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LINK Wrongful Convictions: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - YouTube

A fun look at the justice system in the U.S.

snytiger6 9 Mar 7
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7 comments

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1

And there are still people, including people on this site, who will seriously argue that the USA is the "best" country in the world and is fucking faultless and perfect and that if you don't like it piss of to Russia.

I would rather live in a self aware dictatorship where they are honest enough to admit its a shit hole, but is their shit hole, than live in a shit hole where every time someone shits on your head you sing "thank you sir may I have another", and then take part in an insurrection to demand as a human right even filthier shit from the arse of a ginger faced incestuous buffoon!

2

As long as prosecutors are evaluated on batting averages, convict less than 90%, you're a failure, we will have innocent people going to prison.

We also need to make actual innocence a grounds for appeal. Any prosecutor that engages in prosecutorial misconduct, should have a mandatory license revocation, police officers that perjure themselves should be made to serve day for day the sentence of the person wrongly convicted. Any police officer or prosecutor charged must be prosecuted by a special prosecutor outside the office.

3

Unfortunately all too common the justice system is in serious need of fixing

4

[georgiainnocenceproject.org]

Every state needs people like this.

This group involves a couple of people I have seen speak.
One is a man who served years in prison for rape until DNA exonerated him. A black man.
Also speaking is the white woman who was raped whose testimony convicted him.
She was really certain it was him but she was wrong.
She contacted him after the DNA and he was freed and apologized with everything in her heart.
And he forgave her. And now they do this.
Eye witness testimony is not always reliable especially when cops will "help" memories.

7

It was intentionally designed to be this way on 2 fronts. To make it easier to suppress certain demographic, and to shed liability for those involved in the process. To them, it's better to let innocent people rot or die than to open the potential floodgates of retroactively correcting and compensating for millions of wrong convictions. That costs too much, and exposes its underlying incompetence if not outright malice. Can't have middle America disillusioned with "law and order" as a replacement for justice. Better to sacrifice a number of people to preserve the facade and protect the reputations of those responsible.

8

I just watched this. It's infuriating. I used to be ignorant of the system- I assumed that almost all the time, the system got it right. Then I got a job as a social worker at Louisiana State Penitentiary, AKA Angola. I heard so many stories of overly lengthy sentences for undeserving crimes due to Clinton's "three strikes and you're out" law. One guy had life without parole for shoplifting a $150 jacket, another for attempting to steal a pair of hedge clippers. Yes, ATTEMPTING. Many were serving life without parole for 3 marijuana offenses. I also learned that, despite being convicted of a crime, even if it was a serious crime that they did, in fact, commit, Only very rarely does anyone need to remain locked up for the rest of their life- 99.9% of them are redeemable. I saw about 80% of the inmates were black, while black folks make up only about 30% of the state's population. The system needs to be completely dismantled and rebuilt.

5

The system needs some serious attention to how it works!

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