Disillusion of Justice

Very often in society we are quick to agree with the state. Most of us hold a high degree of confidence in the individuals we elect and select for positions of power, thus we tend to agree with the choices and statements made by state officials. This is especially true in the justice system. When a person is arrested most of the general public will assume that this person must be guilty. At times even I have heard it said that even if the person did not commit the crime they were arrested for they must be guilty of other crimes. Recently I have been following the story and progress of The Innocence Project in Dallas, Texas.

The project is using DNA evidence of convicted felons to exonerate them for the crime they did not commit. So far 17 men have been cleared in Dallas. Most of these men were serving life sentences for a crime they did not commit. One of these stories was recently profiled on 60 minutes.

“James Woodard went away in 1981, convicted in the murder of his girlfriend who had been raped and strangled. He was prosecuted by the office of District Attorney Henry Wade. For nearly 30 years, he never gave up writing letters, and filing motions. But no one was willing to grant him a hearing-until now.”

James is a hero. He was offered release form prison on several occasions as his parole hearings took place over his last 8 years in prison. The parole hearings offered him a simple way to get out of jail. Admit to his crime and display remorse for it, and he would be released on parole and become a free man again. He could have walked out of jail a free man, but he refused to admit to a crime he did not commit. After each parole hearing he was sent back to prison. Only now after 28 years in federal prison was The Innocence Project able to use his DNA evidence to fully exonerate James of the crime he did not commit. The other remarkable piece of this story is that The Innocence Project is a nonprofit group of lawyers and law students working in most cases for no fee what so ever. These wrongly accused men have no means to pay for legal services.

While the trust in our legal system is vital to our own well being and acceptance of the laws we created, it is important to remember that we cannot possibly always be correct when accusing or prosecuting individuals of crimes. This is the most powerful argument vs. capital punishment. When the state executes a person for a crime they did not commit it is simply murder. State sponsored murder. And while at times we may feel as though the most heinous of crimes should be matched with the full force of our legal system and execution, it is inevitable that the innocent will be killed during this process. And that is a crime against humanity.

About a year ago my father was arrested for fraud. The story made the front page of our local news papers and tarnished his reputation within the community and among his friends. I knew in my heart that my father was not guilty of this crime, but it was of little importance to my acquaintances and those I worked with. Most assumed that if the police had arrested him, they must have had a good reason. While many were cautious in approaching me about this subject many expressed their support for both me and my father. It was a difficult time for our family and while I told my father on several occasions that he was innocent and therefore justice would come to pass. It was of little condolence when his lawyers were telling him that he would need to spend approximately $150’000 to defend himself and that was just to begin the defense process.

Yesterday morning the court dropped all charges and the case was thrown out based on a lack of evidence and some illegal integration techniques that would make most tyrants and military justice systems seem liberal. After all was said and done, the peel regional police had spent several million tax payer dollars to perform a modern day witch hunt that took place over several years. Many millions of tax payer dollars were spent to investigate the possibility of misallocated government funds. In the end, there was no evidence of any fraud. It was also interesting to learn that some of the “police” involved in the investigation have since been suspended or terminated for abuse of power among other things. Interesting that this side of the story is not printed on any local news paper front pages. In fact the news papers have yet to report on the final stage of the story they were so eager to print on the cover of the paper. I imagine that when they finally do print this side of the story it will be a small box on page 14. I will continue to monitor the media coverage or lack there of and convey that information here, since it will likely not be covered any place else. I should mention that the story has been printed on some local web sites.

http://www.mississauganews.com/article/14032

It is a cautionary tale of simply not jumping to conclusions and also to remember that the law enforcement system is flawed in a number of ways, and while we claim that anyone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty, it is often not a philosophy that we all adhere to.

“Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of revenge into its inexorable motion”
Frank Herbert