Tuesday, March 31, 2009

State Innocence Commissions

As the number of wrongly convicted grows each day, residents of more states are calling for the establishment of innocence commissions. This week's Detroit Free Press called for the establishment of an innocence commission in Michigan where "Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office has identified nearly 150 cases of convicted and imprisoned people that will require the retesting of evidence as part of the investigation into the now-closed Detroit police crime lab."

An innocence commission, according to Free Press editorial writer Jeff Gerritt, "would recommend ways, often costing little, to reduce wrongful convictions." Gerritt goes on to say, "The costs of improving the system are less than the costs of incarcerating and prosecuting the wrong people, as well as appealing those convictions and having the guilty go free to victimize other people."

Colorado, too, could be well served by an innocence commission of its own.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is dearly needed in Michigan.
Michigan is known for rather to convict then to find out the truth. It shows in the number of people being convicted instead of receiving a fair trial due to lack of information for defense lawyers, incompotent defense lawyers and zealous prosecution lawyers. Judges want to be political correct instead showing the courage to seek the truth and most of the time sight with the Prosecutor although they know deep inside that some of the people accused have not comitted the crime. Also Governor Granholm, former prosecutor is blindfolded when it comes to the issue of justice.