailed each year, and at least one in 4 of those individuals are booked into jail more than once during the same year. ...Most people arrested multiple times don’t pose a serious public safety risk. The vast majority (88%) of people who were arrested and jailed multiple times had not been arrested for a serious violent offense in the past year....

In addition to social and economic factors, our analysis also shows that people who are arrested and booked more than once per year often have underlying health issues, many of which can lead to police contact. Our finding that people with multiple arrests have low rates of violence but serious medical and mental health needs gives new urgency to the growing concerns that jails have become “the de facto mental health care system in many communities,” and that police are often used to respond to medical and mental health problems, not to matters of public safety....

Unnecessary arrests cost cities and counties millions of dollars but do nothing to fix the underlying medical, economic, and social problems. ...

NATIVE BORN AMERICANS ARE THE MOST LIKELY TO BE ARRESTED NEARLY TWICE AS OFTEN AS "ILLEGAL" IMMIGRANTS, AND ALMOST TWO AND A HALF TIMES MORE OFTEN THAN LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. ARE IMMIGRANTS GIVEN IMMUNITY STATUS BY SLAVE PATROL WHEREAS USA SLAVES ARE BEING HARRASSED AND WRONGFULLY CONVICTED? THE FUNNY PART IS "ILLEGAL" IMMIGRANT IS PROOF OF THE IMMUNITY GIVEN TO THE IMMIGRANTS. WHY?

DO THE SPINELESS GUBMINT PIMPS FEAR BEING ACCUSED OF BEING RACISTS SO THEY EXTERMINATE THEIR OWN PEOPLE TO PROVE THEY ARE NOT RACISTS?

Criminal Immigrants in Texas in 2017: Illegal Immigrant Conviction Rates and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes

https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-research-policy-brief/criminal-immigrants-texas-2017-illegal-immigrant

There were 23,450,456 native-born Americans, 1,810,892 illegal immigrants, and 3,043,248 legal immigrants living in Texas in 2017.11 In that year, native-born Americans made up about 82.9 percent of the Texas population, illegal immigrants made up about 6.4 percent of the population, and legal immigrants made up about 10.8 percent. The DPS data that this brief analyzes are for all individuals arrested and convicted in 2017, regardless of the year in which the crime was committed....

In 2017 in Texas, 399,155 native-born Americans, 16,275 illegal immigrants, and 18,235 legal immigrants were convicted of crimes. Thus, 1,702 natives were convicted for every 100,000 natives, 899 illegal immigrants for every 100,000 illegal immigrants, and 599 legal immigrants for every 100,000 legal immigrants (Figure 1). As a percentage of their respective subpopulations, illegal immigrants were over 47 percent less likely to be convicted of a crime than native-born Americans. Legal immigrants were about 65 percent less likely to be convicted of a crime than native-born Americans....

In 2017, Texas police arrested 663,579 natives, 27,998 illegal immigrants, and 36,245 legal immigrants. For every 100,000 people in each subpopulation, 2,830 native-born Americans, 1,546 illegal immigrants, and 1,191 legal immigrants were arrested. The arrest rate for illegal immigrants was 45 percent below that of native-born Americans. The arrest rate for legal immigrants was 58 percent below that of native-born Americans. Per 100,000 people in their respective subpopulations, there were more arrests of natives...

WILL YOU PLEEZE DONATE YOUR JURY PAY TO DV HOLOCAUST VICTIMS PUT IN GAS CHAMBER? WILL YOU PLEEZE WRONGFULLY CONVICT JOHN SLAVE BECUZ HE PUT HIS HO IN GAS CHAMBER? ...

Soliciting donations from jurors can bias criminal court verdicts

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/soliciting-donations-from-jurors-can-bias-criminal-court-verdicts

Since 1995, the Texas legislature has required courts to provide all jurors with the opportunity to donate their pay to the state’s crime victims fund. Administered by the Texas attorney general, this fund pays expenses of victims of violent crime. Today, Texas jurors also must have the option to donate to funds for child welfare, for victims of domestic violence and more. Other states follow Texas’ example. Maryland’s “Generous Jurors Program” gives jurors in some counties the option to donate their pay to services for foster and children’s programs. In Florida, courts can allow jurors to donate their pay to guardian ad litem programs and domestic violence shelters. In Nevada, juror donations can go to government agencies that help abused and neglected children....In our new study, we showed that priming jurors with a well-intentioned donation opportunity before judging others guilty or not guilty, is also biasing jurors’ assessments of guilt or innocence....

LIARS ARE THE #1 CAUSE OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS: LYING COPS AND PROSECUTORS. INADEQUATE DEFENSE LYING TO THE INNOCENT ACCUSED. LYING WITNESS AND LYING CRIMINALS PLAYING VICTIM FALSELY ACCUSING. LYING JAILHOUSE SNITCH. LYING LAB TECHS AND LYING EXPERT WITNESS. AND EVEN THE INNOCENT WHO IS FORCED TO FALSELY CONFESS AND FALSLEY PLEAD GUILTY.

AMERICA #1 FUKN LIARS.

Lying Prisoners: New Laws Crack Down on Jailhouse Informants

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-09-14/lying-prisoners-new-laws-crack-down-on-jailhouse-informants

A movement to put jailhouse informants under a more powerful microscope before they testify is gaining traction around the country, a byproduct of new DNA testing technology that has exonerated dozens of people wrongly locked up based on informants' lies. Several states have moved to toughen regulations on the use of such informants, whose credibility has always been an issue because they're motived to get their sentences reduced.... "Jailhouse informant testimony is one of the leading factors in wrongful convictions." Of the 365 people exonerated nationwide by DNA evidence, nearly one in five were convicted based in part on lying informants,...

Can God’s signature be forged?

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/160919/can-gods-signature-be-forged.html

The DNA testing concluded that Sutton might have been an attacker but excluded his friend as the lab results found the semen sample recovered from the backseat of the car matching with the profile of Sutton and another unknown man. Despite the victim identifying both the boys, the police put only Sutton to trial. During the prosecution, a lab technician deposed that DNA found on the victim was a precise match of Sutton. Court awarded Sutton a 25-year sentence for the offence of rape, although he asserted his innocence during the trial that he did not commit the crime. Sutton's requests for an independent DNA test met with rejection from the authorities, but an independent investigation of the police crime laboratory unveiled the truth. Fast forward to 2004; court exonerated Josiah Sutton after serving four and a half years of a 25-year sentence. Sutton’s conviction had stemmed from erroneous identification and faulty scientific testing conducted by the Houston police laboratory....

Such contentions are ominous and misleading because humans perform DNA tests, and they can make errors while conducting tests. There are several instances where DNA evidence has resulted in erroneous incriminations and false convictions. Authorities have reported false incriminations because of faulty DNA testing, inadvertent or an accidental transfer of cellular material or DNA from one sample to another, as well as coincidental DNA profile matches between different people, errors in identification or labelling of specimens, misinterpretation of test results, and purposeful planting of biological evidence...

DNA technology of late has become more sensitive, turning it into a double-edged sword as it can now detect and analyse DNA from samples comprising only 16 cells. But because of the touch-transfer properties of DNA, deducing how those cells arrive at the surface on which they are found is impossible. Small amounts of touch-transferred DNA have placed people at locations they had never before visited and implicated people for crimes, they did not commit.

Someone whose DNA is available at the crime scene could have got deposited before the crime took place or after the commission of the crime. There is also the possibility of DNA entering the scene by a process called secondary transfer, where the DNA of a person could get disseminated to another person who could carry it and leave behind at the stage. Detection of DNA that came by contamination and DNA that came by secondary transfer has become possible baffling investigations. If we don't train the forensic and legal experts to deduce forensic evidence, it could grossly lead to a miscarriage of justice....

Another difficulty with DNA is that people slough DNA at different rates. We find DNA in bodily fluids, such as blood, semen, and saliva, but we also lose microscopic pieces of skin and hair regularly....One cause of false DNA matches is because of the cross-contamination of samples. Random transfer of cellular material or DNA from one sample to another is a serious problem in laboratories leading to false reports of a DNA match between samples that emanated from different people....Also, finding out the time when the DNA might have got inserted and the time since when the DNA has got plopped is an enormous problem. ...

Seventy-three labs out of the 108 labs didn't get it right; They found suspect DNA to be part of the mix when in fact it was not. We therefore leave too much to the discretion of the labs. We should not oversell DNA evidence. Courts should take the standards of the lab into reference before considering DNA evidence. Misuse of DNA leads to a miscarriage of justice...

Criminals have become smarter and have learnt the art of evading crime control technologies. Criminals have now learnt to plant biological evidence. Deliberate planting of DNA may cause a substantial risk of false incriminations. When such planting of DNA evidence takes place, will the police be able to uncover it? Will the courts believe that a defendant is innocent when there is a DNA match?...

It is a known fact that people whose profile is in DNA database are at a higher risk of incriminations than other citizens of being falsely linked to a crime. Today, DNA singly is no longer considered being an adequate proof that a particular person certainly committed a crime. It’s often used as supporting evidence, and the days of DNA being a “smoking gun” or “bullet proof “ are already over.

WRONGFUL CONVICTION CAUSES PTSD AND OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS, INCLUDING SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND SUICIDE...

Annette Hewins death: Wrongful conviction 'took toll on health'

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-49727873

The son of a woman who was wrongly convicted of starting a fatal fire said the miscarriage of justice had "taken its toll" on her mental heath, an inquest has heard.

Annette Hewins, 51, was jailed in 1997 for the deaths of Diane Jones and her two daughters in Merthyr Tydfil in 1995. Her conviction was quashed in 1999.

She died in February 2017 less than 24 hours after being detained in a mental health unit, a court was told. Ms Hewins started using heroin in jail and had mental health issues, a jury at Pontypridd Coroner's Court heard. She served 18 months of a 13-year prison sentence following the deaths of 21-year-old Diane Jones, Shauna, two, and Sarah-Jane, 13 months, before she was released. Her son Nathan Hewins told the inquest "following the miscarriage of justice, everything had taken its toll on her". He said concerns about his mother's mental health increased in the months before she died....

DIRTY COPS, DIRTY COURTS. PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS WITH IMMUNITY...

When Prosecutors Bury Police Lies

https://theappeal.org/prosecutors-police-lies/

Court records and interviews with former prosecutors show that internal assessments of police dishonesty are rarely memorialized, potentially violating the rights of people charged in criminal cases and sometimes keeping the records of bad cops clean....

Stengel says prosecutors with the DA’s office are engaged in a cover up. He argues they had to know about Nikqi’s credibility, since they dropped a gun case right after video of Turnbull’s arrest surfaced. “The behavior of police Officer Nikqi exposed the Bronx DA’s office practice of sweeping police officers with credibility problems under the rug,” he said. “Who knows what’s under the rug, but I have a feeling it’s really ugly.”

A WNYC investigation in partnership with The Appeal has found that prosecutors in all five boroughs consistently fail to document similar signs of officer dishonesty....

Former prosecutors say that internal assessments of dishonesty are rarely memorialized. And even when clear credibility findings regarding officers are made by judges, several recent cases suggest prosecutors fail to consistently track and disclose these records. In other cases, prosecutors even went out of their way to keep an officer’s record clean, despite an extensively documented history of lying.

“If it’s something that can be swept under the rug, then you know dismiss the case, and move forward,” said one former Bronx prosecutor, who left the office in 2017 and requested anonymity citing fears of professional reprisal. “And that’s what happened in cases I’ve had that had those issues. It was kinda just, you know, let’s dismiss these cases and move forward.”...

As WNYC has previously reported, New York City DAs have quietly developed officer credibility databases based on lawsuits and findings from judges and police review agencies. But through pleas, dismissals, or other means, most cases end before officers have to testify and judicial credibility findings can be made. Consequently, prosecutors are often the actors in the criminal legal system who have the most direct information on police lying. But their internal assessments usually remain behind closed office doors.

The problem of prosecutors ignoring or burying indications of police perjury has existed for decades, according to Larry Cunningham, a former Bronx prosecutor who is currently an associate dean at the St. John’s University School of Law. Cunningham has studied how prosecutors deal with police perjury—or “testilying,” in police jargon—for 20 years. ...

"someone is wrongly convicted and sentenced to die for every three executions the state carries out"...

Death row exonerees deliver letter to governor's office to block execution of Vietnam vet

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/22/death-row-exonerees-want-gov-desantis-save-james-daileys-life/4061032002/

The four petitioners — Seth Penalver, Juan Melendez, Clemente Aguirre and Herman Lindsey — had lived with Dailey on death row at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. They said his case is eerily similar to theirs: convictions based on no physical evidence, and testimony from jailhouse informants that would later be recanted....

Penalver notes that Florida leads the nation in wrongful convictions in capital cases. He said the numbers indicate that someone is wrongly convicted and sentenced to die for every three executions the state carries out....

#1 CAUSE OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IS THE PLEA BARGAIN SYSTEM WHERE THE INNOCENT ARE FORCED TO PLEAD GUILTY TO CRIME HE DID NOT DO FOR LACK OF FAITH IN THE CORRUPT LEGAL PROCESS OF A SLAVE AUCTION...

The good and bad economics of plea bargains

http://altoday.com/archives/31183-daniel-sutter-the-good-and-bad-economics-of-plea-bargains

Our criminal justice system extensively employs pleas; 97 percent of criminal convictions result from such bargains.... trials are rare. Plea bargains make economic sense because trials are costly. Trials require courtrooms, lawyers, judges, court reporters, bailiffs and juries. Witnesses must come to court to testify. A guilty plea saves these costs....

Actual guilt or innocence is secondary in the bargaining model to the likelihood of conviction at trial. While we might hope that innocent defendants always get acquitted, wrongful convictions happen, especially with overworked and underfunded public defenders. An innocent person should consider a deal if they look guilty enough. Emotions, not logic, might explain an innocent person’s refusal to plead guilty. We must move past the fantasy that only a guilty person would ever plead guilty....

Plea bargains enable incarceration on the American scale, with over 2.3 million persons behind bars as of 2016. ...Another negative of plea bargaining is adding charges to encourage a deal. ... Finally, pervasive plea bargaining might undermine the quality of criminal evidence generally. Cross-examination uncovers mistakes, lies, and bogus theories, but only at trial. If over 90 percent of convictions come from pleas, the evidence need only be strong enough to induce a deal, not to withstand cross-examination. ... Weak evidence also increases the likelihood of innocent people being accused and forced to plead guilty...

CASS COUNTY NORTH DAKOTA IS THE SAME WAY. THE FALSELY ACCUSED GET A FREE COURT APPOINTED LIEYER WHO DOESNT MEET HIS CLIENT UNTIL COURT MONTHS LATER WHO THEN SAYS COME BACK IN ABOUT A YEAR FOR TRIAL AS THE FALSELY ACCUSED WAITS IN JAIL FOR A YEAR FOR THE FAST AND SPEEDY SLAVE AUCTION, OR IS HOMELESS BECUZ RESTRAINING ORDER WONT LET HIM BACK IN HIS OWN HOME. SO THE SLAVE PLEADS GUILTY TO END THE TYRANNY AND TORTURE IN THE SLAVE AUCTION. HE THEN GETS A BILL FOR THOUSANDS TO PAY THE SLAVE AUCTION, AND THE FREE LIEYER FEE OF $500 TO $1000 WHO DID NOTHING AT ALL BUT SAY "How often are you going to meet with your client?”. AFTER THE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED SLAVE PAYS ALL THE FEES HE GETS A LIFE OF LOST RIGHTS, AND A CRIMINAL RECORD, AND HE IS INNOCENT....

Potter County Criminal Defense System Is Lambasted in a New Report

https://www.texasobserver.org/potter-county-criminal-defense-system-is-lambasted-in-a-new-report

The report found that jailers give legal advice to defendants; that court-appointed attorneys rarely meet with their clients; and indigent defendants are left with the bill for legal costs. Even prosecutors find the system icky—one told the report’s authors that it’s “fraught with perils” for defendants. “It’s a worst-of-the-worst system,” said Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo defense attorney who founded the Texas Innocence Project in 2006. “It’s a deliberate and systematic violation; they’ve created a system they know is illegal.”...

Defendants who request a court-appointed lawyer in Potter County (and qualify financially) sometimes don’t fare any better. The report’s authors found that attorneys don’t meet with their clients in jail and rarely apprise them of developments in their cases. ...

Sometimes the lawyers don’t show up at the plea meetings at all, the report says. One defendant who had waited at the courthouse for six hours was told his lawyer had already left for the day. A few others told the report’s authors they’d never spoken to their lawyers.

Defense attorneys say this is because of the payment structure for representing the indigent: Lawyers get a flat fee for the appointment, regardless of how much work they do or how successful they are in representing their clients. One attorney, noting that they only get paid $400 or $500 for a misdemeanor case, told the report’s authors, “How often are you going to meet with your client?”...

After finally being wrung through the legal system in Potter County, indigent defendants are then sometimes ordered to pay back the costs for the court-appointed counsel. It’s not immediately clear why judges are imposing costs on defendants who couldn’t afford an attorney in the first place, but their money is stacking up in the county’s coffers. From fiscal year 2014 to 2018, Potter County recouped $1.2 million from indigent defendants....

TO THE VICTIM GO THE SPOILS.

MARSYS LAW, AKA. VICTIMS RIGHTS, USURPS THE BILL OF RIGHTS GIVING ABSOLUTE POWERS TO ANY ACTUAL CRIMINAL PLAYING VICTIM WHO FALSELY ACCUSES ANOTHER OF A CRIME HE DID NOT DO. THIS LAW IS PROOF OF INFALLIBLE STUPIDITY OF THE AMERICAN VOTER, AND THE CORRUPT NATURE OF LAW MAKERS...

Voters approve Marsy’s Law, but courts must decide if it’s legal

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/11/voters-approve-marsys-law-but-courts-must-decide-if-its-legal-pennlive-editorial.html

Tuesday’s elections brought some surprises in parts of Pennsylvania but also some questions about the messages voters were sending. But they spoke clearly on one issue: voters want to see the rights of crime victims strengthened with an amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution.

But what the voters want will not be the final word. Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the election results on Marsy’s law can’t be certified or even officially tabulated -- not until the challengers to the law have the opportunity to fully litigate the issues before a judge....

