Remember, if the cops arrested him, he must have done something wrong
A dear friend of mine, jokingly, advised me to say that if I ever wanted to get out of jury duty. We both laughed because neither of us ever ever want to get out of jury duty.
Well, I’ve used that line multiple times talking to folks who simply can’t understand why we aren’t executing more people because, well, they got convicted. Remember Governor Bush proudly proclaiming, like a trophy, the amount of people put to death in Texas?
Well, check this out. I picked up the story from the NYT via dkos.
HOUSTON — After nearly 27 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, Charles Chatman walked free on Thursday, the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County to be exonerated by DNA testing since 2001.
Read the story. You will learn more about Dallas, the innocence project and a bunch of other things that you may or may not be ready for.
In the end remember, just because the cops arrest someone, they may not be guilty and more importantly, that whole Constitution stuff applies equally to every member of our society.
Oh, one more thing - It’s not like this hasn’t happened in NY. Jeanine Pirro and Jeffrey Deskovic come to mind. What about Betty Tyson - who, thanks to the rock solid reporting of the D&C’s Gary Craig, is not in jail.
Oh, one more thing. How important is it to have have a rock solid Public Defender unencumbered by politics?
This is one of the many reasons the Public Defender selection needs to be apolitical.
Good post. The one I’ve always heard to get out of jury duty is “I can tell someone’s guilty just by looking at them.”
[...] blah blah blah.ÂÂ This is beyond patronage - We are talking about real people here.ÂÂ Just because the cops arrest someone doesn’t mean they did anything [...]