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from the things-are-not-always-as-they-appear dept.
[IANAL]
In the US, courts assess guilt or innocence before a conviction, then after that the appellate courts focus solely on fairness. The Atlantic has an exposé on some people who are wrongly convicted are pressured to accept Alford Plea Deals in lieu of exonerations — that more or less means to plead guilty for a verbal guarantee from the courts to both speed things up and give a much lighter or minimal sentence. But how many do this is not known: this situation is not tracked there are no formal statistics. However, in Baltimore City and County alone, there were at least 10 cases in the last 19 years in which defendants with viable innocence claims ended up signing Alford pleas. These can translate to the occasional innocent person being stigmatized, unable to sue the state, and that no one re-investigates the crime meaning that the real perpetrator is never brought to justice.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Tuesday September 12 2017, @01:02AM (2 children)
I disagree. I don't think most prosecutors or peace officers (or whatever the fuck they are called now) are evil. I think there are very real, measurable metrics they are held to. These metrics and goals, absent any other counteracting forces, produces what we have today. Internally they promote an us vs. them dynamic. They LARP as tough, powerful men, "busting ass, bringing shitheals to justice". Every incentive, employment guideline, and law drives them to the outcome we have today. They are not individually evil. They are no different than you. You need to recognize that if we are going to make the system work. You would do EXACTLY the same thing in their situation. You may pretend otherwise but you do not fool anyone.
(Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:38AM
I agree that incentives matter, but not to the extent you imply. Some people do what they think is right, and damn the incentives or consequences. They're rare, but they're probably more rare because most people try to avoid situations where they have to choose between what's right and what's expected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden [wikipedia.org]
If I were forced to be a police officer in a horribly corrupt district, and I couldn't just quit, I can honestly say I'd end up a whistleblower, and possibly a dead one. But I'd really rather just not put myself in that situation.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Grishnakh on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:04PM
Bullshit. That sounds just like the ol' "I was just following orders" excuse. No one forces a prosecutor to prosecute someone who's obviously not guilty, yet they happily do it anyway because it helps their career. That is the very definition of evil. If you do evil, then you are evil.