Several states have approved Marsy’s Law, and the measure received bipartisan support from Pennsylvania lawmakers. Pennsylvania voters approved the measure by 74 percent, despite well-publicized concerns from at least two respected organizations that warned it would hurt the rights of people accused of crimes....But the ACLU and the League of Women Voters say the proposal as written would deny people accused of crimes fundamental rights that would impact their ability to defend themselves....

SLAVE PATROL SOLVES THOUSANDS OF CASES SIMPLY BY TELLING THE GUILTY HE IS GUILTY THEN TELLING THE GUILTY HOW HE DID HIS CRIMES, THEN FORCES THE GUILTY TO FALSELY CONFESS AND PLEAD GUILTY 95% TO 99% OF ALL CASES.

PROBLEM IS MANY OF THE GUILTY ARE ACTUALLY INNOCENT...

He was America's most deadly serial killer – but it was all a lie

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/dec/05/the-confession-killer-netflix-henry-lee-lucas-robert-keener-taki-oldham

In the mid-1980s, Henry Lee Lucas was a star – at least in the context of America’s exploding fascination with serial killers. The subject of anxious news features and four feature films, Lucas confessed to murdering hundreds of people – at first 100, then 200, then about 600. An odd-jobs drifter with three teeth and a lazy eye, Lucas would recall, often on camera, precise and grisly details about each victim. Police officers from across the country interviewed him for more than 3,000 murder cases, to much fanfare; at least 200 cases were attributed to him, closing them to further investigation and making Lucas the country’s most prolific serial killer. Except that it was all a lie, one spun through a toxic brew of people-pleasing, power, and convenience on the part of law enforcement...

Forty years on, it’s difficult to know the exact number of cases falsely attributed to Lucas, who was far more pathological liar than serial killer. But there are “certainly dozens of cases where either killers are walking free because they’re still credited to Lucas, or dozens more cases that were never properly reinvestigated because it was credited to Lucas”... A respected Rangers department, led by the imposing Sheriff Jim Boutwell, drawing widespread acclaim for “catching” a prolific serial killer. A tragic pattern of unsolved murders, almost all of women, left underinvestigated or ignored. A symbiotic relationship between the Rangers, various investigators and Lucas that ran on easily obtained, low-evidence confessions (the series openly suggests the Rangers fed Lucas information on several cases he confessed to, and Lucas was clearly amenable to the desires of whoever he was talking to), milkshakes and mutual goodwill. Case closed....

Some of that corrective work is already being done, thanks to advances in DNA technology since Lucas confessed to a spree of killings in the late 1970s that even circumstantial evidence suggests would be almost impossible (as the veteran Lucas journalist Hugh Aynesworth points out in one episode, Lucas would have crisscrossed 11,000 miles across the country on no sleep for his supposed murders in October 1978 alone). ...

“We met with a lot of victims’ family members,” said Kenner. “They’re still in pain – they want to know what happened to their loved ones. Some of them thought Lucas had been the killer, and now some have found out he wasn’t and they’re feeling betrayed.”...

MORE PROOF THE LEGAL SYSTEM IS CORRUPT. IT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST NON-BLACK PEOPLE.

NEARLY HALF OF THE "EXONEREES" ARE BLACK FROM A RACE THAT MAKE UP 13% OF THE USA POPULATION.

PUT ANOTHER WAY, OF 100 USA PEOPLE: 13 ARE BLACK, 24 WHITE NONHISPANIC, 26 WHITE HISPANIC, 10 ASIAN+HYBRIDS.

THIS BASED ON INACCURATE GUBMINT CENSUS TAKING WHERE MOST OF THE USA SLAVES DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT RACE THEY ACTUALLY ARE. OR THAT MANY ARE A MIX OF BOTH BLACK AND WHITE BUT ARE LISTED SOLEY AS WHITE OR BLACK WHICH SCEWS ACCURACY.

NOW FROM THE 13 BLACKS IN THE USA 47 OF 100 PEOPLE EXONERATED ARE BLACKS.

THIS MEANS BLACKS ARE GETTING MORE HELP, AND ARE FAVORED OVER ALL OTHER GROUPS TO OVERTURN THEIR CONVICTIONS AND ULTIMATELY BE FREE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP IN THE USA....

Black people ARE more likely to be wrongly convicted

https://livingstonledger.com/black-people-are-more-likely-to-be-wrongly-convicted/

Nearly half of people "exonerated" for crimes they did not commit are African-American, a new report has found – strengthening claims of discrimination in the justice system....

The registry found that 47 per cent of 1,900 people wrongly convicted were black, despite African-Americans making up just 13 per cent of the US population....

And it continued: ‘Most wrongful convictions are never discovered. We have no direct measure of the number of all convictions of innocent murder defendants, but our best estimate suggests that they outnumber those we know about many times over. ...

USA: 13% BLACK, 24% WHITE NON-HISPANIC, 26% WHITE HISPANIC, 10% ASIAN+HYBRIDS. ...

US white population declines and Generation ‘Z-Plus’ is minority white, census shows

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/06/21/us-white-population-declines-and-generation-z-plus-is-minority-white-census-shows/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOTpqdG85gIVDvDACh2azgjBEAAYASAAEgLNxvD_BwE

Generation Z-Plus, is the first truly minority white generation, at 49.6 percent white, where 26 percent of its members are Hispanics, 13.6 percent African-Americans, and nearly 10 percent include Asians and persons of two or more races....

QUESTION, WHY ARE NIGGER SLAVES IN THE USA FAVORED MORE THAN NON NIGGER SLAVES?

ANSWER, BECUZ NIGGER SLAVES ARE WORTH MORE AT THE SLAVE AUCTION. WHITE SLAVES ARE CHEAP AND PRACTICALLY WORTHLESS...

Ever wondered how so many mulatto's came to be? It's because the masters wanted to increase their profits. The negroes brought more money at the slave auction, while white slaves were cheap. So the masters bred the negroes with the white slaves to produce mulatto slaves which increased the masters profits. Whites are almost worthless ...

The Irish Slave Trade –

The Forgotten “White” Slaves

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-irish-slave-trade-the-forgotten-white-slaves/31076

By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well.

During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.

African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime....

(in many cases, girls as young as 12) to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves. This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company.

How well-intentioned privacy laws can contribute to wrongful convictions

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2020/02/11/how-well-intentioned-privacy-laws-can-contribute-to-wrongful-convictions/

In 2019, an innocent man was jailed in New York City after the complaining witness showed police screenshots of harassing text messages and recordings of threatening voicemails that the man allegedly sent in violation of a protective order. The man’s Legal Aid Society defense attorney subpoenaed records from SpoofCard, a company that lets people send text messages and make calls that appear to originate from someone else’s phone number. After the records showed that the complaining witness had sent the messages and voicemails to herself, the district attorney’s office dismissed the case and the suspect was freed. Importantly, the exculpatory data was generated not by the suspect’s own use of digital services, but rather by the use of digital services by the complaining witness. If a data privacy law had blocked the attorney’s subpoena, the suspect might remain wrongfully incarcerated today....some recently proposed data privacy laws risk making it more difficult for wrongly accused defendants to obtain exculpatory digital records....

As a result, proposed privacy legislation generally heightens the obligations on the companies that control our data to strictly limit its dissemination. But some of these laws contain special exceptions that enable access by law enforcement—without similar exceptions for access by defense investigators. This creates a fundamental asymmetry. While law enforcement can compel the production of data that can help establish guilt, a defendant will have a much harder time compelling the production of data that establish innocence. To see why this is the case, it’s helpful to take a step back and briefly look at the criminal justice system more broadly....As a result, it is often easier for prosecutors to deploy state power to search for and seize data than it is for defense attorneys to use subpoenas to access the same data....

Why do we believe that these sorts of imbalances will be harmful? Because past privacy legislation has inadvertently interfered with defense attorneys’ duty to investigate and has threatened accuracy and fairness in criminal investigations. A prominent example is the Stored Communications Act of 1986, which permits law enforcement to compel technology companies to disclose the contents of a broad array of online communications, including social media postings and e-mail messages. No such access is granted to defendants, who find themselves without sufficient legal authority to obtain the digital records that could help exonerate them....

TRUMPS VIEWS ON MEDIA: IT IS CORRUPT AND DISHONEST...

"As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people," Trump said. "They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country."...

“Coming together is much harder when we have dishonest journalists,” Trump said....

At Thursday’s coronavirus press briefing, Trump smeared The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. “They’re very dishonest,” Trump claimed....

“It amazes me when I read the things that I read,” Trump said Thursday. “It amazes me when I read The Wall Street Journal which is so negative and The New York Times, I barely read it. We don’t distribute it in the White House, and the same with The Washington Post.”...

White House’s daily coronavirus task force briefing

Trump, White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds News Conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E0I3mtF1BQ

1:40:00 ConCast 1:48:00 Fake News 1:49:00 Dishonest journalists

1:55:00 Sec. Pompeo: its a Russian China Iran Plot/Disinformation of false data/false info 2:03:00 Pompeo admits frustation with usa media is inaccurate wildly multiple occasions

Trump campaign blasts media for 'massively dishonest' claim POTUS called coronavirus a 'hoax'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-campaign-media-coronavirus-hoax

The Trump campaign is denouncing media coverage of the president's Thursday rally, arguing that they falsely accused him of calling the coronavirus a "hoax."

A long list of major media outlets and figures made that claim. "Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a hoax," a Politico headline read. Another from NBC read: "Trump calls coronavirus Democrats' 'new hoax.'" Similar headlines appeared in The Guardian, Talking Points Memo and in a video for NBC's "Today."

"This is massively dishonest," tweeted Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for Trump's campaign. He was responding to a tweet claiming a local outlet said Trump called the virus a "hoax." The tweet from the outlet has since been deleted.

"Trump says the media’s hysteria-inducing coverage of the government response is the hoax, not the virus itself. Willful and malicious dishonesty," Murtaugh said....

Frozen-in-Place Courts Worry Defense Lawyers

https://thecrimereport.org/2020/04/08/frozen-in-place-courts-worry-defense-lawyers

People presumed innocent sit locked up in disease-prone jails with no idea when their trials will take place, not when court houses are closed and juries can’t be seated for fear of spreading the coronavirus.... Still, the outbreak has compelled criminal defense attorneys around the country to adjust daily to a justice system that’s nearly ground to a halt. That has created new concerns, such as the possibility that innocent clients may look to cut plea deals if it helps them avoid plague-ridden prison terms.... Even attorneys’ ability to meet with the clients in custody to prepare for upcoming court appearances is threatened by steps taken by courts across the country to contain the contagion....

“It is hard to see jury trials happening under current circumstances.” That means trials—or, perhaps more importantly, in a system where so few cases go to trial, the possibility of trials—are all but guaranteed to stall for the foreseeable future. “For those charged with violent crimes or who otherwise cannot be released, delays in hearings and trial proceedings will lead to significant backup that will likely take months to get through,” said Cadwalader’s Moreno, a former federal prosecutor. Defendants held pretrial are “in the worst position,”... Not having trials “is a big deal,” she said, “because people are going to be pushed into pleas so that they can just get through the court system.” That’s happened before, she said, but now “it’s going to be worse.”...

“The Innocence Files” on Netflix: Freeing frame-up victims from prison

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/27/inno-a27.html

In regard to the latter phenomenon, the Prison Policy Initiative pointed out in March that the American criminal justice system currently holds “almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.” Imprisoning human beings is a thriving industry in the US, a society afflicted by vast social misery and inequality. The great socialist Rosa Luxemburg wrote that all crimes, “as all punishments, are indeed always rooted ultimately in the economic conditions of society.”...

The documentary series points to three major causes of wrongful conviction: the use of flawed forensic evidence, such as the pseudo-science of “bite marks”; the misuse of eyewitness identification; and prosecutorial misconduct.... The Evidence, The Witness and The Prosecution—demonstrates that wrongful convictions are widespread and “systemic,” ... The Innocence Project has helped free more than 2,500 wrongfully convicted people in the US over the past three decades. Some 3,000 inmates write to the organization annually, and at any given time the Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases. And all this, most likely, is only the tip of the iceberg....

the fallibility of witness testimony when it is subject to manipulation by corrupt police and law enforcement.... “In the area of prosecutorial misconduct, we’re looking at some pretty nasty players. People who are sworn to uphold the law and do justice who really wanted to win at any cost....

IN NORTH DAKOTA IF A SLAVE YELLS WHITE POWER IT IS REPORTED AS A HATE CRIME BUT, IS NOT CHARGED OUT AS A CRIME. IN NORTH DAKOTA IF A SLAVE WHISPERS NIGGER HE WILL BE CHARGED WITH A CRIME.

IN NORTH DAKOTA IF SLAVE PATROL, OR A MASTA SHOOTS A NIGGER IT IS NOT A CRIME. IN NORTH DAKOTA IF A NIGGER IS WRONGFULLY CONVICTED IN A NORTH DAKOTA SLAVE AUCTION IT IS NOT A CRIME. THE REASON IS BECUZ IN NORTH DAKOTA SLAVES AINT GOTZ NO RIGHTS. IN NORTH DAKOTA ONLY MASTAS, GUBMINT PIMPS, AND LAW OFFICIALS HAB RIGHTS...

Port: Grand Forks cops decided some offensive speech was a crime, and that's wrong

https://www.inforum.com/opinion/6486340-Port-Grand-Forks-cops-decided-some-offensive-speech-was-a-crime-and-thats-wrong

Yelling from the top of your home is idiotic. Yelling "white power" adds an extra dimension of stupidity, all the more so because there were African American children nearby who heard these dim bulbs shouting their inanities....Here's where we run into a problem: The Grand Forks Police Department has decided to classify this incident as a hate crime. Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson explained it this way to the Grand Forks Herald: "No crime has been charged out, but it is an integral part of a report...

For one, no actual criminal charges have been filed. How can you have a crime without a charge? For another, we shouldn't be classifying the content of even deeply offensive and stupid speech as criminal....Racist speech is still speech, and it has First Amendment protections....This incident, which received zero scrutiny in a court of law, will be counted as a "hate crime" in statistics used to inform public policy debate in North Dakota and across the nation. That's a problem, not least because it undermines the integrity of crime statistics....

IF A USA SLAVE WAVES TO SLAVE PATROL THE OFFICER WILL SAY THE SLAVE FLIPPED HIM OFF THEN ARREST HIM, OR SHOOT HIM THEN SAY THE SLAVE REACHED FOR HIS WAIST, AND I THOUGHT HE WAS WAVING A GUN. IF THE SLAVE SURVIVES HE WILL BE FORCED TO PLEAD GUILTY TO A CHARGE OF NO CRIME. BUT SOME SLAVES WILL APPEAL AND SOME SLAVE AUCTIONS WILL AGREE WITH A SLAVE BUT, THAT IS EXTREMELY RARE AS MOST SLAVE AUCTIONS SIDE WITH THEIR THUGS...

N. Carolina court: Middle finger didn't warrant traffic stop

https://apnews.com/e6baef79a607bfd5081b70363367db03

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A state trooper’s decision to stop a driver who flashed an obscene hand gesture wasn’t justified, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Friday, overturning lower court decisions. The justices ruled unanimously that the evidence showed Trooper Paul Stevens lacked reasonable suspicion to pull over Shawn Patrick Ellis for disorderly conduct on a Stanly County road in January 2017. ...

Ellis’ back-and-forth waving motion with his hand outside the window turned into a pumping up-and-down motion with his middle finger, court documents say. ...“The mere fact that defendant’s gesture changed from waving to ‘flipping the bird’ is insufficient to conclude defendant’s conduct was likely to cause a breach of the peace,” ...

An arm of the American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina filed a brief siding with Ellis, saying that raising the middle finger is protected speech. The case “is a textbook example of how public officials criminalize dissent and criticism,” ACLU attorney Irena Como wrote.

How Defendants End Up Pleading Guilty to Nonexistent Crimes

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/fictional-pleas-collateral-consequences-criminal-justice-reform.html

“Fictional pleas” can benefit the accused, the prosecutor, and the judge—but at what cost?... The result is an entire shadow justice system unaccountable to facts and truth. ... A fictional plea is a plea of “guilty” to a crime that the defendant did not actually commit, for the purposes of avoiding a particular collateral consequence... [SOME ARE GUILTY OF SOME CRIME BUT, MANY ARE COMPLETELY INNOCENT, AND MANY ARE ACTUALLY THE VICTIMS OF THE CRIMES THEY ARE CHARGED WITH.]

Fictional pleas are pervasive. Every defense attorney I talk to says they happen so much they just call them pleas. It’s not even worth naming. They’re the norm, not the exception.

A different type of fictional plea is defendants pleading guilty to nonexistent crimes—crimes for which they could not be convicted in front of a jury because the crime doesn’t exist. It does not exist in the statute book....

Fictional pleas yield happy judges, prosecutors, and many defendants don’t have to carry the burden of lifetime punishments. What’s the cost, then? Current fictional pleas become future truth. There’s no way to say in the future, “That wasn’t really what I did.” That becomes the truth of what you did and what you committed, and it follows you wherever you go if you’re the defendant. And if you’re a prosecutor or a judge or a legislator or a citizen, you should have no trust at all that the criminal justice system is giving you an accurate picture of crime in your community. You can’t trust the official record to be a record of the truth. We’re in a moment where we are turning to data to make decisions about the criminal justice system. If we don’t have any sense that a conviction corresponds to truth, then how can we rely on that data to make decisions about the system and about how to reform the system? ...

JURIES MUST BE TOLD THAT ALL NIGGERS LOOK ALIKE TO WHITE PEOPLE.

RACIAL INEQUALITIES EXIST IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM: NEARLY HALF OF ALL EXONERATIONS IN 2017 WERE BLACK ALTHOUGH BLACKS ARE ONLY 13% OF THE USA POPULATION.

THIS INDICATES THAT 1) BLACKS GET MORE LEGAL HELP TO OVERTURN THEIR WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS COMPARED TO WHITES. AND 2) 13% BLACK POPULATION IS A CENSUS FRAUD DATA FROM SELF REPORTING RACE BY USA SLAVES WHO DONT KNOW THEIR RACE, OR WHO ARE MIXED RACE BASTARDS WHICH FALSIFIES THE DATA, OR ARE A RACE THEY DONT IDENTIFY WITH BASED ON CURRENT CENSUS SELECTION CHOICES ...

