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posted by martyb on Saturday March 24 2018, @03:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the protect-and-serve dept.

From the New York Times:

The [Bronx] court sealed the case file, hiding from view a problem so old and persistent that the criminal justice system sometimes responds with little more than a shrug: false testimony by the police.

[...] "Behind closed doors, we call it testilying," a New York City police officer, Pedro Serrano, said in a recent interview, echoing a word that officers coined at least 25 years ago. "You take the truth and stretch it out a little bit."

[...] An investigation by The New York Times has found that on more than 25 occasions since January 2015, judges or prosecutors determined that a key aspect of a New York City police officer's testimony was probably untrue. The Times identified these cases — many of which are sealed — through interviews with lawyers, police officers and current and former judges.

In these cases, officers have lied about the whereabouts of guns, putting them in suspects' hands or waistbands when they were actually hidden out of sight. They have barged into apartments and conducted searches, only to testify otherwise later. Under oath, they have given firsthand accounts of crimes or arrests that they did not in fact witness. They have falsely claimed to have watched drug deals happen, only to later recant or be shown to have lied.

[...] Many police officials and experts express optimism that the prevalence of cameras will reduce police lying. As officers begin to accept that digital evidence of an encounter will emerge, lying will be perceived as too risky — or so the thinking goes. [...]

Yet interviews with officers suggest the prevalence of cameras alone won't end police lying. That's because even with cameras present, some officers still figure — with good reason — that a lie is unlikely to be exposed. Because plea deals are a typical outcome [...]

"There's no fear of being caught," said one Brooklyn officer who has been on the force for roughly a decade. "You're not going to go to trial and nobody is going to be cross-examined."

[...] Police lying raises the likelihood that the innocent end up in jail — and that as juries and judges come to regard the police as less credible, or as cases are dismissed when the lies are discovered, the guilty will go free. Police falsehoods also impede judges' efforts to enforce constitutional limits on police searches and seizures.


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  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday March 25 2018, @11:48PM (1 child)

    by mendax (2840) on Sunday March 25 2018, @11:48PM (#658134)

    Most people on federal supervised release can petition the court for early discharge after one year so long as they have followed the rules. Quite often the requests are granted. And all people who have served time in federal prison must serve some time on supervised release. If you don't follow the rules, you can be sent back to prison and the judge can extend the amount of time you spend on supervised release and/or in prison. Your facts are wrong, my friend.

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  • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday March 26 2018, @04:59AM

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Monday March 26 2018, @04:59AM (#658236) Journal

    Those weren't facts but my opinion. Probation or Parole is already a lesser version of the original sentence. I don't believe in lifetime registry or such, do your time and the crime should be paid for and you should be left alone to live your live lesson learned hopefully. If you can't be trusted amongst the public you should not be let out. That applies to registered sex offenders and such. If you are considered a lifetime risk then you should be hospitalized and not let out until a shrink seems to think you can exist without danger to other children or such.

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