Eugene Robinson: Defusing a Sociological Bomb

[babylonsister]

Defusing a Sociological Bomb

Posted on Jan 6, 2011

By Eugene Robinson


Race still matters in America and justice is not completely blind. Anyone who believes otherwise should examine the case of Cornelius Dupree Jr., who was ruled innocent Tuesday after spending 30 years in prison—almost his entire adult life—for a brutal carjacking and rape that he did not commit.

Dupree is just the latest of 21 inmates from the Dallas area, almost all of them black, who have been exonerated since a 2001 Texas law permitted DNA testing of the evidence against them. At least another 20 convicts from other parts of the state have similarly been cleared of their crimes. Imagine the wrongs that could be righted if every state had a law like the one in Texas—and if every jurisdiction saved years-old evidence the way Dallas does.

If you don’t believe me, listen to Craig Watkins, the Dallas County district attorney who is waging a systematic crusade to uncover and redress these miscarriages of justice. Elected in 2006, Watkins is the first Democrat since 1986—and the first African-American ever—to hold the job. Last year, amid the Republican wave, he somehow managed to get re-elected.

Of the inmates exonerated thus far, “we’ve had maybe three white guys,” Watkins told me in a telephone interview. “All the rest are black, and all of them were wrongfully identified at trial. Eyewitness identification, on its own, is flawed. And then there’s prosecutorial misconduct. You’ve got to talk about that too.”

Keep in mind that these are innocent men. It’s not that re-examining the evidence has raised “reasonable doubt” about their convictions, and it’s not that they are being freed on some technicality. According to the DNA, there’s no doubt at all: They didn’t do it.

more...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/defusing_a_sociological_bomb_20110106/

[wilt the stilt]

1. Even though I don't like OJ

and know he is guilty, do you remember the Time magazine cover that made him blacker and all the republican ads that have made African opponents blacker. Coincidence? hardley.

[madmax]

2. I remember - big stink over that

and rightly so.

Being poor and black will definitely not help you if you're charged with a crime.

If there is material available for DNA testing I believe it should be made available to everyone regardless if they can pay for it. Just as with Miranda - a lawyer will be appointed if you can't afford one. Thinking like a bureaucrat, it's cheaper to pay for the DNA testing than to house, cloth, feed, etc. an innocent person.

[northoftheborder]

3. People on the inside of the Dallas law enforcement know that, before this present DA,....

.....blacks routinely were treated unfairly in every aspect of justice.

[dragonlady]

4. 265 people exonerated by DNA

The main reasons for wrongful convictions are coerced confessions, mistaken eyewitness identifications, and bad forensic science. And these cases were weighted more heavily toward rape cases, where there is more likely to be biological evidence. The typical murder case may not have that, so there is no chance of being cleared because of DNA. See
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
The front page there has a story about the Texas man who was executed for the deaths of his children in what was called arson, but there is increasing doubt that the evidence actually proved his guilt.

[rasputin1952]

5. The 900# gorilla in all of this...

is that while innocent individuals are incarcerated or put to death...the perpetrator is still out there; most likely committing more crimes.

John Doe #1 sits in prison wrongfully convicted...John Doe #2, the criminal, is free to commit more of the same.

The real kicker is that once a conviction is reached, and the defendant eventually exonerated, is the case reopened?