‘Tired, Frustrated And Mad': Wrongly Convicted Man Speaks Out On Justice System

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/tired-frustrated-and-mad-wrongly-convicted-man-speaks-out-on-justice-system/2350379/

In light of widespread protests for racial equality, a man who spent more than 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit is using his personal story to underscore racial inequities within the justice system. “We want to be able to step into a courtroom and know that we’re being represented equally and not being intimidated,” said Guy Miles, who now lives in Arlington, Texas, a free man at age 55 following his wrongful conviction nearly two decades ago. In June 1998, three men robbed a loan office in Fullerton. Despite numerous witnesses placing Miles in Las Vegas, he was identified in a photo lineup as the suspect by two witnesses who made cross-racial identifications, when the witness and the person being identified are of different racial backgrounds. Miles was sentenced to 75-years to life. The state appeals court reversed the conviction in 2017, finding the result of the trial would have been different had the jury considered new evidence, according to the California Innocence Project, which helped secure his release.

“There’s no doubt the color of his skin impacted his conviction,” said Justin Brooks, attorney and founder of the California Innocence Project. “We need to recognize that race impacts identifications in a profound way. We need to instruct jurors as to that. We need to educate judges to that, and the general public, so when they look at cross-racial identifications, they start thinking, maybe this isn’t correct,” said Brooks. According to a 2017 report in the National Registry of Exonerations, African Americans made up 13% of the population, yet 47% of those exonerated were Black....

ACCORDING TO U.S. CENSUS DATA WHERE MOST OF U.S. SLAVES DONT EVEN KNOW THEIR ACTUAL RACE:

USA = 13% BLACK. 24% WHITE NON-HISPANIC. 26% WHITE HISPANIC. 10% ASIAN & HYBRIDS.

MOST USA NIGGERS DONT EVEN KNOW IF THEY ARE BLACK NIGGERS OR WHITE NIGGERS SO HOW DOES THE DATA KNOW WHO IS NIGGER AND WHO AINT?

MANY NIGGERS DONT EVEN KNOW THEY ARE PART WHITE NIGGER, AND MANY DONT KNOW THEY ARE BLACK NIGGER. MOST NIGGERS AINT 100% NIGGER. MOST NIGGERS ARE PART NIGGER AND PART NIGGER. SOME PART BLACK, PART WHITE, PART LATRINO, PART INJUN, AND/OR PART MONKEY. SO IT IS UNSURE HOW THE DATA FIGURES WHEN A NIGGER IS BLACK OR WHITE. WHEN IS A NIGGER REPORTED AS BLACK? WHEN HE IS 10% BLACK, 90% BLACK, OR ANYTHING OVER 0% BLACK? WHAT AMOUNT OF BASTARD BLOOD COUNTS AS BLACK? WHAT IF A NIGGER IS 50% BLACK AND 50% WHITE THEN HOW DOES THE DATA COUNT THE NIGGER, BLACK OR WHITE? WHEN IS A NIGGER REPORTED AS WHITE? ...

US white population declines and Generation ‘Z-Plus’ is minority white, census shows

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/06/21/us-white-population-declines-and-generation-z-plus-is-minority-white-census-shows/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOTpqdG85gIVDvDACh2azgjBEAAYASAAEgLNxvD_BwE

Generation Z-Plus, is the first truly minority white generation, at 49.6 percent white, where 26 percent of its members are Hispanics, 13.6 percent African-Americans, and nearly 10 percent include Asians and persons of two or more races....

The Case of a Man With Two Sets of DNA Raises More Questions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/science/chimera-bone-marrow-dna-semen.html

Four years after the lifesaving procedure, all the DNA in the patient’s semen had been replaced by that of his donor. This came as a surprise to forensic scientists at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department in Reno, Nev., studying the case.

They presented their findings at an international forensics conference to highlight how a bone marrow transplant could, theoretically, confuse an investigation. Members of law enforcement tend to assume that when a suspect or victim leaves behind DNA, it’s the DNA they were born with, not the DNA of a bone marrow donor who lives thousands of miles away. Semen and sperm are different. A man who has a vasectomy still produces semen. That spermless semen, which may also be referred to as seminal fluid, is still of interest to forensic scientists. That’s because it could be used to identify a suspect in a crime or contribute other information to an investigation....

“Because he had a vasectomy,” he said, “all that’s left is the white cells.”...the analysts were detecting the donor’s DNA in white blood cells.... “Since all white blood cells come from the bone marrow donor after a bone marrow transplant, it will not be a surprise that ejaculate containing white blood cells will also be of the donor.” ...

State and Federal Governments Need to Overhaul Their Broken Public Defender Systems

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/08/looking-back-state-and-federal-governments-need-to-overhaul-their-broken-public-defender-systems/

The problem of inadequate legal representation occurs throughout the country, including New York. I was wrongfully convicted and spent many years in prison for a rape and murder which I did not commit. My conviction was the result of widespread misconduct by police, prosecutors, and so-called forensic experts. In addition, however, I was the victim of a criminal defense attorney who did not do his job, so that I know, first-hand, the problems of inadequate defense counsel....

According to The Innocence Project’s website, “A review of convictions overturned by DNA testing reveals a trail of sleeping, drunk, incompetent and overburdened defense attorneys, at the trial level and on appeal. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Innocent defendants are convicted or plead guilty in this country with less than adequate defense representation. In some of the worst cases, lawyers have: slept in the courtroom during the trial; been disbarred shortly after finishing a death penalty case; failed to investigate alibis; failed to call or consult experts on forensic issues; and failed to show up for hearings.

It’s not shocking to learn that many of the 218 DNA exonerees were represented by public defenders at trial. They were all innocent, but they all lost.... It wasn’t always the lawyer’s fault, of course. In many cases a talented defense attorney did all he or she could to represent their innocent client, but lost to a broken system that convicts the innocent based on flawed evidence....

“… judges handpicking defense attorneys; lawyers appointed to cases for which they are unqualified; defenders meeting clients on the eve of trial and holding non-confidential discussions in public courtroom corridors; attorneys failing to identify obvious conflicts of interest; failure of defenders to properly prepare for trials or sentencings; attorneys violating their ethical canons by not zealously advocating for clients; inadequate compensation for those appointed to defend the accused …” ...

It is impossible to know how many cases have been affected by ineffective assistance of counsel. Firstly, many cannot find attorneys to work on their cases without compensation. Secondly, the legal standard by which courts review ‘ineffective assistance of counsel claims’ places such a high bar to be overcome that, in many instances, appellate attorneys avoid such issues. ...

Sleeping during court proceedings, failing to object to critical errors of law, conflicts of interest, and other circumstances mentioned above, were not enough for appellate courts to rule that a defendant did not receive effective representation. The causes for such rulings, in part, are due to court’s refusal to function as neutral arbiters; instead seeing themselves as a part of law enforcement whose job is to ‘protect the public’ and therefore to sustain convictions by any means possible. Additionally, judges are lawyers, after all, who are familiar with the attorneys in question from their previous practice and may be unwilling to step on their toes....

The federal and state public defender system is in a shambles....Unfortunately, it is not a popular cause, the seeking of funding for public defenders, because the public perception is that it is wasting money to help criminals. Yet, not everybody that is arrested is guilty, and without an even playing field, it throws the accuracy of every verdict and the outcome of every case, potentially into question....

USA #1 LIARS. LIARS LISTEN TO LIES KNOW THE LIARS BECUZ THEY ARE EXPERT LIARS LEARN MORE ABOUT LIARS BUT THATS A LIE TOO....

The Junk Science Cops Use to Decide You’re Lying

https://theintercept.com/2020/08/12/blueleaks-law-enforcement-police-lie-detection

The training session was billed as “cutting edge,” and dozens of law enforcement professionals signed up to learn about “New Tools for Detecting Deception” from a human lie detector who calls herself “Eyes for Lies.” Her real name is Renee Ellory, and she claims that she’s one of just 50 people identified by scientists as having the ability to spot deception “with exceptional accuracy.”

A flyer for the event, hosted by Wisconsin’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area — a federal program that supports law enforcement drug interdiction work — was included among a trove of law enforcement documents that were hacked and posted online in June under the title BlueLeaks. The promo copy leans heavily into Ellory’s skill at ferreting out deception in others. She is “exceptional at pinpointing a liar and can tell you why she doesn’t trust someone on the spot,” it reads. Training participants would learn how to “identify anger, contempt, and disgust before words are even spoken.” Course objectives were broad: Learn to differentiate between “real” and “fake emotional displays”; “recognize hidden emotions”; identify the “ways our subconscious brain leaks information when we lie”; “analyze body language that indicates deception”; gain tips to use when interviewing a psychopath; “identify the key features of expressions that reveal danger for you!”

Participants spanned the law enforcement spectrum and included the chief of a small police department, corrections officers, university cops, state troopers, various members of the Milwaukee Police Department as well as individuals from the U.S. Probation Office and the FBI. In surveys filled out after the training, which took place in November 2015, the common complaint was that there weren’t enough structured breaks; as one participant put it, “the mind can only absorb what the buttocks can tolerate.” But otherwise, a majority of the 82 respondents gave the training high marks. Participants wrote that they would incorporate what they’d learned into their police work. A number of them said the most valuable thing they learned was “the seven universal facial expressions that all people have all over the world as a good indicator” of lying, as one trainee put it.

It might seem reassuring that so many law enforcement officers found a skills training so valuable. But not in this case. That’s because Ellory’s lie detection training is based what many psychologists say are largely discredited theories, if not simply junk science. “It’s completely bogus,” said Jeff Kukucka, an assistant professor of psychology and law at Towson University who studies forensic confirmation bias, interrogations, and false confessions. “And what’s maybe more alarming about it … is that this isn’t new. We’ve known for quite a while that this stuff doesn’t work, but it’s still being peddled as if it does.”...

INJUSTICE ANYWHERE

http://www.injusticeanywhere.net/

3 Ways Lack of Police Accountability Contributes to Wrongful Convictions

https://www.innocenceproject.org/lack-of-police-accountability-contributes-to-wrongful-conviction/

The system, as it currently stands, has built more protections for guilty police officers than it has for its innocent citizens — and in many instances, the criminal justice system has actually produced incentives and tools that make innocent people more vulnerable to wrongful conviction....

In addition to technologies and databases that develop suspects using unscientific and questionable inputs, policing policies encourage volume-based policing — like the use of quotas — which encourage more arrests and convictions, regardless of guilt or innocence.... Nearly half of state public crime labs in the country are funded, at least partially, based on the number of convictions they produce rather than the number of forensic tests performed.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are incentivized to load up charges and employ the threat of the “trial penalty” — the possibility of being given a harsher sentence at trial than the sentence offered for a guilty plea — to secure a conviction. This tactic can lead to the coercion of guilty pleas from defendants, guilty and innocent.

Because of this, innocent people plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit more often than one might expect. More than 10% of the nation’s convictions proven to be wrongful by DNA evidence involved a guilty plea. DNA-based exonerations only tend to reveal the innocence of people convicted of the most serious, violent crimes like rape and murder, where DNA is most likely to be left behind. But the rate of guilty pleas of the innocent is likely much higher for lower level crimes, including misdemeanors, because the consequences of pleading guilty to a crime, even if you didn’t commit it are less severe. Faced with the choice of remaining in detention while fighting to clear your name or striking a deal and going home, why wouldn’t an innocent person plead guilty to a misdemeanor?...

Several states are incentivized to fill prison beds because of contractual agreements with private prison companies that require them to pay a set price regardless of whether beds are filled or not....Due process should apply to all, but it has been modified to favor those who have sworn to serve and protect the public, even when that vow is broken. ...

Law enforcement officers’ “Bill of Rights” laws add several layers of privilege on top of the normal presumption of innocence that a normal citizen accused of a crime might enjoy.....And if an accused officer is threatened with punishment, anything he says following that threat cannot be used against him. Conversely, law enforcement is legally permitted to use deception during the interrogations of citizens, which can lead to coerced confessions....

This imbalance diminishes the average citizen’s ability to enjoy a presumption of innocence. To correct this, we must not only reform systems of accountability for law enforcement misconduct, but we must also dismantle the vast systems that entrap the innocent.

NOT ALL SLAVE AUCTIONEERS ARE CRIMINAL INTENT. SOME ARE JUST MENTALLY OFF...

NY Judge's Alzheimer's Diagnosis Forces Retirement, Leads to Judgment Questions

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ny-judges-alzheimers-diagnosis-forces-retirement-leading-to-questions-of-impaired-judgment/2574439/

Legal questions are being raised after a New York state criminal court justice was forced to retire early because of her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The state is asking if Judge ShawnDya Simpson's declining mental state impaired her judgment in court decisions, including a wrongful conviction case. Last August, a packed Brooklyn courtroom watched in shock as Judge Simpson abruptly left the bench after announcing she would not overturn the murder conviction of Nelson Cruz. "Every time she issues a decision, she gets the facts wrong," said Cruz's attorney Justin Bonus. "For the past four years, she's consistently issued decisions where the facts are patently wrong. Not a little bit wrong, patently wrong."...

Gov. Brown pardons convicted man with help of Oregon Innocence Project

https://katu.com/news/local/gov-brown-pardons-convicted-man-with-help-of-oregon-innocence-project

He spent six years in prison. The Oregon Innocence Project has been working on Bain's case for the past five years after the complaining witness recanted her story in 2015. They said since then, she has steadfastly maintained the crime never took place.

This case has many of the characteristics seen in wrongful conviction cases around the country. For example, 84% of wrongful convictions for child sex abuse documented by the National Registry of Exonerations involve false accusations and/or perjury...

EXONERATIONS: Part IV - Misconduct in Interrogations – A Legal Gray Area

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/09/exonerations-part-iv-misconduct-in-interrogations-a-legal-gray-area/

(This is the fourth in an 11-part series by The Vanguard reporting on a study of exonerations...)

When interrogating suspects, law enforcement officials tend to resort to deceit or manipulation in order to extract a confession. However, these practices are not necessarily considered impermissible by the court.... these practices run a great risk of resulting in a false confession.... The Supreme Court developed a doctrine which established interrogation misconduct as “police behavior that is so “coercive” that it makes a confession involuntary.” ... The three most common forms of misconduct included: violence, sham plea bargaining, and threats to third parties,... Sham plea bargaining is another form of interrogation misconduct, performed when officials lie about the law...Lies considered as misconduct may include pretending that the accused may obtain a more lenient sentence or offering freedom in exchange for a confession. The power to decide whether to prosecute and the basis for those charges’ rests solely in the power of the prosecutor, not the police. Lying about their own legal authority is within lying about the law and impermissible to the courts.... eight percent of cases with false confessions were a result of the exoneree falsely confessing after an officer threatened to arrest a member of the exoneree’s family....

there are many permissible interrogation practices that produce false confessions.

These practices include lying about the investigation, making promises and threats that are not categorically prohibited, feeding details of the crime to the suspect, and interrogating a juvenile with no parent present.... Lying about the investigation is routinely permitted and not considered equivalent to lying about the law. ... A very common form of permitted interrogation practice is feeding the suspects the details of the crime....This is problematic for the defendant when in court because they are aware of details the court and jury commonly assume only the criminal would be aware of....

EXONERATIONS: Part V – Fabricated Evidence: Forensic Deception, Planted Evidence and Forged Confessions

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/09/exonerations-part-v-fabricated-evidence-forensic-deception-planted-evidence-and-forged-confessions/

(This is the fifth in an 11-part series by The Vanguard reporting on a study of exonerations...)

Conducting a criminal trial depends heavily on law enforcement officers as primary sources, through written reports or verbal testimonies – but perjury often plays a large part in wrongful convictions of the innocent,... The researchers note tht in almost 10 percent of exonerations, law enforcement officials were found to have lied about their personal observations, while about three percent intentionally planted fake evidence or knowingly withheld potentially vindicating evidence....

egregious behavior usually consisted of planting illegal substances on innocent individuals...Gross et. al. makes a salient point in delineating just how difficult it is to prove that false evidence has been planted...illegal drug distribution is most prevalent by arresting individuals with fake evidence or even framing individuals for selling illegal substances when the officers themselves are in reality selling seized drugs.

Furthermore, finding out the truth about smaller details, such as, whether or not an officer is lying about where he found a weapon or the exact quantity of drugs, is nearly impossible to trace....

false confessions are present in 12 percent of exonerations in the Registry. Evidently, instances where defendants confess to crimes they did not commit and were fabricated by police officers were never able to be verified because they were never recorded to begin with. The researchers said 70 percent of instances with forged confessions were found to have included the threat of or actual physical violence.... one quarter of these convictions were found to be a result of distorted and, in some cases, entirely fictitious evidence. Such misconduct is difficult to detect, but is telling of the corruption that exists within the criminal justice system.

Looking Back: Never Again – PART 2

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/09/looking-back-never-again-part-2/

Simply put, DNA test results are always, and in every case, relevant because they go right to the matter of whether a defendant is the source of the testable material. DNA proves innocence, and it proves guilt. Defendants are cleared because of DNA, often with the prosecution agreeing, and defendants are prosecuted and convicted based on DNA. Therefore a DNA test is always relevant, and can get to the truth in every case where there is a sample to test. There should not be a door open for a district attorney to argue, or for a judge to rule, that a DNA test would not have made a difference, because such a ruling would be absurd. Yet, one day an innocent defendant could be denied an opportunity to prove his or her innocence that way by a court ruling not allowing testing to go forward. History shows that courts everywhere do not necessarily always do what is right or fair. Why leave the door open for an injustice to take place this way? Let’s close that door that permits a wrongful conviction to be preserved....

The Quality of Public Defenders Must Be Raised, Maintained, and Monitored. Those Lawyers Who Are Not Competent Must Be Removed ...

There needs to be a limit on the amount of cases that Public Defenders are given at one time ...

At present, district attorneys have big budgets and a big staff to fully investigate, explore, and develop a case. They can get experts to perform various tests. Whereas public defenders have small budgets and small staffs. In order to get an expert witness they must first request it from the court, which often denies their requests. It is only discretionary on the part of the courts. A district attorney need not rely on obtaining a discretionary ruling to get funds for an expert. On such an uneven playing field, how can any confidence be placed in the outcome?

