"Actual Innocence" and the US Justice System

[umsami]

So I read this article today on the BBC, and I have to say I'm surprised that this is viewed as an innovative program.  I would have thought things like this automatically happened.  Am I the only one whose shocked?

 

"In St Clair County, Illinois, the local prosecutor is trying a radical new experiment: admitting his office has charged innocent people with crimes and clearing their names before they spend a day in prison. It's a unique reform effort as prosecutors around the country face increased scrutiny and diminishing public trust."

 

[Pam in CT]

Sigh.

 

A year ago, I would have been shocked.  Michelle Alexander's and Marie Gottschalk's books did a good deal to raise my consciousness of different factors that make the incarceration of people who are actually innocent possible.

 

The Innocence Project has profiles of actual cases they've pursued and exonerated, utilizing DNA evidence to prove the actual innocence of people incarcerated, in some cases of as long as 30 years.  

[Guest]

WHAT!!!!

 

This is literally the job of investigators. To ascertain youre charging the person you believe did the crime.

 

That they dont do that often enough to need a wholly seperate entity to look it into is not good news.

[Bluegoat]

It sounds like maybe they should be looking at what the various incentives are for the people making the decisions on charges to be "ough on crime regardless of the actual evidence.

 

What I wonder about with this program - is it going to create the impression that people who don't try and take advantage of the program are somehow "actually guilty"?