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The National Registry of Exonerations has just issued a new report. They studied 2,400 convictions where defendants were later found to be innocent. The results were shocking!
- 54% involved misconduct by some aspect of the justice system, either police or prosecutors or both
- 35% of the cases were police misconduct
Examples of misconduct included witness tampering and violent interrogations. Evidence was hidden, falsified, or even planted.
In one case, prosecutors convicted a woman of murdering her boyfriend by hiding a medical report that he had committed suicide.
Authorities repeatedly hide evidence where alleged victims have a history of making false rape accusations. They also hide testimony when alleged molestation victims claim to have NOT been molested.
Police have also been guilty of assaulting people and then accusing the people they attacked of having started it. Officers were only punished for these crimes 19% of the time. Prosecutors were disciplined five times less. In other words...
Cops and prosecutors can ruin people's lives with little risk. They also benefit from doing so by padding their arrest and conviction scores. This means...
Many more INNOCENT people are currently in prison than we realize.
Imagine how you would feel if you were falsely imprisoned.
The need for justice reform, including reform of both policing and prosecution, is clearly very large.
As mentioned in our previous message, the success of the First Step Act in releasing people from prison shows two things...
- Positive change is possible.
- Pressure from citizens is what causes such change.
Our strategies of Option Activism and The 300 can allow you to exploit this power with little effort. We think restoring federal parole is the most important criminal justice issue to include in a Second Step Act.
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