Currently the poor are not accorded mandatory representation on post-conviction motions to set aside the verdict, which in legalese are called 440 motions. Those with money, who can afford it, are able to have paid lawyers represent them in such motions, put together arguments, have investigators reinvestigate to look for new evidence etc. in an effort to try to establish innocence. The poor, on the other hand, being unable to afford such legal services on their own or through family members or friends, are not provided them by the state. This essentially leaves the wrongfully convicted with no means to investigate and no lawyer to file the legal papers....

All Criminal Cases Which Are On Appeal Should Be Automatically Reviewed By The Court Of Appeals. The way the system is currently set up, criminal defendants only have a right to have their case reviewed by one State Court, the Appellate Division. In order to have his or her case reviewed by the Court Of Appeals, a prisoner must first obtain permission from that court. Often requests are turned down. In my case, I was denied permission even though I was arguing my innocence based on the DNA and Hair, and the horrendous conditions under which the “confession” was obtained. The court said, “There was no merit in law to review the case.”...

The Appellate Division. The first appeal. This is a state court. Appeals to this Court are as a matter of right. Rearguement motions can be made to this Court after losing a decision, but this is up to the Court to decide whether to grant the motion and reconsider the case or not. In my case they ruled 5-0 against me, claiming that evidence against me was “overwhelming” even though there was no evidence other than the coerced, false confession, with the DNA and hairs not matching. Then I filed a reaguement motion asking them to reconsider their decision, arguing that it was at odds with the facts and the law. The court decided not to grant the motion.... What is apparent from my judicial history and this layout is that more mandatory review is needed....

My case, along with so many others in New York, involving people who have been wrongfully convicted and yet whose appeals all failed them, demonstrates a need for an additional review mechanism wholly apart from the court system. As our cases show, the courts all failed to give us justice. The power of the pardon by the Governor is in no way a sufficient remedy since pardoning on the grounds of innocence is normally done only under the most extraordinary circumstances, and politically is a very risky act, especially for those who plan to run again. We need a review mechanism made up of wrongful conviction experts....

Withholding of Exculpatory Evidence Should Be A Crime... There Needs To Be A Better Evidence Preservation System; Failure to Preserve Evidence either Pre-Trial or Post Trial Should Be Automatic Grounds For Dismissal Of The Indictment....

NEARLY 1 IN 4 EXONERATIONS PROVED THAT PROSECUTORS AND SLAVE PATROL ARE LIARS AND COMMIT PERJURY AT THE SLAVE AUCTION. OUTSIDE OF SLAVE AUCTION OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT ACCOUNTS FOR 3 IN 4 WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS MOSTLY SLAVE PATROL LIES, FALSE PO'LICE REPORTS, COERCE FALSE WITNESS TESTIMONY, FABRICATING LIES, ETC. THESE LAW ABIDING GOOD GUY CRIMINALS ARE COMMITING THESE CRIMES UNDER DIRECT SUPERVISION OF THE SLAVE AUCTIONEER, AND THE SLAVES INADEQUATE DEFENSE LIEYER...

EXONERATIONS: Part VII - Misconduct by Police and Prosecutors at Trial Cause of Wrongful Convictions

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/09/exonerations-part-vii-misconduct-by-police-and-prosecutors-at-trial-cause-of-wrongful-convictions/

(This is the sixth in an 11-part series by The Vanguard reporting on a study of exonerations)

About 23 percent of all exonerations involved official misconduct in court during the trial, particularly by law enforcement officers and prosecutors... the most common form of official misconduct at trial was perjury by law enforcement officers, which are usually police officers. During these incidents, police officers mostly lied about the conduct of the investigations or statements by other witnesses. For instance, police sometimes lied to make their own observations or conduct appear consistent with statements by other witnesses....The study researchers noted, however, that most police perjury concerned the conduct of investigations....Despite these known cases, data on police perjury is unfortunately limited because it’s usually hidden and often never comes to light....

One type of misconduct occurs when the prosecutor fails to disclose and correct false evidence by their own witness. In 1959, the Supreme Court held in Napue v. Illinois that a prosecutor has a constitutional obligation to correct perjury by a state witness even if they did not themselves offer the false testimony. Yet, prosecutors were reported to permit perjury to go uncorrected in eight percent of exonerations. In almost all of these cases, the prosecution also concealed exculpatory evidence.... Another type of misconduct by prosecutors during trial involves lying in court. This act occurred in four percent of exonerations, although the real rate might be higher.... many defense attorneys fail to object...Without an objection, it will be difficult to know that this sort of misconduct occurred....

EXONERATIONS: Part X – Discipline of Law Enforcement for Misconduct Nearly Nonexistent

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/09/exonerations-part-x-discipline-of-law-enforcement-for-misconduct-nearly-nonexistent/

(This is the 10th of an 11-part series by The Vanguard reporting on a study of exonerations)

out of the 1,295 cases in which officials were found to have engaged in misconduct that lead to a wrongful conviction of an innocent individual, only 17 percent faced some form of discipline. It was often found that when discipline for misconduct occurred, it was not in relation to any one case, but resulted after a pattern of misconduct was revealed to have spanned over the course of several cases, sometimes ranging over years....

Prosecutors were the least likely to face discipline for misconduct... While prosecutors were the least likely to face discipline, they were also the most likely to receive the most lenient form of punishment. In the cases where prosecutors were disciplined by their employers, two were fired, four resigned and five were demoted.... Only two prosecutors in the National Registry of Exonerations faced criminal charges. ...

Misconduct by prosecutors, police officers and forensic analysts stands out as an egregious crime, especially when coming from figures of authority. While instances of misconduct in these cases are difficult to detect, it is also very unlikely that discipline for such misconduct is imposed, if ever.

October 2nd is Wrongful Conviction Day.

October 10th is World Day Against the Death Penalty.

https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/wcd-wdadp2020

Looking Back: Never Again – Part 3

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/10/looking-back-never-again-part-3/

Eyewitness Identification Testimony Reform. Identification Procedures Must Be Improved To Increase Their Reliability. Misidentification has been the leading cause of wrongful convictions. We must improve the reliability of identifications.... ‘Snitch Testimony’ Of Those Who Have Been Offered Incentives To Testify Should Not Be Allowed... Nationwide, such lying snitches account for 15% of wrongful convictions....

Wrongful convictions occur, and not all of them are corrected.... The Death Penalty Must Be Kept Out... The Parole Board Should Not Be Allowed To Deny Applicants Based Upon The Nature Of The Crime...Lastly, there are innocent people in prison who will never get out by being cleared. Not every case has DNA in it to test, and not everyone will be able to get legal representation. The only way such people will be able to get out of prison will be through parole. Therefore, we need to remove the impediment of being denied based on the nature of the crime.... The Parole Board Should Not Be Allowed To Deny Parole Based Upon Applicants Not Expressing Remorse. The reason for this is that this is an obstacle for those who are actually innocent, because they cannot meet this criteria.... It is a fiction to believe that anybody, whether professional or not, can say what anybody will do in the future, including a jury of their peers;...

LAW IS LEGAL AND POLITICAL PLUNDER USED TO STEAL FROM THE SLAVES, AND USURP POWERS TO THE MASTAS. THE CRIME OF EVERYTHING SUPPORTS GREEDY SLAVE AUCTION PROFESSIONS INCLUDING THE BAIL BOND SECTOR...

‘Unconscionable.’ How a surge in domestic violence is saving the bail bond industry

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article246124355.html

Domestic violence is keeping the bail bond industry alive in Sacramento.

Roughly 42% of all of the people who bonded out of jail since April were released while facing at least one charge related to domestic violence.... Records show the bond industry in Sacramento County was barely affected by the pandemic or the cashless bail order. Bond companies fronted $87.4 million in the five months following the emergency order, more than was posted in the same period last year. In interviews, bond agents themselves said domestic violence cases helped backfill their ledgers. And in some months, the number of posted bonds actually increased compared to previous years, data shows....

‘Money out of family resources’: The most common way to post a bond and get released from jail is to work with bail bond companies that have agreements with the courts. If, for example, someone is arrested and a bond is set at $50,000, the person bailing them out typically needs to arrange to pay 10% to the bond company, or $5,000.

The money is nonrefundable, even if charges are later reduced or the case is dismissed....

“The bail industry didn’t see a decline like we thought we would see,” Padilla said. “I, unfortunately, think that’s due to an uptick in domestic violence and other crimes. People were getting desperate.”...domestic violence accounting for about 40% of cash bonds being linked to domestic violence. ...

LAW ABIDING GOOD GUYS ARE CONSCIENCELESS DENIERS OF RIGHTS WHO WRONGFULLY CONVCIT INNOCENT SLAVES TO COVER UP THEIR OWN CRIMINAL ASSES, AND TO MAKE THE STUPID PUBLIC THINK THEY ARE BEING PROTECTED.

BUT IN REALITY LAW IS A CRIMINAL PROTECTION RACKET RUN BY THE LAW ABIDING GOOD GUYS....

Looking Back: The Appeals Process Is Woefully Insufficient to Protect the Innocent – Part 1

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/10/looking-back-the-appeals-process-is-woefully-insufficient-to-protect-the-innocent-part1/

Often what goes on outside of courtrooms is as much a factor in how cases turn out as the arguments that go on inside of them. The press has the power to create an environment which may shift the tide of public opinion, which, in turn, often influences judges. When a case is sensationalized, the defendant’s presumption of innocence often flies out the window and articles are written not merely to report the facts or to give an analysis or pinion based upon an objective assessment, but rather, they frequently present he prosecution and police versions of vents as though they are gospel. At times this is exacerbated by defense attorneys who frequently decide not to counter prosecution and police statements. This extra-judicial environment becomes a part of the feel of a case, and often remains with a case throughout the appeals process.... prosecutors, to dig in their heels and protect a conviction at all costs;...

Appellate courts, at both the state and federal level, have long been in the practice of ‘rubber stamp denying’ meritorious appeals of the innocent, no matter what facts are in the defendant’s argument or legal arguments that are made. Nationwide, there have been 215 DNA exposed wrongful convictions, and in New York there have been 25. In almost every single one of those cases, the appeals process had long since run out for the defendants although they had been proven to be incorrect....

Despite its important function, the Appellate Division routinely abdicates its responsibility by rubber stamp denying many meritorious claims, thus damning the wrongfully convicted to continued incarceration, and flushing the rights of everybody down the drain.

The Appellate Division has, for the longest time, been extremely biased against defendants, and pro-prosecution. Rather than being the neutral arbiter that it is supposed to be, it has long been in the business of denying defendants’ appeals, rather than looking at the issues raised on the merits and ruling whichever way the law and the facts require....

This stems from two things: Many of the judges are themselves former prosecutors and tend to look upon every defendant as guilty, and arguments as mere technicalities that are irrelevant to that issue. Therefore, they must find a way to brush aside, and not act as the neutral arbiter that they are supposed to be, but instead they see themselves as a kind of law enforcement which is supposed to protect the public by not releasing “criminals.”...

the system is flawed and that not every defendant is guilty. Therefore, it is obvious that some innocent defendants will get caught up in the Court’s mentality. Issues of law are not mere technicalities, but instead are built-in safeguards designed to ensure that trials are fair...ultimately protect the Constitutional rights and right to a fair trial of all law-abiding citizens. If an individual defendant’s rights are trampled on and allowed to be by the Court, then this sets the stage for future defendants who are innocent to also have their rights trampled on....

Looking Back: The Appeals Process Is Woefully Insufficient to Protect the Innocent – Part II

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/10/looking-back-the-appeals-process-is-woefully-insufficient-to-protect-the-innocent-part-ii/

In my last article, I outlined the deficiencies in the State Court System in protecting the innocent. In this article, I will go into the Federal Court System. After a defendant has been denied by Their state’s highest court, they are no longer entitled to a lawyer if they cannot afford one. Unlike State Court, where a defendant is assigned an attorney to represent him if they cannot afford one, the defendant does not have a right to an attorney while challenging his conviction in Federal Court.... All too often it is often found that the wrongfully convicted have long ago had all of their appeals exhausted at the time they are ultimately proven innocent. Compounding these problems is the fact that the instinct of most courts is to deny motions and appeals brought by defendants pro se, (representing themselves)....

DPIC Analysis: Use or Threat of Death Penalty Implicated in 19 Exoneration Cases in 2019

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/dpic-analysis-use-or-threat-of-death-penalty-implicated-in-19-exoneration-cases-in-2019

Prosecutors or police used or threatened to use the death penalty as a coercive tool that led to or extended the wrongful convictions of at least nineteen people who were exonerated in 2019, a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations has revealed. Nearly 95% of those cases also involved some other form of major misconduct, the DPIC analysis found.....DPIC analysis found that Official Misconduct and/or Perjury or False Accusation was present in all but one of the wrongful incarcerations in which the death penalty was implicated....

“The numbers show that the death penalty has dangerous effects on the criminal justice system that go far beyond the already significant risk of executing innocent people,” said DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham, who conducted the analysis. “Innocent people confess to crimes they didn’t commit to avoid the possibility of being executed. Suspects, both innocent and guilty, who are threatened with the death penalty if they do not cooperate with law enforcement provide false testimony that sends innocent people to jail, often for decades. The data suggest that the misuse of the death penalty as a coercive interrogation and plea-bargaining tool poses a far greater threat to the fair administration of the criminal laws than we had previously imagined.”...

CONVICTED FELON RUNS A LEGIT BUSINESS FOR PROFIT BECUZ HIS MASTAS IN GUBMINT PIMP WONT FUND HIM AS A NONPROFIT TO TEST LAW ABIDING GOOD GUY LANDLORDS FOR VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS, AND LAWS. LAW ABIDING GOOD GUY HUD FORBIDS FELONS FROM TESTING HUD BECUZ BAD GUY MIGHT FIND OUT THAT LAW ABIDING GOOD GUYS ARE BREAKING LAWS....

Convicted felon says he’s fighting unfair housing. Landlords say he’s in it for the money.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-new-fair-housing-organization-sues-landlords-who-reject-felons-20201031-bors52fmsje6hotjlyltbikcba-story.html

a convicted felon who served 10 years in prison, now sues property owners who say they refuse to rent to felons. Opponents say he's in it for the money. He says he's forcing landlords to follow the law......

Looking Back: DNA Nice Start but No Cure-All | Davis Vanguard

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/11/looking-back-dna-nice-start-but-no-cure-all/

DNA testing, however, is no panacea. First, DNA evidence is only available in 10% of all serious felony cases. The same systemic errors that cars wrongful convictions – false confessions, eyewitness misidentification, witnesses being given better plea-bargaining deals in exchange for testimony, bad lawyering, junk science and police misconduct – are present in non-DNA as well as DNA cases.... But what about those cases where there is no DNA test, or the wrongfully convicted, having scant Financial resources, is unavailable to obtain quality legal assistance?

Second, even if DNA is present, it is not a guarantee that someone will not be wrongfully convicted. I was convicted, for example, despite DNA showing that team and found in the victim did not match me. It was only when, 16 years later, through DNA Databank, I got lucky and the DNA match the real perpetrator. If his DNA had not been in the databank through his being incarcerated on an unrelated crime, I would still be in prison. Capital punishment poses a risk of executing innocent people. If I had been 18 years older rather than 16 when this crime happened – just two years older than what I was I have no doubt I would have received a death sentence....My appeals were exhausted in 2001, and I was not cleared until 2006. Conceivably, I would not have been alive to have been cleared....The system is run by human beings, and we all sometimes make mistakes...

IN USA TO BE FREED FROM A CRIME YOU DID NOT DO YOU MUST PLEAD GUILTY THAT YOU DID IT. THEN TO GET PAROLE FROM THE USA CONCENTRATION CAMP YOU MUST CONTINUE THE LIE THAT YOU DID IT AND PRETEND YOU HAVE REMORSE FOR THE CRIME YOU DID NOT DO, OR YOU WILL BE DENIED PAROLE IF YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH THAT YOU ARE INNOCENT...

Looking Back: Truth and Justice - The Innocent Prisoner’s Dilemna | Davis Vanguard

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/11/looking-back-truth-and-justice-the-innocent-prisoners-dilemna/

Parole is a discretionary release from prison after an inmate has served the minimum time to which he was sentenced and has appeared in front of a parole board, a panel generally consisting of three or more commissioners who have been appointed by the governor to make determinations of whether or not a prisoner would, if released, remain at liberty without breaking the law. Part of their evaluation depends upon whether or not the individual has been rehabilitated. Factors which are typically considered include the inmate’s disciplinary record, his vocational and educational accomplishments in prison, any letters of support, and any letters from the crime victim or surviving family members.

One factor which is not statutorily required, but which has become a de facto element in the process is whether or not the prisoner takes responsibility for their crime and expresses remorse. That element creates a catch 22 situation, labeled by Law Professor Daniel Medwed as “The Innocent Prisoner’s Dilemma.” Medwed, who is a law professor at the University of Utah, used to be the assistant director to the now defunct “second Look Program” at Brooklyn Law school, which sought to clear wrongfully convicted prisoners in non-DNA cases. The innocent prisoner, on the one hand, must maintain his innocence if he is to legitimately pursue every avenue of appeal and discovery potentially capable of reversing his wrongful conviction. On the other hand, if he maintains his innocence before the parole board, he is almost certainly going to be denied....

HERE'S A GUY GOT HIS HEAD SCREWED ON RIGHT...

Los Angeles’ new DA redefines what ‘people’s lawyer’ does (Q&A)

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2021/0125/Los-Angeles-new-DA-redefines-what-people-s-lawyer-does-Q-A

“As the people’s lawyer, we’re supposed to be protecting everybody – not only the victim that is here with you but also future victims as well as the person that is accused and the rest of our community,” he says in a Monitor interview. “We have a moral imperative to represent the entire community.”...

The emphasis on victims’ rights in recent decades has contributed to longer prison sentences. Are you trying to reset the balance in weighing the rights of defendants?

District attorneys are the people’s lawyers. We’re not the lawyer for one group over another. When we’re talking about victims, yes, we are there to represent the victim, but we’re not there to effect vengeance in the name of one victim.

