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BENZ-LGB · #15 03-08-2007, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee8go

That is, of course, the whole point to our legal system and what separates it from vigilante justice and lynchings in the street. Have you read John Grisham's last (non-fiction) book, An Innocent Man?

Apparently, way more innocent people are convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death than I ever imagined. I know the system is intended to err on the side of letting the guilty go free as opposed to convicting the innocent. It is highly disturbing to read about people being convicted of murder on the basis of little or no real evidence.

I agree that convicting innocent people is wrong.

I am not sure of the numbers, but I am willing to bet you that those stats are for very old crimes.

With the wide use of DNA, convicting the wrong person is becoming less and less of a possibility.

And I suppose that it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiciton. Where I practice, there are so many checks and balances that the odds of bringing an innocent man to trial, and convicting him, are almost nil.

I don't read Grisham, I've never liked him or his style. I do like Scott Turow. I like the Chicago cases better than I like Grisham's Southern fiction. If I want Southern fiction I read Faulkner.