A while ago, I mentioned having gone into the prisons while working with
that group on criminal justice.  I also mentioned that I met some people
there that I hope never get out of prison.  You responded that there
were probably some people in prison who should be dead instead of in
prison.  I decided to spend a few days re-thinking my position on
capital punishment.  I have come around to the stand I already had.  I
am opposed to capital punishment, at least under this system of justice.
One of the things I became convinced of as I visited prisons, talked
with those who were incarcerated, with guards, with defending lawyers
and prosecuting lawyers, is that many, many people who have been
convicted and are serving time in prison are incarcerated for a crime
they never committed.  I have heard estimates at and above 50% for this.
I don't know how high the actual number is, and there is, obviously, no
way of finding out for sure. I don't think it is as high as fifty
percent, but I also don't think it is a very small percentage either.
There are various ways that these people have ended up convicted of a
crime they did not do.  There are political prisoners, in which the
state deliberately planted evidence to make the person look guilty, or
deliberately with-held evidence that would have proven the person's
innocence. Peltier comes to mind here. There are times when either the
police or the DA's office will maneuver a similar situation because
they need a conviction. There are times when a person not involved in
the criminal justice system plants the evidence, for their own reasons.
There are honest cases of mistaken identity.  There are people who had
committed a lot of other crimes, which they should have been in jail
for, even if they weren't, happened to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time, and proved a realistically natural suspect in this
particular case, even though they were innocent *this* time.
There are also cases where the primary criminal gets a light sentence,
and a secondary criminal "gets the book thrown at them."  There is a
woman serving a life sentence in Muncy State Prison, Pennsylvania.
Remember that in Pennsylvania, life *means* life, with no chance of
parole.  She was convicted of being an accomplice in a murder.  What
actually happened is:  her boyfriend killed somebody, without her
knowledge or approval.  He asked her to hide him.  She did so (a stupid
thing to do, but she was young and dumb).  The act of hiding a fugitive
in Pennsylvania makes one an accomplice to the crime.  Because he was a
murderer, she was, therefore, an accomplice to the murder.  Her
boyfriend was eventually captured.  He plea-bargained (and part of the
plea bargaining was an agreement to testify against the woman).  He got
five years, and is currently out on the streets; and she got life.
Scenarios like this are particularly common when you are dealing with
Indians, Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities.  Minorities really
*are* more apt to be unjustly convicted, and really *do* get harsher
terms for the same crimes than whites do.
But, no matter what the reason why the wrong people are in jail, or
why some people receive harsher penalties than others for the same
crime, it *does* happen.  Some of those people are almost certainly on
death row. Some innocent people get executed.  I remember the
conversation in Tolkien's book between Gandalf and Frodo when Frodo
realized Bilbo could have killed Gollum, and chose not to. I don't know
if you ever read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but Gollum had killed  a
number of innocent people in it.  Frodo said, "It's a pity Bilbo didn't
kill Gollum when he had the chance.  Gollum deserves to die."  Gandalf
said, "Deserves to die? I daresay he does. But many have died that
deserved to live. Can you bring them back to life? Then do not be so
quick to mete out death."
                        Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ Optometrist's hymn: "Open My Eyes That I May See"
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.1
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