So it’s really having that very deep conversation with yourself as a prosecutor and as an office, and understanding that we’re the people’s lawyers. That means the people, plural, not one single individual or one class of people. We’re impacting our entire community – including, frankly, the person who is being accused. We have a responsibility to that person as well as his or her family in the community.

That brings up something you mentioned during your swearing-in – your desire to “reinvigorate the presumption of innocence.” What do you mean by that?

The single-dimensional approach to quote-unquote “protecting the victim’s rights” often ignores our obligation to due process and the constitutional concept of presumed innocence. We often have thrown that out the door as prosecutors and basically said, “That’s not our work, that’s the work of the defense.” And we know that [public] defense in this country is thoroughly underfunded, and that’s why we have so many wrongful convictions.

We need to start thinking clearly that, as the people’s lawyer, we’re supposed to be protecting everybody – not only the victim that is here with you but also future victims as well as the person that is accused and the rest of our community. We have a moral imperative to represent the entire community.

The estimated cost of mass incarceration in the US exceeds $180 billion a year, and LA’s public protection budget is $9.3 billion. How might the reforms you’re pursuing reduce that spending?

The biggest problem in the criminal justice system is that most people only see the front-end costs – the budget of the DA’s office or the police department, which are high enough as they are. But what is often not seen are the downstream consequences of our work.

When the district attorney seeks to send someone to prison for five or 10 or 20 years, there are financial and resource costs for every year of that sentence. If you can fix the problem in five years but you send someone to prison for 15 or 20, what you’re doing is extending the financial impact. In a county like LA, you’re dealing with thousands and thousands of people – we have over 100,000 cases every year – and when you start sending thousands of people to prison, you are actually writing billion-dollar checks for future generations to pay....

El Dorado County District Attorney working to change interview methods that can lead to wrongful convictions

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/abc10-originals/el-dorado-county-district-attorney-leading-way-to-change-interview-methods-that-can-lead-to-wrongful-convictions/103-221304ea-82de-4149-8bb0-5c46993e53c0

Questionable interrogation tactics, stories changing, and an investigator motivating a confession by saying they knew what happened that night....

Darwin Crabtree of Magalia served time in prison for crimes he said never happened. In 1991, he was convicted of several charges of "continuous sexual abuse" and "lewd act upon a child" of his own children who were seven and 12 years old at the time.

According to a lawsuit, his children were getting counseling with a Butte County unlicensed therapist intern for family counseling after Crabtree’s divorce from his first wife. According to the civil complaint, that unlicensed therapist intern and an investigator wanted to turn Crabtree’s children against him by getting his children to say they were sexually abused under the pressure of repeated questioning.... In 2008, his kids who are now adults reunited with Crabtree and recanted what they said as children in a letter. They stated they listened to the taped interviews the D.A. investigator had with them and they were appalled by the unprofessionalism of questioning. Court documents described the interviews where the D.A. investigator used tactics to ensure Darwin’s conviction by getting the children to make false accusations against their father.,,,In 2018, with the help of the Northern California Innocence Project, a Butte County superior court judge overturned Crabtree's conviction...There have been other cases where false testimonies have led to wrongful convictions....

Lawyers who were ineligible to handle serious criminal charges were given thousands of these cases anyway

https://www.themainemonitor.org/lawyers-who-were-ineligible-to-handle-serious-criminal-charges-were-given-thousands-of-these-cases-anyway/

In the only state with no public defenders, people charged with murder and other serious crimes can get assigned attorneys who are legally ineligible to take on their cases. The state claims it was unaware.... scores of attorneys in Maine who represented clients when they did not have the training or experience required by state rules, according to an investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica based on state records, court files and interviews. The news organizations identified at least 2,000 case assignments — ranging from murder cases to children charged with felonies — that had been handed off to ineligible lawyers over a period of five years. This means more than 1 of every 8 case assignments that required specialized representation was given to an attorney who was supposed to be ineligible to serve...

1/3 OF ALL EXONERATIONS NO CRIME HAD EVER OCCURRED. THEY WERE FABRICATED BY VENGEFUL AND/OR STUPID PEOPLE, AND BY PO'LICE UNINTENTIONAL AND INTENTIONAL....

AN ANALYSIS OF ISSUES AT PRE-TRIAL PROCEEDINGS LEADING TO WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IN “NO CRIME” CASES: THERE WAS NO CRIME, BUT THEY DID THE TIME

http://www.albanylawreview.org/Articles/Vol82_3/843-An-Analysis-of-Issues-at-Pre-Trial-Proceedings.pdf

So far, more than a third of wrongful conviction cases and later exonerations were for a crime that did not take place. This illustrates the flaws of the criminal justice system:not only are those within the system blind to who is innocent and who is guilty, but they are also blind as to whether or not a crime occurred.... To date,there are 860 no crime cases out of 2,366 exonerations, which accounts for about 36%....

accidental deaths have been on the rise“and are currently the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer.... police violate the law and coerce a false accusation from witnesses leading to a wrongful conviction, also known as official misconduct. To date, official misconduct is the second most common contributing factor, accounting for 52% of wrongful convictions that were later exonerated....

Suicide is another commonly misinterpreted death for a homicide. In 2016 “[s]uicide was the tenth leading cause of death” in the U.S....However, perpetrators may stage the crime scene as a suicide to overcome conviction, which can fool law enforcement from reporting the case as a homicide....experts becoming suspicious of all crime scenes and incorrectly reporting a suicide as a homicide—which has occurred in cases and led to wrongful convictions...

fabricated crime stands out from the others due to the fact that it is not mistakenly, but intentionally claimed, which results in wrongful convictions. One of the first elements of a fabricated crime is when a false report of a crime is filed to the police station....Just as in accidental and suicidal cases, official misconduct was also contributing in fabricated crime cases; only in this category, the police were found to be inventing crimes to charge innocent by standers and thereby wrongfully convicting them.... All the above-mentioned cases show how accessible it is to file a false crime report that can withstand the justice system and lead to a wrongful conviction. ...

When it comes to false crime reports, from this case sample, they were filed not just by police, but also by civilians (i.e., individuals, legal entities).... As a result, innocent people might be facing punishments, some of which are irreversible, where no crime was committed....

Opinion: NYC Needs a Better Process for Holding Prosecutors Accountable

https://citylimits.org/2021/05/26/opinion-nyc-needs-a-better-process-holding-prosecutors-accountable/

‘We must remove prosecutors as the gatekeepers to making right the wrongs they inflicted in the past. ’There is a growing consensus in New York City that we cannot expect the police to police themselves. Recently nearly all of the top-tier mayoral candidates committed to bringing in a commissioner from outside the NYPD for this reason. Meanwhile City Council and state legislators are working to remove final disciplinary authority away from the commissioner. There is also an understanding that prosecutors, because of their reliance on the police to prosecute cases, are unable to hold police accountable in any meaningful way. ...

Looking Back: Harmless Error – Is It Ever Really Harmless? | Davis Vanguard

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2021/05/looking-back-harmless-error-is-it-ever-really-harmless-2/

“The Constitution entitles a criminal defendant to a fair trial, not a perfect one.”

The above quote penned by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison from Paris on December 20, 1787 may have partially inspired Madison’s response the following year. Madison in Letter 51 of the Federalist Papers declared: Justice is the end (purpose) of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and will ever be pursued until it is obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit....

The expression harmless error is frequently employed in the rulings of the New York state supreme court appellate division when confronted with an appeal from a criminal defendant alleging wrongful action, or mishandling by a court below believed to have negatively influenced the outcome of his case. The concept is meant to suggest that although the petitioner may be factually correct in his assertion that the trial court in some specific manner improperly dealt with his case, nevertheless, no harm was done, the outcome would have been the same had it not. and, therefore, no harm, no foul.

Unfortunately, all too often, appellate panels are in no good position to accurately assess how differently a trial might have turned out had the judge not committed the error, or permitted the wrongful act by the prosecution he/she permitted....

A trial court may commit any number of common errors. It may have permitted the presentation of hearsay testimony that should have been excluded. Perhaps it allowed the prosecutor to improperly vouch for a witness, or failed to exclude unconstitutionally obtained evidence, or issued erroneous jury instructions....how does the appellate court deter- mine with a high degree of certainty that the error, or errors, confirmed to have been committed below could not possibly have affected the outcome?...

All too often politics and colleague- ship enter the equation, and defendants, however worthy their argument, are denied. ...Speaking of the high court, it periodically addresses the issue; and. in recent years has, in fact, expanded the categories of errors that are subject to harmless error analysis, while at the same time establishing different standards of harmlessness for different errors and different kinds of review....

Looking Back: When Shaky Eyewitness Testimony Trumps Alibi Witness Testimony | Davis Vanguard

https://www.davisvanguard.org/2021/06/looking-back-when-shaky-eyewitness-testimony-trumps-alibi-witness-testimony/

In a 1996 Bronx, New York state case, People v. Richard Rosario, the defendant was convicted of a shooting homicide based upon photo array identification by two eyewitnesses. In point of fact, the defendant was in the state of Florida on the date of the shooting.... “he named more than a dozen people in Florida who he said would vouch for him.” However, the police never contacted the alibi witnesses, preferring instead to rely upon two so-called eyewitnesses.Although his initial defense attorney secured funds through the court for an investigator to contact said alibi witnesses, “the lawyer never pursued the matter.”...

Rosario obviously received ineffective assistance of counsel and is very likely innocent. Had his attorneys pursued his alibi evidence, he likely would have been acquitted. For judges to acknowledge that fact and yet rule against him represents their elevation of procedural concerns over actual innocence, and an elevation of technicalities over basic fairness.... Discounted alibi evidence is a common theme in many DNA proven wrongful convictions....

False Confessions, Explained

https://theappeal.org/the-lab/explainers/false-confessions-explained/

“I am going to say it folks: people who have no idea, who weren’t there, who weren’t involved, do not confess, especially to murder. It goes against everything you have ever known and all your common sense. No one confesses to a murder that they did not commit; no one.”[1]Prosecutor’s closing argument, Commonwealth v. Willie Veasy, p. 108.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I heard many prosecutors make that same argument to juries. And it’s kind of hard to argue with that logic. Yet, we know that people do, in fact, confess to crimes they never committed. Demonstrably false confessions plague wrongful convictions. Since the National Registry of Exonerations began tracking exonerations, consistently 20 percent of all exonerations have involved someone who “confessed” to a crime they didn’t commit....

A false confession is a statement given by a person that incriminates them in a crime they did not commit. Scientists who study this phenomenon group false confessions into three general categories: (1) voluntary; (2) coerced-compliant, and (3) coerced-internalized. There are, of course, myriad of cases where a confession was presented at trial that police either concocted wholly or in part. This article is focused on the phenomenon where the suspect admits the … Which raises the questions: How and why do police push people to confess falsely? And why do courts allow prosecutors to use these statements in court? ...

Without physical coercion, police have fallen back to rely upon interrogation tactics that lean heavily on psychological measures, and that courts still allow despite empirical research demonstrating their coercive effect....Unlike in other parts of the world, police in the United States are allowed to lie to suspects during an interrogation.[16]Frazier v. Cupp, 294 U.S. 731, 739 (1969). Often police use a “false evidence ploy” to increase the pressure on a suspect toward confessing—whether they committed the crime or not....

It's Time to Change the Way the Media Covers Crime

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/05/31/it-s-time-to-change-the-way-the-media-covers-crime

Obviously the media aren’t solely to blame for such wrongful convictions.... “a centrifuge [in which e]veryone was pinned into a position—the press, the police, the prosecution—and no one could press the stop button.”... journalists have also helped drive decades of harsh criminal justice policy. In the American media, coverage of violent crime rose sharply just as the rate of violent crime actually began to fall.... black people were four times as likely to be represented as criminals than as police in television news...

AND CASS COUNTY NORTH DAKOTA PROVIDES FREE INADEQUATE COUNSEL FOR THOSE OF LOW INCOME THEN SENDS THE BILL TO THE INNOCENT DEFENDANT FOR THE FREE LIEYER WITH EXTRA FEES FOR SLAVE AUCTION COSTS AS WELL. MOST OFTEN THE SLAVE NEVER RECEIVES ANY CONSULTATION WITH HIS FREE LIEYER UNTIL MINUTES BEFORE APPEARING AT SLAVE AUCTION WHERE THE INNOCENT SLAVE PLEADS GUILTY TO THE BOGUS CHARGE...

Pretrial supervision fees

https://www.courthousenews.com/pretrial-supervision-fees/

MISSOULA, Mont. — Ravalli County, Montana, makes criminal defendants pay for pretrial supervision and things like GPS monitoring, even when they are homeless and live off public assistance, according to a federal class action.

Report: Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent

https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/report-government-misconduct-and-convicting-the-innocent/4ba90d74-450a-4ae2-b8b3-010744a743ec/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_15

A study released last year by the National Registry of Exonerations found that of 2,400 exonerations since 1989, 54 percent of the defendants were victimized by official misconduct, with police involved in 35 percent of cases and prosecutors in 30 percent of the cases. But the study found that in only 4 percent of cases involving prosecutorial misconduct were prosecutors disciplined, and police officers were disciplined in 19 percent of cases....

States Are Finally Starting To Rein in Deceptive Police Interrogation Techniques That Lead to False Confessions

https://reason.com/2021/08/16/states-are-finally-starting-to-rein-in-deceptive-police-interrogation-techniques-that-lead-to-false-confessions/

30 percent of DNA exonerees were under the age of 18 when they falsely confessed, and if you raise that age to 25, it's 49 percent....

Download False Justice:

8 Myths that Lead to Wrongful Convictions

http://desknererea42.soup.io/post/421570635/Download-False-Justice-8-Myths-that-Lead

Ebook: False Justice : 8 Myths that Lead to Wrongful Convictions Total size: 7.53 MB

Download book

Wrongful Conviction:

International Perspectives on Miscarriages of Justice

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UhRQfYF2TL8X2etc0tPjNyaWQFGd7zZfTSDOkHP2SGg/edit

Wrongful Conviction: International Perspectives on Miscarriages of Justice pdf.

We Are Naturally Bad Sleuths…

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/10/28/we-are-naturally-bad-sleuths/

...Unlike a tape recorder, which plays back verbatim, our memories are like quick-sand, forever moving and shifting underneath us, creating distorted or entirely false memories in the process. And we are surprisingly susceptible to having our memories permanently altered by even the slightest suggestions from others. The scariest part of it is that we are not aware of how much our memories are in flux, and by nature believe our distorted memories to be 100 percent accurate.

...Mistaken eyewitness identification has proven to be the leading cause of wrongful conviction, playing a role in 75 percent of the cases.

...Loftus’s research on memory is partially an outgrowth of the Innocence Movement — the phenomenon of suspects being convicted and sent to prison for inhumane crimes they didn’t commit, only to find out years later, usually through DNA testing, that they were 100 percent innocent.

...How could the police have been so convinced that a suspect was the perpetrator, while simultaneously discounting so many clues that pointed directly to his innocence? Why did a fingerprint expert testify at trial that the defendant’s fingerprint was found at the crime scene, when we now know the defendant’s fingerprint was not actually a match?

...“confirmation bias,” which we now know contaminates forensic sciences. Confirmation bias exists when a forensic expert’s pre-existing beliefs — like a belief that the suspect is probably guilty — skews the results and causes them to come to an inaccurate result.

...Tunnel vision occurs when the cops develop a suspect, get excited that they might have finally solved the crime, and then become so entrenched in their belief that they ignore all the evidence of innocence that arises in their investigation. Tunnel vision is dangerous, and it happens all too often. Cops who suffer from tunnel vision and convict an innocent person aren’t bad people – they’re human beings.

...In many of the 1,200 plus cases of wrongful conviction in the Registry, the innocent defendant testified in his defense at trial, and told the jury he didn’t do it. But the jury didn’t believe him, and in many cases, was fooled by witnesses who we now know were flat out lying.

Public Release: 15-Jan-2015 People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/afps-pcb011515.php

Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn't actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes.

.."Our findings show that false memories of committing crime with police contact can be surprisingly easy to generate, and can have all the same kinds of complex details as real memories,".

..Intriguingly, the criminal false events seemed to be just as believable as the emotional ones.

..."This research speaks to the distinct possibility that most of us are likely able to generate rich false memories of emotional and criminal events,"

..."Understanding that these complex false memories exist, and that 'normal' individuals can be led to generate them quite easily, is the first step in preventing them from happening," says Shaw. "By empirically demonstrating the harm 'bad' interview techniques - those which are known to cause false memories - can cause, we can more readily convince interviewers to avoid them and to use 'good' techniques instead."

...The article abstract is available online: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/14/0956797614562862.abstract

False memory: Innocent people easily convinced they committed a crime

http://thecoffeedesk.com/2015/01/15/false-memory-innocent-people-easily-convinced-committed-crime/

It’s almost a parody of cop shows—the aggressive detective hounding an innocent suspect in an interrogation room until the person pleads guilty to a crime they didn’t commit. But a new study in the journal Psychological Science says people can easily be convinced they committed a crime they are innocent of.

In past years, evidence from wrongful-conviction cases has shown that certain ways of questioning suspects can lead them to make false confessions.

...“Our findings show that false memories of committing crime with police contact can be surprisingly easy to generate, and can have all the same kinds of complex details as real memories,”.

..71% (21) developed a false memory of the crime.

...Seventy-six percent of participants formed false memories of an emotional event the researchers told them about.

...“In such circumstances, inherently fallible and reconstructive memory processes can quite readily generate false recollections with astonishing realism,”

...“This research speaks to the distinct possibility that most of us are likely able to generate rich false memories of emotional and criminal events,” says Shaw.

The study concludes that further investigation of the interview procedures and approaches of interviewers that contribute to false memories is needed to minimize the risk of inducing false memories.

$9.2 Million Awarded in

Wrongful Conviction

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2015/02/28/9-2-million-awarded-in-wrongful-conviction-revealed-in-fbi-lab-review/

The judge provided one formula for calculating compensation damages:

• $1,000 per day for wrongful incarceration,

• $250 per day for parole time and

• $200 for each day between his exoneration and trial. ...

