Prosecutorial Misconduct

Innocent people spend years in jail and there
is nothing done to prosecutors when it is shown
that they prosecuted an innocent person KNOWINGLY.

An article in USA today brings attention to the
large number of cases that have come to light.

An off-Broadway play called the Exonerated called
attention to the problem a few years ago. A Chicago
newspaper ran a series of articles when the governor
pardoned a large number of inmates who were found to
be innocent.

The Innocence Project which involves journalism students
as well as law school students does a great deal of
searching for proof of wrongful convictions.

The main thing is to realize that it can happen to you,
a middle class person who has never had so much as a
parking ticket. Proving innocence is difficult to do.
How can you prove you were somewhere (maybe at home)
alone at a specific time? Do you keep every receipt you
ever get to have time stamps available (no one I know
does)?

Read this article and realize that these things happen
and the worst part is that nothing happens to the
prosecutor when misconduct is proved. But the innocent person
becomes an ex-felon for life unless the case generates
enough media or political attention to end in a pardon.

Assisted Suicide

Switzerland has recently revised its policy about
assisted suicides and Great Britain stopped prosecuting
those who went to another country to help someone commit
suicide.

Three of the United States allow assisted suicide -- Oregon,
Washington, and Montana. I have not seen any published
numbers to indicate whether or not many take advantage of it
or not.

It raises a host of issues involving end of life that became
part of a national debate when a young woman, Terri Schiavo, who
was in a long term coma and never expected to recover, had her
husband and family fighting over whether to pull the plug to the
artificial machinery that was keeping her alive. It was even
litigated and a topic of discussion in Congress. She eventually
was transferred to a nursing home and without life
support finally died after a few weeks.

Sciavo's case also revived the use of medical directives and
medical power of attorney forms. Today anyone who is hospitalized
is asked about whether they want resuscitation used if needed.

Because there are so many ethical and religious aspects to discussions
of issues such as assisted suicide, consensus will probably never
be attainable. But predetermining our wishes on quality of life
and steps to take if we are comatose and in a vegetative
state is something each of us owes to family members
who should not be required to make decisions without
any indication of the person's desires.

About the only time this is an area of discussion, especially
with younger persons, occurs when the news reports on a traffic
accident victim who is in a coma. Then some younger folk may
state something to the effect of
wanting or not wanting life support continued indefinitely.

There have been cases of spouses who were fulfilling the wishes of the
other and faced charges and in some cases were sent to prison on charges
of homicide.

In 2007 Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, was released
from prison after 8 years. He became known as Dr. Death because
of his assistance to those who wished to end their lies and were
chronically ill with no chance of recovery. He did not do anything
himself to end a life but did provide the means for the individual
who wished to die.

A case involving Elizabeth Bouvier involved her refusal to be force
fed; she went to court claiming her right to make medical decisions
based on her own standard of the quality of life. By the time all
the appeals ended, she decided she wished to live.

Don't take Presumption as a given

Two Americans are in jail in Juarez after being
accused of drug trafficking. They have been found
guilty and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

BUT their claim, supported by three witnesses, is
that the military planted the drugs in their truck.
One witness was killed before the trial and the
other two disappeared.One cannot overlook the fact
that the vast majority of prisoners, worldwide, claim
innocence.

However we also know of cases where years
later prisoners are released and then exonerated because
they were innocent all along and should never have been
sent to jail/prison for a crime they did not commit.

Recently a New York man was released after 27 years when
in fact he was innocent all along. How do you compensate
for taking so many years and life experiences away from
someone? How do you compensate for the horrors endured
while locked up?

A most interesting aspect of this story from Juarez
is the fact that in Mexico an accused is presumed to
be guilty and has the burden of proving innocence. Consider
the handicap of trying to gather evidence to prove
a government agency planted evidence against you or
tortured you or in anyway infringed upon your basic civil rights.

In our country and in many western nations, the presumption
is that an accused is innocent until proven guilty. Proving
innocence when unjustly accused is difficult enough without
the added problem of having the burden of proof.

Americans tend to take our Bill of Rights for granted and do
not stop to realize that any one of us could be falsely accused
because of mistaken identity or any of a litany of hard to
imagine occurrences. Go to
and read about a woman who spent 9 years in prison for a crime she
had nothing to do with.

The show Sixty Minutes, which has the resources, were able to prove her
innocence as well as that of another gentleman, also prosecuted by
the Dallas District Attorney's Office. It would be nice to think
that these two are a rarity but unfortunately every state has some
who should never have been sent to prison. Even after being shown
to be innocent, the stigma of the accusation follow one for life.