Postby drawscore » Tue May 22, 2012 2:24 pm
>>>I'm sure that's a great comfort to all those people who endured prison sentences (and perhaps face execution) for crimes that they didn't commit. But evidently you don't give a shit about those people, since you aren't one of them. Never mind that a jury is as fickle as so many voters, swayed more by whoever is the slicker talker - the defense attorney or the prosecutor - just as they are in an election. God help anyone in a criminal trial if he's poor and black and has you in the jury!<<<
Have innocent people been convicted, and even executed? Yes! Is it a tragedy? Yes! Did race play a role in some of these convictions? Yes. (The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" is fiction, but all too often, similar convictions have occurred, particularly in the deep south.)
Now, fast forward to the 21st century. Do such instances still occur? Yes, but not with the same frequency as they did in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. (but even one is too many.)
Have scientific methods of proof and detection improved? Yes! But unless the defendant is an identical twin, the odds of two people having the same DNA is something on the order of one in 10 trillion. (1 in 10,000,000,000,000) That's far beyond a reasonable doubt, and since there are only around six billion people (6,000,000,000) currently on the planet, that's close enough to be beyond any doubt.
Should DNA testing be mandatory in murder cases? Yes! And probably down to any case where a defendant would spend time in jail or prison if convicted.
Ideally, a trial should be conducted by unfeeling computers, which would have no regard for race, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, immigration status, or any other irrelevant factor, unless, of course, such factors are relevant, and such relevance would be determined by the computer, after weighing all the facts.
But that's not going to happen any time soon, and besides, programming the computer still falls to a real, live person, with his own thoughts, feelings, prejudices, agendas, and ideas. Instead, we have to put up with the system we have, with all it's faults. It may stink, but it's a hell of a lot better that the systems used in Europe and Asia, where you are assumed to be guilty until proven innocent, even in some of the great western European democracies.
The bottom line, is that we, as a nation, have changed and matured since the middle of the last century. Not quite to the images portrayed on the "Star Trek" series, but we have grown. The likelihood of a person being convicted of a crime he did not commit, is probably less than 3%. The odds of a person being convicted of a murder he did not commit, is (my estimate) something like one in 10,000 or greater.
Drawscore