Wrongful Conviction Statistics 2015

http://newyeargreeting.org/tag/wrongful-conviction-statistics-2015

Statistical Data On Wrongful Convictions

http://newyeargreeting.org/tag/statistical-data-on-wrongful-convictions#

Death-penalty analysis reveals extent of wrongful convictions

http://www.nature.com/news/death-penalty-analysis-reveals-extent-of-wrongful-convictions-1.15114

At least one in 25 people on death row in the United States would be exonerated if given enough time, researchers have found. The study, which used statistical methods way to get a glimpse of the extent of wrongful convictions, says lead author Samuel

Policing and Wrongful Convictions

https://ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/246328.pdf

Introduction. What Have We Learned From Exonerations?. The Psychology Behind Cognitive Biases and Their Relationship to Wrongful Convictions. What Police Can Do To Help Minimize the Likelihood of a Wrongful Conviction. Facilitating and Assisting Investigations of Post-Conviction Claims of Innocence. Conclusion. Endnotes. References.

Some Prosecuters say "expanding access to DNA testing will overburden the courts"...

Can you believe that? The Law thinks it is better for Innocent People to be Wrongfully Convicted with a false criminal record for life because it will "overburden the courts".

Out of Prison, Out of Luck

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/05/27/out-of-prison-out-of-luck

“Because [Harrell] has been released from prison he no longer has the right to demand testing of evidence that might clear his name – and possibly identify the true perpetrator,” ... “That is an awful contradiction that our laws present to prosecutors.” ...Some prosecutors disagree with the proposed change and say that expanding access to testing will overburden the courts.

Faulty Forensics Produce Scores Of Wrongful Convictions Around US

http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/crime-and-justice-news/2015-05-expert-testimony-tainted

The criminal justice system is grappling with the fallout from decades of faulty analysis in criminal cases that may have resulted in thousands of wrongful convictions...A state-ordered review in 2013 found that more than 40,000 cases could have been affected by Dookhan’s misconduct. Prosecutors say the number was likely closer to 20,000....examiners’ testimony contained erroneous statements in at least 90 percent of the cases.

National Registry of Exonerations:

http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/1600_Exonerations.pdf

1,615 Exonerations as of 6/15/15

Of the 1,600 individual exonerations from January 1989 through May18,2015:

For all exonerations, the most common causal factors that we have identified are (See Table 5):

• Perjury or False Accusation (55%);

• Official Misconduct (45%);

• Mistaken Eyewitness Identification (34%).

Perjury or False Accusation is the leading cause of Wrongful Convictions. Over half of all Wrongful Convictions exonerated are due to Liars in the general public.

In reality this means a person(s) makes up a story, or flat out Lies about the truth to get an innocent person into legal trouble. Due to incompetency in the legal process the Liars committing perjury or false accusation is believed more by members on the Jury, or the bench. The truth from the innocent defendant is not believed. Or the Innocent defendant was maipulated to plea guilty despite being innocent.

Official Misconduct makes up nearly half of all Wrongful Convictions exonerated, and is the 2nd most leading cause of Wrongful Covictions. Law Enforcement, and Prosecuters account for the most Official Misconduct cases. Some are honest mistakes but in far too many cases, the very people who are responsible for ensuring truth and justice -- law enforcement officials and prosecutors -- lose sight of these obligations and instead focus solely on securing convictions, or malicious intent for personal goals.

In reality Law Enforcement, and/or Prosecuters flat out Lie, Fabricate, Falsify, and any possible deceptive practice to Wrongfully Convict an Innocent person of a crime he/she did not commit. In many cases a crime did not even occur. It was made-up by Law Enforcement, and/or Lies from the public.

• Nearly a third of all Wrongful Convictions exonerated: The Crime Never Occurred.

• 70% of drug-crime exonerations: The Crime Never Occurred. Cases in which defendants were exonerated after conviction for crimes that never occurred increased from 15% to 27%.

Why should you care? Simple. It could happen to you. An upset neighbor, angry spouse, business rival, or just any dispute with someone at the store can turn you into a Wrongful Convict. The odds are in favor that any Liar will win in Court, and that is if it makes it to Court. 95% of the time all defendants are forced to plead guilty despite your Innocence. This should concern you very much. One day living a normal life, the next day you are Wrongful Convicted criminal for doing nothing wrong.

1,672 Exonerations as of 10/6/15

1702 Exonerations as of 11/24/15

National Registry of Exonerations

Since the October 2015 Newsletter:

30 exonerations have been added

18 contemporaneous exonerations

12 old exonerations that we recently learned about

Wrongful Conviction Day

http://byronchristopher.org/2015/08/22/wrongful-conviction-day/

October 2nd marks a solemn commemoration around the world:

‘Wrongful Conviction Day.’

It’s a day when people reflect on the men and women who have been done in by a criminal-justice system that was flawed, and flawed badly. Some people who have been wrongfully-convicted have been released from prison, and they’re trying to get on with their lives. The lucky ones got some financial compensation, the unlucky ones got zip — not even an apology. The day is also a time to mourn those who quietly left prison in a wooden box, their voices never to be heard.

Criminal Law 2.0,

by The Hon. Alex Kozinski

(Why the US Justice System

Really Isn’t Just)

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2015/09/02/criminal-law-2-0-by-the-hon-alex-kozinski-why-the-us-justice-system-really-isnt-just/

Alex Kozinski is a judge on the U.S. Ninth Circuit. He has recently authored an article for the Georgetown Law Journal, which he simply titles “Criminal Law 2.0.” It is a comprehensive review and critique of the flaws and shortcomings of the current US justice system. My opinion is that this article is a masterpiece, a classic. Here is an experienced, seasoned, knowledgable justice system “insider” who has “figured it out.” And not only has he figured it out, but he also has some very good ideas about fixing the problems, or at least some of them.

You can see the full text here: Kozinski, Criminal Law 2. I strongly encourage reading the full article.

https://globalwrong.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/kozinski-criminal-law-2.pdf

In order to be paroled an Innocent Prisoner is Forced to Lie. Forced to admit Guilt to a crime he did not do. Did you also know that despite Innocence, over 95% of all defendants are forced to plead guilty rather than go to trial. Which is how most of the Innocent got jailed in the first place.

Parole of the Wrongfully Convicted Requires Admission of Guilt

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2015/09/04/parole-of-the-wrongfully-convicted-requires-admission-of-guilt/

We’ve written here before about the quandary faced by actually innocent, wrongfully convicted prisoners seeking parole. Please see The Catch 22 of Parole for the Wrongfully Convicted.

The issue here is that it’s uniformly standard practice for parole boards to refuse parole for defendants who will not admit guilt. So, what’s a wrongfully convicted, actually innocent prisoner to do?

However, a California appeals court has recently ruled that the parole board cannot keep refusing parole to a prisoner simply because he will not admit guilt. See the article By Maintaining Innocence, Convicted Murderer is Denied Parole by Seth Augenstein here.

This is a big deal. Could this be precedential?

This story hi-lites how Innocent people can be Wrongfully Convicted over innocent acts that may be perceived by the public, or manufactured by a corrupt legal system that one "feels fear". American Society operates under Fear and Guilt. And any actions from a citizen is charged as an act of Terrorizing and Crimes of Violence despite no intent. Laws are actually made to criminalize any perceived, false accusation, complaint from the public despite Innocence. A person is no longer responsible for his/her own "feelings". Rather it is a crime against the Innocent if another person feels fear they blame on you.

What makes you fearful? Are you really then a victim because you felt fear?

Examples: Child is fearful of parent. Citizen fearful of Cop. Walking alone at night person walking toward you. A person larger than you. Your employer. Alone at a ATM machine making a withdraw. Car breaks down on the raod. Etc, etc....

So if you are in a fearful event, and the first person approaches you it becomes so easy to mistake the others Innocent act of being in the same place at the same time. You feal fear and in your guilty mind assume the worse. You mistakenly blame an innocent person for making you feel fear. So you call law enforcement with your conjured up story, and now an Innocent person is falsely arrested.

Many other incidents use these these laws for malicious purposes when no fear is felt from the accuser. The accuser often is the initial aggressor, and Lies to law enforcement that the other made them fearful to cover one's own crime by falsely blaming the other. False accusations are commonplace.

Long Beach Woman Detained for Sign Threatening Dihydrogen Monoxide (H2O) Attack, Cited for Illegal Posting

http://lbpost.com/news/2000007089-long-beach-women-detained-for-sign-threatening-dihydrogen-monoxide-attack-cited-for-illegal-sign

Some call it water, some call it H2O. The molecular makeup of this life-sustaining liquid has many arrangements and monikers, but they all amount to the same substance that pours from our faucets and quenches our thirst. ... Most recently, two Florida disc jockeys (DJs) were suspended from the air in 2013 after an April Fool's Day joke where they said on air that Dihydrogen Monoxide was coming out of Floridians’ taps and was not safe for consumption. The hoax caused concern among residents, resulting in numerous calls to water suppliers.

Please participate in this

SURVEY:

If "you" were arrested and charged with murder or any other crime, and you are Innocent but, the Prosecution lets you choose to either:

A) Plead Guilty and receive Probation or a light sentence,

-or-

B) Proceed to trial (of which Prosecuters win 95% of the time) and risk receiving the Death Penalty or a severe sentence like Life In Prison.

Which would you choose, A or B?

Please email your answer to:

nodakwrongfullyconvicted@gmail.com

Do you understand now how, and why there are so many Wrongful Convictions. Far many more than what is currently believed.

“I think this is the guy”—The complicated confidence of eyewitness memory

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/12/i-think-this-is-the-guy-the-complicated-confidence-of-eyewitness-memory/

In 1984, an intruder broke into Thompson’s apartment and raped her. She identified Cotton as the rapist in both a photo array and a live lineup. Although Cotton proclaimed his innocence, he was arrested, tried, and convicted. The prosecution’s case rested mainly on Thompson’s identification, and during the trial she testified that she was “absolutely sure” Cotton was the man who raped her. Cotton was sentenced to life in prison plus 54 years.

But 10-and-a-half years later, things changed drastically. Cotton was exonerated based on DNA evidence that showed that a man named Bobby Poole had raped Jennifer Thompson. In a hearing that occurred after Cotton’s trial, Thompson was shown a picture of Poole. She said “I have never seen him in my life.”...

Looking back, Thompson was not overly confident when she first picked Cotton out of a lineup. Yet by the time the trial came, Thompson was very confident when she identified Cotton as the rapist. And in hindsight, that shouldn’t be surprising...

Cotton is far from the only person convicted of a crime he did not commit based on mistaken eyewitness testimony. The Innocence Project reports that eyewitness misidentification was a factor in 72 percent of 325 cases in which judgments of guilt were subsequently overturned based on DNA evidence. By far, eyewitness misidentification was the most frequent contributing factor in these wrongful convictions....

Keeping a defendant locked up before trial breaks him down psychologically so he will do and say about anything to get out of jail. False confessions, false testimonies, false pleas, false everything ...

Posting bond a reality of justice system

http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20151226/NEWS/151229605

...questions over bond have been raised in the Dragan Sekulic case, including whether it's realistic and constitutional to prohibit bond entirely or in most cases....

If Stark County jailed every suspect accused of committing a felony crime or misdemeanor domestic violence, it would cost taxpayers another $11 million a year, plus millions more to build more jail cells....

Jailing those defendants would nearly double the current inmate population and balloon the operating cost of housing them from about $12 million to roughly $23 million annually. ...

it would cost roughly $30,000 per day, about $11 million per year, to jail them while cases are pending.

That expense would be in addition to the daily cost of housing the current jail population of about 450 inmates — roughly $33,000 per day and $12.3 million per year....

The jail also would need to expand....building a 122-bed wing for the jail cost $17 million....

The primary function of bond is to ensure a defendant appears in court and doesn’t flee.

The thought in the legal community nationally, generally, is to avoid incarceration before trial because of the cost and because it’s troubling to have a system where the rich can get out of jail while poor, minority defendants stay behind bars, Simmons said....

Margery Koosed, professor emeritus at the University of Akron School of Law, said that under the Ohio constitution, there’s a clear right to bail....

Researchers Expose Police Field Drug Test Kits – They Test Positive to Just About Everything

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/marijuana-advocacy/#cEkurMbJcXacRPAz.99

But how can so many innocent people be locked up, how does the state present evidence, that it doesn’t have, to get a conviction? Well, the folks at the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the U.S., Marijuana Policy Project, made a short video that explains just how easy it is for police to turn an entirely innocent person into a criminal. During the short video, the researchers demonstrate how easy it is for police to generate a false positive during a field test for drugs. The group tests over the counter Tylenol PM in a police test kit for cocaine — the test kit says the Tylenol is cocaine. The group also tests the most popular chocolate in the world, Hershey’s chocolate, for marijuana, it also tests positive. Perhaps the most disturbing test was when the group put absolutely nothing into the field test kit, and they received a positive result. The implications associated with wrongfully accusing and then claiming to have evidence of an individual in possession of an illegal substance are formidable — to say the least. Most people are simply unaware of the fact that police test kits are a crapshoot.

Pro/Con: Does the media have too much influence on public opinion?

http://www.dailyillini.com/article/2016/01/pro-con-media-influence-power-serial-making-murderer

Pro: Media exposes important societal issues

Many of us have indulged in the “true crime” dramas, such as “Serial” and “Making a Murderer,” that have recently piqued the nation’s curiosity. Some believe that we have been caught up in the tide of hysteria and given the media, cleverly disguised as entertainment, too much power to sway our beliefs.

They argue that, in the end, the various scenarios created and then exacerbated by media coverage amount to nothing, or much less than they have been made out to be and that the power we have given the media results in more harm to our society than good.

It is undeniable, however, that in many cases, the media has acted as a divining rod for the skeletons hiding in society’s closet. And, while these documentaries may or may not be entirely factual, there is one important, unembellished fact that they do expose: corruption and incompetence in our justice system has led to wrongful conviction. Rather than avoiding or distancing ourselves from media it would be wiser to embrace it as tool to keep us better informed and keep societies more accountable.

Con: Media too influential in swaying public opinion ...

Why do prosecutors go after innocent people?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/01/21/why-do-prosecutors-go-after-innocent-people/

in real life, once a prosecutor decides to file felony charges against a defendant, that defendant will almost certainly be convicted — and local prosecutors have a strong incentive to file, likely thanks in no small part to electoral pressures....

A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics looking at urban defendants in state courts found that in 2009, 66 percent of those charged with felonies were convicted, while only one percent were acquitted. The vast majority of those convicted plead guilty instead of going to trial. This means that the last real chance to avoid a wrongful conviction actually occurs at the screening stage, when the prosecutor decides whether to file charges in the first place. ...

Clearly, prosecutors do file charges against innocent defendants. The instances that receive media attention tend to be intentionally wrongful, those where the evidence of innocence is overwhelming but prosecutors storm ahead anyway, out of malice or blind ambition....

Reason more poor people are convicted than rich is because the poor cannot afford competent attorney as the rich can.

Attorneys, law students, and volunteers work to free innocent prisoners in Washington

http://www.dailyuw.com/features/article_68cf35aa-cef5-11e5-a525-87f36dad8db7.html

Fernanda Torres, a staff attorney at IPNW, said that the affordability of legal assistance often plays a role in the outcome of a trial.

“It is very clear that in our criminal justice system, [having] the means to pay for an attorney, an investigation, and access to resources makes a difference in the fairness of the trial,” Torres said. “When we go back and review cases, that disparity is obvious and continues to play a role. If folks can’t afford a post-conviction lawyer, then they can apply to a project like ours.”

How sleep deprivation helps police obtain false confessions

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/how-sleep-deprivation-helps-police-obtain-false-confessions/

Yes, you read that correctly: innocent people can and do confess to horrific crimes they never committed. False confessions are a factor in approximately 25 percent of DNA exonerations in the United States. While you may think that you personally would never confess to a rape or murder you didn’t commit, research has shown that innocent people are especially vulnerable in an interrogation room. Why is this the case?

Why would an innocent person falsely confess?....

Wrongful Convictions: Of Texas Wrongful Conviction Cases in Exoneration Registry 25% of Them Involved Prosecutorial Misconduct

http://www.quackenbushlawfirm.com/quackenbush-law-firm-attorneys-blog/wrongful-convictions-of-texas-wrongful-conviction-cases-in-exoneration-registry-25-of-them-involved-prosecutorial-misconduct/

In the cases, judges found that prosecutors broke basic legal and ethical rules, suppressing important evidence and witness testimony and making improper arguments to jurors. Despite the courts’ findings of some serious missteps, the State Bar of Texas reports very little public discipline of prosecutors in recent history. The State Bar does not track discipline of prosecutors separately from other lawyers.

% Exonerations by Contributing Factor

National Registry of Exonerations

April 2016

4/19/2016 Total = 1773

Since the February 2016 Newsletter:

40 exonerations have been added

23 contemporaneous exonerations

17 old exonerations that we recently learned about

Contributing Factor: % of Exonerations:

Mistaken Witness ID = 31%

Perjury or

False Accusation = 56%

False Confession = 13%

False or Misleading-

Forensic Science = 23%

Official Misconduct = 52%

New Truth Verification Technology

http://www.noliemri.com/

No Lie MRI, Inc. provides unbiased methods for the detection of deception and other information stored in the brain. The technology used by No Lie MRI represents the first and only direct measure of truth verification and lie detection in human history!

For 50 Years, You’ve Had “The Right to Remain Silent”

So why do so many suspects confess to crimes they didn’t commit?

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/06/12/for-50-years-you-ve-had-the-right-to-remain-silent#.BsqWvrOsE

Innocent suspects confess because they are terrified and confused and exhausted; because they are deceived or tricked; because they don’t understand what they are doing; because they feel hopeless and helpless and isolated. But what leads to this desperate predicament? Miranda sets the stage.

Post-Conviction DNA Testing and Wrongful Conviction

http://www.urban.org/research/publication/post-conviction-dna-testing-and-wrongful-conviction/view/full_report

To Reduce Wrongful Convictions, Reform the Bail System

http://www.indyrepnews.com/articles/2016/06/22/reduce-wrongful-convictions-reform-bail-system

There are strong incentives for defendants like Browder to plead guilty to crimes even when they are innocent, and as a result 90 percent to 95 percent of convictions are reached through a plea deal.

In some jurisdictions, court-appointed attorneys have a financial incentive to pressure their clients to accept a plea deal quickly — they’re paid more if the case doesn’t go to trial. Aside from that direct pressure, defendants who can’t afford bail could lose their job or housing, or create hardship for their families, if they are detained for weeks or months while awaiting trial.

Given those potential costs, it is entirely rational for defendants to accept a plea deal that would return them to their lives faster, even if they are innocent.

No Votes in Justice — Plea Bargaining and Wrongful Convictions

http://www.slaw.ca/2016/06/22/no-votes-in-justice-plea-bargaining-and-wrongful-convictions/

At the expense of justice, governments improve the cost-efficiency of the criminal justice system but thereby weaken the safeguards against wrongful convictions. Doing so makes more money available to be spent on more politically profitable areas because there are no votes to be gained by improving the criminal justice system. ...

Confessions of an Ex-Prosecutor

http://reason.com/archives/2016/06/23/confessions-of-an-ex-prosecutor

The Liars should get the same punishment that the falsely accused would get if wrongfully convicted.

Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson launches program to prosecute liars

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/5776411-181/lake-county-district-attorney-don

Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson says he’s fed up with liars who fib under oath. In a novel offensive against what many say is a rampant problem in the court system, he’s assigned an attorney in his office to investigate and prosecute alleged incidents of perjury.

“I’ve always had a pet peeve about people lying in court. It’s just so very common, especially in the family law arena, for people to come in and just lie their asses off,” Anderson said. He’s hoping his new program will make people think twice about committing perjury....

These Are America’s ‘Deadliest’ Prosecutors

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americas-deadliest-prosecutors_us_5774234fe4b0bd4b0b1368ed

A Harvard Law report finds a handful of zealous prosecutors responsible for a big share of America’s death row.

The Death Penalty Is Largely Driven by a Small Number of Overzealous Prosecutors

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/30/death-penalty-largely-driven-by-small-number-of-overzealous-prosecutors/

Arresting America, Fusion

http://fusion.net/series/arresting-america/

The city of Gretna, Louisiana, has roughly 18,000 residents, and in 2013 its police department arrested 6,566 adults. That's a rate of more than one arrest for every three residents

What are your chances of being arrested?:

Enter your county here:

Select the ethnicity or race that best describes you:

Finger-pointing over fingerprinting:

Checks could be flawed

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/finger-pointing-over-fingerprinting-checks-could-be-flawed/article_ccded024-e40c-5bdf-944b-07f994895b19.html

...as many as one-half of the criminal records in the FBI's fingerprint system could have missing or inaccurate information on how criminal cases were resolved.... The companies' concerns that fingerprint data can omit the disposition, or resolution, of a criminal case — whether it ended in a conviction, acquittal or dropping of charges — are grounded in truth

Wrongful Convictions and the Accuracy Of the Criminal Justice System

https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/pubpdfs/furman/03SeptTCL-Furman.pdf

Good Jurors Nullify Bad Laws: Reclaiming the Right of Every Juror

https://fee.org/articles/good-jurors-nullify-bad-laws-reclaiming-the-right-of-every-juror/

One Third of Field Drug Test Units Give False Positives

http://www.chromatographytoday.com/news/bioanalytical/40/breaking_news/one_third_of_field_drug_test_units_give_false_positives/39814/

A recent investigation into portable drug testing kits used in the United States found that 32% of the units in use were liable to give false positives, leading to a staggering 75% wrongful conviction rate....

It showed that hundreds of people convicted of drug possession were not actually guilty of a crime, and had instead pleaded guilty in order to receive a reduced sentence, which they saw as the best way to solve a dreadful situation.

VIRTUALIZED COURTS. The Future. Automated Judicial System. Automated Legal Expert System

(Automated lawyer, and judges):

Face the fact. You will not get a Just, Fair, Equal, and Constitutional Trial in an American Court today.

You will not get a just outcome equivalent to the actual truth.

What better way to eliminate court room bias, eliminate police & official misconducts, ensure the Constitution and your Rights are not being violated by the very system sworn to uphold these rights, and maintain fair and equal protection of the law for all. To do this requires eliminating the human factor partly or in whole. Computers are much better able to handle simultaneously the total combinations of knowing all the laws, the Constitutional Rights, and then applying them without human bias and misconducts. And doing it in a speedy manner.

Imagine entering a Court room of the future where you sit in a chair, and a wireless computer gives a decision of your case. It would be able to ask the appropriate questions for input reducing official misconducts. It is able to detertmine truth, and lies. It hears the case from all actors, and analyzes a fair and just outcome based on its total input and its total knowledge of all law. It may decide if a law was even violated. It would determine if the law itself is in violation of the Constitution or a violation of another law. It would fairly and equally dispense justice to all including the Government, Police, and Officials Misconducts eliminating immunty. The Two Tier legal system in existance now would be eliminated since favoritism, class, status, race, gender, etc., would not be considered in the computers decision since computer uses logic, and not emotion nor feelings.

The perfect virtual courtroom would replace all human factors with only minimal human elements as a check on the system.

Legal expert system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_expert_system

A legal expert system is a domain-specific expert system that uses artificial intelligence to emulate the decision-making abilities of a human expert in the field of law.[1]:172 Legal expert systems employ a rule base or knowledge base and an inference engine to accumulate, reference and produce expert knowledge on specific subjects within the legal domain.... Rule-based, Case-based reasoning, neural net, Fuzzy logic

The future of the courts - A white paper

http://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/documents/The-Future-of-the-Courts.pdf

We see inspiring opportunities: transforming the delivery of law to our community, increasing access to justice, removing disadvantage in the face of increasing inequality.

Robot Lawyers? The Future of AI and Automation in Law

http://legal-tech-blog.de/robot-lawyers-the-future-of-ai-and-automation-in-law

The End of Lawyers, Period.

http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/the_end_of_lawyers_period

“The End of Lawyers? Not So Fast.” that, among other sources, cites to a draft study Can Robots Be Lawyers? which, while not yet for quotation, seems destined to conclude that the popular accounts of the potential displacement of lawyers by automation are a bit overblown.

American injustice

http://personalliberty.com/american-injustice/

The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its incarcerated people, and half of the world’s academically qualified lawyers, Those lawyers consume about 10 percent of America’s gross domestic product. ...One in 3 Americans will be arrested by the age of 23. Those “crimes” are often nothing more than truancy and misbehaving in school. ...The war on drugs is scam and a fraud. ...more than $1 trillion has been spent and millions of people have been incarcerated and many, if not most, of them were likely innocent. ...

Expert witness goes nuts during questioning for Mississippi death penalty case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/expert-witness-goes-nuts-during-questioning-for-mississippi-death-penalty-case

Tainted Identifications

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/taintedids.aspx

When we talk about eyewitness misidentifications in criminal cases we usually mean mistaken identifications by witnesses who don’t know the suspects they identify. These misidentifications are frequently caused by suggestive identification procedures—showups and poorly constructed lineups—but mostly do not involve practices that are considered misconduct.

In fact, many misidentifications are lies rather than mistakes—usually by witnesses who falsely identify people they know. And some misidentifications, mistakes and lies alike, are caused by deliberate police misconduct. We have learned more about these tainted identifications recently while collecting data on official misconduct generally.

We see a few common patterns across all these false identifications, lies and mistakes alike:

• • Misidentifications by witnesses who know the suspect are generally lies.

  • Misidentifications by strangers are generally mistakes.

  • Police initiated identification procedures, generally in-person or photographic lineups, almost always involve witnesses who are strangers to the suspect.

  • On the other hand, when a witness accuses someone she knows, accurately or not, no identification procedure is held; she simply tells the police who did it. No one needs a lineup to identify (or misidentify) her brother.

Judge Alex Kozinski Speaks Out on Wrongful Convictions

http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/judge-alex-kozinski-speaks-out-on-wrongful-convictions/

“It takes courage and integrity for any judge to critique the very system over which he presides on a daily basis. The relatively vast number of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted is evidence of what Judge Kozinski here describes. However, there is another class of the unjustly imprisoned who are convicted in the United States without a shred of forensic evidence and based solely on the word of an accuser. In the State of New Hampshire (NH RSA 632:A6) a defendant can be convicted of sexual assault even decades after an alleged offense with no evidence or corroboration beyond the word of an accuser. This is so even when an accuser has a clear financial gain from bringing the claim. How does one appeal the evidence in a case in which there was never any?”

“Setting aside wrongful convictions has become exceedingly difficult under a 1996 law called the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which severely limits the ability of federal courts to review state-court decisions. Congress should amend the legislation to authorize swift federal relief to prisoners who make a convincing showing that they were convicted with false or overstated expert witness testimony.”

Touch DNA and Wrongful Convictions

http://www.loevy.com/blog/touch-dna-wrongful-convictions/

“Touch DNA,” also called “Contact Trace DNA,” is DNA that is recovered from skin cells left behind when a person touches items such as clothing or a weapon. People shed about 400,000 skin cells per day, and these cells can be lifted from weapons or objects found at the crime scene and then tested for a Touch DNA sample. But the problem with using Touch DNA to prove guilt is that a person’s DNA does not stay in one place – skin cells move. For example, I can borrow a scarf that my friend wore, and when I bring it somewhere, I can transfer her skin cells to someplace that she has never been or to an object that she has never touched...

In another alarming example, a study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences recently concluded that a person who uses a steak knife after shaking hands with another person transferred that person’s DNA onto the handle in 85% of the samples examined. Thus, a person’s DNA on a murder weapon does not necessarily mean that he or she was the one who handled it. Another study found that fingerprint brushes used at crime scenes to find latent fingerprints could actually be picking up and then dropping Touch DNA from one crime scene to the next.

These are scary realities. People often think of DNA as being infallible – and it truly can conclusively prove the innocence of the wrongfully convicted. But we have to be very careful about using the same type of evidence to prove a person’s guilt.

Why eyewitnesses give false evidence – and how we can stop them

http://www.econotimes.com/Why-eyewitnesses-give-false-evidence--and-how-we-can-stop-them-370755

One obvious reason why witnesses make mistakes is that the conditions of an event may not produce very strong memories....Memories can also be influenced by other people ...Leading questions from interviewers can also plant the seeds of a false memory in witnesses’ minds ...Investigator bias ...

Wrongful conviction laws across the US

https://necir.carto.com/viz/2b1da5bc-bb2f-11e6-936d-0e3ff518bd15/embed_map

Why We Can’t Always Trust DNA Evidence

http://ideaspractically.com/mind-boggling-stories/why-we-cant-always-trust-dna-evidence/

You are guilty!

http://personalliberty.com/you-are-guilty/

America is a prison nation. One in 3 Americans will be arrested by the age of 23...

Wrongly Convicted More Frequently Seeking—and Securing—Damage Awards

http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202775286435/Wrongly-Convicted-More-Frequently-Seeking8212and-Securing8212Damage-Awards

"A wrongful conviction totally and utterly ruins a person's life—their familial relationships, their freedom, their ability to make a living, friendships, everything." ..."It's the most complete loss of civil rights you can have short of death."

Media Must Apologize To Acquitted Innocents: ‘Peoples’ Tribunal On Innocent Acquitted’ Suggests Legislative & Policy Changes

http://www.livelaw.in/media-must-apologize-acquitted-innocents-peoples-tribunal-innocent-acquitted-suggests-legislative-policy-changes/

“The news media should function as objective institutions, and not as mere handmaidens of investigating agencies. It is long established media ethics that reporters provide their readers and audience both sides of the story – not simply the state version,” it appeals.

Wrongful polygraph conviction cases to be reinvestigated

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/01/16/2003663197

The Control Yuan this week ordered a re-examination of polygraph tests conducted by Lee Fu-kuo, who was the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s polygraph testing expert and who presided over a number of wrongful conviction cases.

Controversy surrounding Lee and his judgements have cast doubt on the reliability and scientific validity of polygraph testing and have led to questions of whether wrongful prosecution arose from human error or unethical conduct.

“One cannot have a system of criminal punishment without accepting the possibility that someone will be punished mistakenly. That is a truism, not a revelation.” -- Antonin Scalia

Innocent people plead guilty To crimes they didn't commit?

http://guiltypleaproblem.org/

Court Orders Prosecutors To Stop Dragging Feet On 20k Convictions Resulting From Faked Drug Lab Tests

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170122/10055736536/court-orders-prosecutors-to-stop-dragging-feet-20k-convictions-resulting-faked-drug-lab-tests.shtml

In 2012, it was discovered that Annie Dookhan, a Massachusetts state drug lab technician, had falsified thousands of drug test results. Perhaps this would have been discovered before it became catastrophic, but supervisors seemed impressed with her productivity and dumped even more of the testing workload on her.

The end result of Dookhan's fakery was a caseload of well over 40,000 convictions that needed to be reexamined. It also resulted in Dookhan being sent to jail for three years. Dookhan is out now, but more than 20,000 of the possibly-tainted convictions still haven't been addressed. This makes it likely there are people still falsely incarcerated while the person who helped put them there is back on the streets.

The Truth About Wrongful Conviction

http://www.slideshare.net/Sheila.Berry/the-truth-about-wrongful-conviction

Slideshow

The Guilty Plea Problem

http://guiltypleaproblem.org/

No crime ever occurred in over half of the total cases.

45% of the cases the defendants were coerced to plead guilty.

42% of the cases involved Official Misconduct.

Exonerations in 2016 ~ The National Registry of Exonerations

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations_in_2016.pdf

2016 was another record breaking year for exonerations in the United States, 166.

The exonerations in 2016 set several other records as well. They include more cases than any previous year in which:

♦Government Officials committed Misconduct;

♦The convictions were based on Guilty Pleas;

♦No crime actually occurred; or

♦A prosecutorial Conviction Integrity Unit worked on the exoneration.

These numbers may not reflect the frequency of false conviction across jurisdictions....An obvious explanation for these differences is that more false convictions were found...

Length of time from conviction to DNA exoneration grew from 6 years in 1993 to 20 years in 2015. These trends continued in 2016. ...

Official Misconduct: Forty-two percent of exonerations in 2016 included official misconduct (70/166). Official misconduct encompasses a range of behavior — from police threatening witnesses to forensic analysts falsifying test results to child welfare workers pressuring children to claim sexual abuse where none occurred. But the most common misconduct documented in the cases in the Registry involves police or prosecutors (or both) concealing exculpatory evidence.

Guilty pleas: Exonerations in cases in which defendants pled guilty used to be unusual, but they have become more common. In 2016, 45% of all exonerations (74/166) were in guilty plea cases, about the same rate as in 2015.

No-Crime Cases: A record 94 exonerations in 2016 were cases in which we now know that no crime actually occurred, more than half of the total.

Why did so many defendants plead guilty when they were innocent? ... Most agreed to plea bargains at their initial court appearances, despite their innocence, rather than remain in pretrial custody for months and risk years in prison if convicted, ... There is some evidence that pretrial detention and the fear of long terms of imprisonment did influence these false guilty pleas.

JUSTICE DENIED:

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE WRONGLY CONVICTED

PAGE 15 ISSUE 65 - FALL 2017

http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_65/jd_issue_65.pdf

The Innocents Database now includes 6,807 cases: 4,276 from the U.S., and 2,531 from 116 other countries.

The Innocents Database includes:

● 571 innocent people sentenced to death

● 913 innocent people sentenced to life in prison

● 2,129 innocent people convicted of a homicide related crime.

●1,037 innocent people convicted of a sexual assault related crime.

● 776 innocent people were convicted after a false confession by him or her-self or a co-defendant.

● 2,093 innocent people were convicted of a crime that never occurred.

●220 innocent people were posthumously exonerated by a court or a pardon.

● 73 people were convicted of a crime when they were in another city, state or country from where the crime occurred

●1,757 innocent people had 1 or more co-defendants. The most innocent co-defendants in any one case was 29, and 20 cases had 10 or more co-defendants.

●12% of wrongly convicted persons are women.

●The average for all exonerated persons is 7-1/8 years imprisonment before their release.

●31 is the average age when a person is wrongly imprisoned.

●Cases of innocent people convicted in 117 countries are in the database.

●4,276 cases involve a person convicted in the United States.

●2,531 cases involve a person convicted in a country other than the U.S.

These exonerations represent only a small fraction of all innocent people who are wrongfully convicted. The majority never get exonerated. The majority forever serve their sentences, and live a life punished as a criminal for crime they never did. Meanwhile, if a crime actually did occur, the real offender is free with no criminal record while the innocent is punished for the crime of the guilty.

Prosecutors can help prevent wrongful conviction

http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/25/another-voice-prosecutors-can-help-prevent-wrongful-conviction/

This legislation is a start, but the real problem is not addressed by this law. The real problem is the unethical, unprofessional, biased and often incompetent arrest, investigation and prosecution of the charged defendant.

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom

http://blendcast.fm/shows/wrongful-conviction-with-jason-flom/page/2

The Disappearing Sixth Amendment

http://reason.com/archives/2017/05/07/the-disappearing-sixth-amendme

You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you. So goes the the Miranda rights spiel heard on 1,000 cop shows. But in many parts of the U.S., it's not quite true. Those who cannot afford a lawyer are left waiting for months to meet with public defenders already buried under other cases.

After Shondel Church was arrested for felony theft in 2016, the Missouri public defender service told him his case was winnable, but he would have to sit in jail six months before an attorney could prepare it. After waiting three months without a job and away from his family, Church took a plea deal. ...

Prosecutors Issuing ‘Fake Subpoenas’ Because They’re Awful People

http://abovethelaw.com/2017/05/prosecutors-issuing-fake-subpoenas-because-theyre-awful-people/

If the awesome power of the state doesn’t terrify innocent people into doing the bidding of prosecutors, perhaps they could consider explicitly threatening innocent witnesses to get their way?...

the D.A.’s Office maintained a practice of issuing “fake subpoenas” in a naked effort to coerce cooperation....

“SUBPOENA: A FINE AND IMPRISONMENT MAY BE IMPOSED FOR FAILURE TO OBEY THIS NOTICE.”

Except it was not (a) a subpoena, (b) carried with it no risk of fine or imprisonment, and (c) recipients were entirely free to disobey the notice....

“Clearly, it’s unethical because the prosecutor is engaging in fraudulent conduct,”...

Wrongfully Convicted Child's Murder Confession Tests Compensation Law

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wrongfully-convicted-child-s-murder-confession-tests-compensation-law-n742086

B.C. murder: The effect of maintaining innocence on obtaining parole

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/catch-22-appeal-highlights-effect-of-maintaining-innocence-on-getting-parole-lawyer-says

Few prisoners maintain their innocence for very long into their sentences because that attitude means they won’t get out early, Barsky said in a recent interview.

“People do plead guilty,” she said. “We know (some) plead guilty when they are factually innocent.” ... “Prisoners are in a catch-22 situation where if they maintain factual innocence, they’re said to not be taking responsibility, to not be taking accountability, and then this is severely restricting their ability not even just to get parole, but to be successful in applications” for escorted or unescorted temporary absences.

That makes it unlikely such a prisoner will be successful in a parole hearing.

“If he had just said ‘I’m guilty,’ there’s a chance he could have obtained parole,” Barsky said....

Murder cases often go cold after exonerations

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/investigations/2017/05/18/murder-cases-often-go-cold-after-exonerations/100019208/

DNA technology has exposed nearly 150 murder cases involving faulty or wrongful convictions nationwide ...seven in 10 murder cases involving a DNA-related exoneration are unsolved, despite the availability of forensic evidence from crime scenes that likely belongs to the killer or killers....

Of the approximately 145 murder prosecutions that involved a DNA exoneration, charges were subsequently filed against an alternative suspect in only about 40 cases. In at least 15 cases, DNA connected the murder to someone who had committed suicide to avoid being arrested, or died another way, the analysis revealed.

If police don't find an immediate match in criminal DNA databases in the wake of exonerations, there's a tendency to put those cases on the back burner, said experts in wrongful convictions..

"There are cases that law enforcement do take the initiative to follow up on the new leads, but in many, many, cases they still don't want to admit that they made a mistake,"

Righting awful wrongs

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2017/jun/02/righting-awful-wrongs-20170602/

The automatic appeals and slow pace of capital cases help prevent wrongful executions. But wrongful convictions of lesser crimes occur at normal speed among the throng of criminal cases clogging the courts.

Most exoneration efforts are targeted at murder and rape cases and concentrated in a few populous states, so there are no accurate figures on the total number of wrongly convicted persons. Data can be extrapolated, however, from existing research--and the scope is frightening.

Research into death-sentence exonerations indicates an innocence rate as high as 3 to 5 percent...

An American University study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, sought to analyze why some innocent defendants are convicted and others are acquitted. ...

Weakness of prosecution's case. The case against Williamson was circumstantial and flimsy.

Untruthful informants. Two witnesses lied in placing Williamson at the crime scene; one was a jailhouse snitch, and the other was the real killer.

Forensic error. Testimony involving hair recovered at the scene was misleading if not outright deceitful.

Tunnel vision. Once police zeroed in on Williamson, they simply didn't keep their eyes or minds open. In retrospect, the blinders on investigators seem unbelievable.

Inadequate defense. Despite significant evidence of mental instability, Williamson's attorney failed to raise competency issues...

Unless you read a book like The Innocent Man, the notion of being wrongly accused, convicted and almost executed probably seems surreal to the point of impossibility in most people's minds. Grisham chronicled the psychological trauma of going to prison for a crime you didn't commit in highly evocative fashion.

Try to empathize with the shattered faith in American justice; the eternal disconnect between "official" and "truth;" the unrelenting paranoia stemming from an irreconcilable unreality. You know you are innocent, but the whole world condemns you as guilty.

Wrongly convicted victims endure a reality the rest of us cannot conceive. Tragically, their victimization continues once they're exonerated, because legislative action hasn't kept up when it comes to "making things right" for wrongly convicted victims....

how a simple mishearing can lead to wrongful conviction

theconversation.com/the-dark-side-of-mondegreens-how-a-simple-mishearing-can-lead-to-wrongful-conviction-78466

A High Court ruling made in 1987, and used since as a precedent in countless trials, allows indistinct covert recordings to be accompanied by a transcript.

That makes perfect sense – until you realise who creates the transcript.

Police provide their own transcripts, in the role of a so-called “ad-hoc expert” – someone with no real expertise but deemed to have “specialised knowledge” arising from familiarity with a particular case.

Transcription of indistinct audio is a highly specialised skill in which police have no training whatsoever. Even with the best of intentions, police transcripts are liable to be inaccurate and misleading.

At Forensic Phonetics Australia, you can hear numerous examples of real covert recordings used in trials.

Read the case study of the murder trial where the only “direct” evidence was a single phrase in a police transcript. The phrase has since been shown, first, to be inaccurate and, second, nevertheless to exert a strong priming effect on listeners, who confidently use their hearing to draw conclusions about guilt.

Too late for that prisoner though....

2,044 EXONERATIONS

Since the March 2017 Newsletter: a total of 44 exonerations added, 33 new exonerations, & 11 newly discovered

What We Think, What We Know, and What We Think We Know about False Convictions

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/86fc3b614e73affdc18bf5a93/files/3b73d648-dd2f-49ab-a158-ab5c18ae4f8b/SSRN_id2921678_1_.pdf

It’s clear, however, from the relative prevalence of these factors that the process differs radically from one type of crime to another. Data from one local jurisdiction (Harris County, Texas) strongly suggest that across the country thousands if not tens of thousands of innocent defendants a year plead guilty to misdemeanors and low level felonies in order to avoid prolonged pretrial detention. ...

Who was Exonerated, When and for What

Of the 1,900 individuals exonerated from January 1989 through October 2016:

• • 91% were men and 9% were women.

  • 47% were black, 39% were white, 12% were Hispanic and 2% were Native American, Asian or Other.

  • 17% pled guilty, 76% were convicted at trial by juries and 7% were convicted by judges.

  • 23% were cleared at least in part with the help of DNA evidence and 77% were cleared without DNA evidence.

  • 80% were imprisoned for more than one year before they were released, 57% for at least 5 years, and 38% for 10 to 39 years.

As a group, the exonerated defendants spent more than 16,710 years in prison for crimes for which they should not have been convicted an average of 9 years each....

More than 80% had been convicted of crimes of violence, including 42% who were convicted of homicide, 26% who were convicted of sexual assaults, and 5% of robbery. Of the minority who were convicted of nonviolent crimes , most (12% of the total) were convicted of drug crimes.

The pattern of exonerations by crime bears little resemblance to the distribution of all criminal convictions in the United States. Fewer than 20% of felony convictions but 82% of exonerations are for violent crimes; fewer than 1% are homicides, which account for 42% of exonerations. Only 4% of exonerations but at least 80% of all criminal convictions are misdemeanors.

Clearly, exonerations are heavily concentrated among the most serious convictions,...

Estimate relative rates of exoneration across crimes:

Robbery convictions outnumber rape convictions by more than 3 to 1, but there have been more than two and half times as many exonerations for rape as for robbery. This suggests a rate of exonerations for rape that is about 8.5 times the rate for robbery.

Robbery convictions outnumber noncapital murder convictions by about 5.7 to 1, but noncapital murder exonerations outnumber robbery exoneration by almost 6.5 to 1 which translates into a relative rate of exonerations for murder about 37 times the rate for robbery.

Only about 3% of murder convictions resulted in death sentences, but 15% of murder exonerees were sentenced to death (115/762), which implies that the exoneration rate among death sentences is about 5.7 times that for other murder convictions, and about 210 times the rate for robbery convictions....

Below the level of these major violent crimes, the differences in rates of exoneration are even more stark, as I’ve mentioned: Nonviolent crimes comprise more than 80% of felony convictions but fewer than 20% of exonerations; there are, for example, about three times as many felony convictions for theft as for robbery but one eighth the number of exonerations. And misdemeanor convictions out number felonies by at least 4 to 1, but account for a few percent of exonerations. The inevitable conclusion is that only a tiny fraction of innocent defendants who are convicted of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies are ever

exonerated.

Why? Most innocent defendants with comparatively light crimes and short sentences probably never try to clear their names. They serve their time and do what they can to put the past behind them. If they do seek justice, they are unlikely to find help. The Center on Wrongful Convictions, for example, tells prisoners who ask for assistance that unless they have at least 10 years remaining on their sentences, the Center will not be able to help them because it is overloaded with cases where the stakes are much higher....

Most exonerations take considerable time. The average interval from conviction to exoneration in capital cases is about 15 years....

“if all death sentenced defendants remained under sentence of death indefinitely, at least 4.1% would be exonerated,” and concludes that “this is a conservative estimate of the proportion of false conviction among death sentences in the United States.”...

Exonerations by Crime and Contributing Factors All Cases:

False Accusation 56%, Official Misconduct 51%, Mistaken Witness Identifications 30%, False Forensic Evidence 24%, Perjury or False Confession 12%.

A lot of misconduct, in all spheres of life is successfully hidden; if not, there’d be a lot less misconduct to hide. The same applies, in force, to incompetent or ineffective legal defense. In 23% of the exonerations in the Registry we have clear evidence of what we code as “Inadequate Legal Defense” (442/1,900). We believe, however, that many more exonerated defendants perhaps a majority would not have been wrongfully convicted if their lawyers had done good work defending them. Ineffective defense attorneys may contribute to more false convictions than any other factor we have mentioned, but our data won’t tell one way or the other....

Missing Cases: Guilty Pleas: Why did these defendants plead guilty ...most pled guilty to get out of jail. In a typical case, the defendant had a criminal record and could not post the comparatively high bail that was set for him. If he pled not guilty he’d remain in jail for months before trial, and then risk years in prison if convicted. It’s hardly surprising that an innocent defendant in that situation would accept a deal to plead

guilty and go home ... Dozens of defendants were framed by police who faked field tests...

Hundreds of thousands of defendants plead guilty every year to avoid pretrial detention in nondrug cases. Why wouldn’t they? Those charged with misdemeanors and light felonies may face months, even years in jail waiting for trial, but get weeks or days or no time at all if they plead guilty. How many of these defendants are innocent? We have no idea, and no way to find out. A simple drug test won’t answer the question, and nobody is going to reinvestigate a routine shoplifting, assault, or disorderly conduct case. ...If I had to bet, I’d say the most common cause of false conviction, by far, is the prospect of prolonged pretrial detention of innocent criminal defendants ...

An innocent defendant who pleads guilty is far less likely to be exonerated than one who goes to trial. It’s much harder to convince anybody that you’re innocent when you told a court that you’re guilty; you have fewer avenues for review; and, most important, if you take a plea bargain you will get a shorter sentence, usually a much shorter sentence that’s why defendants accept plea bargains and the scarce resources it takes to reopen a case and achieve an exoneration are usually reserved for defendants with more severe punishments. Guilty pleas account for 95% of felony convictions, but excluding drug cases only 10% of known exonerations. That’s an exoneration rate 170 times lower than for trials....

Two Travesties of Justice and Not a Single Apology in Sight

https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2017/11/20/two-travesties-of-justice-and-not-a-single-apology-in-sight/

Let me repeat: a judge set bail for a 65-year-old man who spent 45 years in prison for a crime he did not commit in a case where the prosecution is not planning to re-try him.

Seriously?

Keeping with the theme of outrageous, last week Kevin Smith was released from a New Orleans jail, after serving nearly eight years without ever having been convicted of a crime.

After 28 Years in Prison, a Rare Plea Deal Frees a Connecticut Man

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/nyregion/rare-alford-plea-wrongful-conviction-rape-connecticut.html

Nearly 30 years ago, Mr. Harris was convicted of raping a woman in this Connecticut city — a verdict he has been trying to reverse ever since. Earlier this year, after decades of fighting his appeals, the Connecticut state’s attorney’s office finally conceded that the evidence against him might be tainted. The prosecutors agreed to let him go — if he took a deal.

At the heart of the deal was something called an Alford plea, an odd legal paradox that required Mr. Harris to formally plead guilty to a set of lesser crimes, but not admit that he had actually committed them. After Mr. Harris played his role in this courtroom drama, the judge reduced his sentence to the years that he had served. Mr. Harris was freed on Tuesday evening...But the prosecutors also walked away with what they wanted. At least on paper, they were able to preserve their conviction. That ensured they would not have to conduct a second trial — or face the consequences of bungling the first.

Alford pleas, however, are exceptionally rare, composing only 6 percent of all the guilty pleas in state and federal courts, according to a study published in 2009.... http://www.albany.edu/scj/documents/RedlichOzdogru.pdf

Report ‘Matters of judgment’ on death penalty published at National Law University

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/report-matters-of-judgment-on-death-penalty-published-at-national-law-university-4974003/

An opinion study on the criminal justice system and death penalty with 60 former judges of the Supreme Court has revealed ‘wide spread’ prevalence of torture, fabrication of evidence, abysmal quality of legal aid and wrongful conviction.... The report – ‘Matters of Judgement’ – published by the Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi...states that 38 judges acknowledged that “torture was rampant” in India’s criminal justice system.... susceptibility of the criminal justice system to power, money and corruption was the main reason behind wrongful convictions....

On fabrication of evidence, the study states that 15 judges spoke about their experiences at the bar and the bench and planting of evidence in several cases. “This included cases where the murder weapon was proved to be planted as it did not match the injury,... Shockingly, according to the study, not a single found the legal aid system satisfactory. The study states 14 judges acknowledged that poor legal representation disproportionately impacts the poor....

“If you’re asking me whether I am concerned about unmerited acquittals? I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about unmerited convictions because the criminal jurisprudence is designed only to prevent an innocent being convicted. A criminal jurisprudence can afford to have a guilty person’s escape but not to have an innocent person proven guilty.”...

Public defenders nationwide say they're overworked and underfunded

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/public-defenders-nationwide-say-they-re-overworked-underfunded-n828111

Because of the Sixth Amendment, Americans accused of a crime have a constitutional right to representation. But the system that supports that right has been understaffed, underfunded and overwhelmed with cases for more than 30 years, experts say, and it shows no indication of getting better.... Over the last year, as Barrett has come to lead the Missouri indigent defense program, he has tried to draw attention to the untenable workload that the state expects his office to take up. He went so far as to appoint Gov. Jay Nixon to represent an indigent defendant last year after Nixon vetoed a bill that would have capped public defenders' caseloads. Although the stunt briefly caught the national eye, he said, the state's number of cases has still grown from 74,000 in 2016 to 82,000 this year, and most public defenders in Missouri are expected to handle 80 to 100 cases a week. That's a pretty typical expectation across the country, according to experts on both sides of the political aisle, who say it is not a partisan issue.... "When the public defender has hundreds of cases assigned to them, there's no way they can put the time and the effort into what's required. It's a sham to say there was representation when it's literally an assembly line." ...

"Here's what happens," said Barrett, head of the Missouri system. "Someone goes to local jail, and we go to them after two weeks. We say, 'Good news is we're going to work hard on your case; bad news it's going to be a while until we get to your case.'" Most end up making plea deals just to get out of jail, not knowing that a conviction could follow them for the rest of their lives. "In the meantime, these individuals lose their jobs, they lose their apartment, and a lot of them plead to crimes they don't commit," Barrett said. "It happens every day. People take it because they want to get out." ...

Step 1 to stop wrongful conviction: 'Criminal intent' reform

http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/364520-criminal-intent-reform-can-stop-wrongful-conviction-in-the-first-place

First and foremost would be a return to a foundation of due process that has been lost in Congress’ long-running and rather unsuccessful campaign of over-criminalization. ... “Mens Rea Reform Act” — a bill targeted to the element of criminal intent. In the vast majority of criminal statutes, this means the state must prove criminal intent accompanied a bad act in order to achieve a conviction. The converse applies as well: Mere intent to do harm is not a crime in the absence of a harmful act to back it up. ... This change will protect Americans from laws that are vague or otherwise sloppily constructed by Congress. Simply put, no citizen should lose his or her liberty because Congress was negligent during the legislative drafting process....

Yet there are times when a creative prosecutor seeks to take inappropriate advantage of laws (and regulations) that do not require proof of intent in order to secure a conviction. The bottom line: People who lack knowledge or intent to violate the law should not be placed at risk by our criminal justice system. This is particularly troublesome in this day and age, wherein some 4500 federal criminal laws are on the books, as well as more than 300,000 federal regulations (that carry a criminal penalty) supervised by unelected bureaucrats. ...

NY Juries Must be Briefed on Problems with Cross-Racial Identification

https://www.innocenceproject.org/ny-juries-must-be-briefed-on-problems-with-cross-racial-identification/

The New York State Court of Appeals issued a decision on Thursday requiring judges to instruct jurors about the unreliability of cross-racial eyewitness identifications in cases in which the defendant and the witness are or appear to be of different races. Eyewitnesses often have trouble identifying people of a different race than their own. According to the New York Times, an analysis of 39 studies found that participants were one-and-a-half times more likely to falsely identify someone of a different race. According to a brief filed in the case by the Innocence Project, of the 353 DNA exonerations nationwide, 70 percent involved eyewitness misidentification. Nearly half of those cases involved a defendant and a witness of different races....

Wrongly Convicted in Texas

http://yya.s4tii.top/

2017: A Roller Coaster Ride of a Year in False Confessions

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2017-a-roller-coaster-ride-of-a-year-in-false-confessions_us_5a3bf9f2e4b06cd2bd03d8ff

In many ways, 2017 has been a banner year for false confessions and police interrogations. There have been numerous exonerations based on false confessions... there have been 127 exonerations so far in 2017. Twenty-five of these wrongful convictions rested, in part, on false confessions. Out of those 25, twelve came from Chicago...

How these bungled rape cases show there's a cancer in our justice system

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5186966/how-bungled-rape-cases-show-cancer-in-our-justice-system/

lies and a sloppy attitude to disclosures had cost this man his freedom and his arrest was accompanied by the police forcibly entering his property.... innocent people are facing trials with incomplete evidence... presumption has moved from innocent until proven guilty along with the desire to get convictions up. There is more than a suggestion that as complainants were termed victims before any trial took place, this has led to some cherry picking of evidence which basically tilts the judicial balance towards the complainant.... If this sort of attitude is leading to unnecessary charges and, worse, incorrect convictions then this whole miscarriage of justice has turned into a cancer in our judicial system.... More wrongful charges and jail terms serve no one especially the soundness of our judicial system...

YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS - George Carlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E

America is one big lie and you are a fool for believing in it. George Carlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqdsNxS_fk8

Presumption of innocence must survive for true justice

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/opinion/2017/12/22/presumption-innocence-must-survive-true-justice-casey-hoff/976657001/