It happens: Wrongful convictions
This week, two men convicted more than half a century ago of assassinating Malcolm X were exonerated. Yesterday, Judge Ellen Biben granted a motion to vacate the convictions of Muhammad A. Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, who were convicted of the murder in 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
Both men maintained their innocence throughout. Even a third person convicted admitted that he was a part of the murder but the other two were not. Despite an absolute lack of evidence, the exonerating testimony from an individual involved in the crime, and a solid alibi of one of the accused, somehow the two men suffered for decades in prison as perceived killers of a civil rights icon, while law enforcement and prosecutors went about their days without a second thought, knowing they destroyed the lives of two men and their families.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said “such an action within the police department is unacceptable and he is troubled by wrongful convictions.” But this happens all the time, every day, in dozens of cases across the United States. What are you going to do about it Mayor de Blasio and others?
Since it’s establishment, the Innocence Project has been successful in reversing the conviction of hundreds of individuals wrongly convicted of crimes. Approximately two dozen of those were on DEATH ROW when they were exonerated! Some of the other surprising facts are that 63% of the convictions involved eyewitness misidentification, 26% involved false confessions and in 5% of the cases, the people actually plead guilty! How could that happen?!?
The job of law enforcement and the prosecutor should be to arrive at the truth. SHOULD be. That is no longer the case. Public pressure to solve crimes and incentives to secure arrests, forfeitures and convictions has changed the role and led to the use of some very, very shady tactics to secure convictions, including withholding exculpatory evidence, coercive interrogation tactics, lying, rewarding third parties with reduced sentences to provide testimony with no concern as to whether its true or false and threatening an accused with absurdly significant jail time if they don’t take a plea.
Wrongful convictions and coerced pleas are far more common than you think, and the problem is only getting worse. According to the Equal Justice Initiative there are more innocent people in our jails and prisons today than ever before. Unfortunately, a large percentage of those are caused by government misconduct (this report lays out some pretty alarming stats).
As an organization that advocates for those convicted of sexual offenses, we come across thousands who have been convicted of crimes, several hundred of which maintain that they are actually innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. In some cases the alleged victim lied about their age, in many cases the “offender” was involved in a bait and switch online sting, in some cases the offender suffers from a mental health disorder that rendered them incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of their conduct, in some cases the conviction resulted from false accusations of a bitter ex-spouse or acrimonious relationship with a step child, and in other cases they simply got the wrong person.
We get calls all the time from people who will never graduate treatment because they refuse to admit to something they never did. We get calls all the time from people who honestly forgot to register something or didn’t know they were supposed to. We get calls all the time from people who were in an adult chat room with no intention of ever soliciting a minor and then sexual communication with who they thought was an adult and initiated by the other person was taken out of context. We get calls from people who were innocent but took a plea to whatever got them probation because otherwise they were risking years in prison. And we’ve even gotten calls from accusers who are afraid to come forward with the truth years later because they worry they will get arrested for perjury.
We are not discounting the fact that the majority of our members acknowledge they committed their offenses and are involved with FAC in an effort to do better, but we need to recognize that some did not. More importantly, we need to stop our governments from incentivizing arrests and convictions and get back to a culture where law enforcement and prosecutors are paid to uncover the truth.
Which brings us to a very simple call to action… This weekend I call on you to watch TV. Seriously! There are a number of documentaries out there that are must see documentaries about problems in the criminal justice system. Pick one or more and watch them. If not the one referenced above (“Who Killed Malcolm X”), watch “When They See Us” (about the Central Park 5), another good one is “The House I Live in” (about the “War on Drugs”), and, of course, the one you must absolutely watch if you have not seen it already is “Untouchable” (the David Feige documentary about the Florida Sex Offender Registry).
It is our hope that the injustice you see will spur you to take action. One such action should be calling on your state representative to pass legislation requiring each Circuit’s State Attorney to establish a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) (which is a division of a prosecutorial office that works to prevent, identify, and remedy false convictions).
It’s great the Innocence Project is looking out for the wrongfully convicted who are incarcerated, but those of us wrongfully convicted who are either on supervised release or completed a sentence seem to be completely ignored. It’s the punishment that keeps on taking.
I have a better idea. Whenever it is discovered someone was wrongfully convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct, sentence all involved in the misconduct to the same sentence as the person who was wrongfully convicted. I don’t care if the person has since retired. Send the FBI to his house and arrest him on the spot. No trial, just straight to prison.
That would dissuade all prosecutors from doing anything shady or withholding evidence in the future.
Additionally, they should also be personally held financially responsible for their actions while also being professionally held responsible through their office. However, I am not sure how one can go about suing those involved directly without including their office jobs but can say Qualified Immunity was not a precedent then in this particular situation by SCOTUS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity).
Given some are surely dead from this time, it may be hard to recoup financially personally from them, but certainly could professionally through their employers.
TS
That is a good idea. As a matter of fact Kansas did pass legislation a few years ago stating the amount of compensation that should be awarded to individuals that had been wrongly incarcerated. It was done in response to a person who spent 20 some years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Similar legislation should be passed on a federal level. It could be done.
The problem is only a very small fraction of those wrongly convicted are able to come up with the legal backing and proof to overturn a conviction.
A Brady disclosure violation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_disclosure) is what this is because the prosecutor at the time knew of the evidence and did not disclose it to the defense (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/nyregion/malcolm-x-killing-exonerated.html).
Given Brady violations were only around 2 years old due to SCOTUS precedent (Brady v. Maryland (1963) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_v._Maryland) at the time of the assassination, the violation of one’s civil rights at the time should be worth a large civil case today with a huge financial windfall for the estates. Sadly, it’d never return the years spent in the can or other personal losses suffered while being wrongly noted in books across the country and around the world as the ones who assassinated someone trying to make a difference in society.
The Manhattan DA only illustrates what is wrong with the legal system, not a justice system, today in trying to appease voters and those pressuring them to do what they want from the system, not what needs to happen in our nation’s adversarial legal system.
Seems tha exculpatory evidence is popping up in the news more larely. That is, evidence hidden by the proscetors, that shows innocence.
In addition, manufactured evidence injected into a case, to show guilt or show nefarious activity. Injected by proscutor, FBI or the like.
As an example the Sheriff injected a picture of the sheriffs adult partner, when that partner was a child. Yeag it happens all the time.
My FDLE flyer says the “victum” was a underage child when in actuality, it was an adult officer.
When will the truth come out that all police and deputies are not without agendas.
We live in a lock them up whether innocent or guilty, how many times it is just from someone who got angry with us, or wanted us put away so they could steal all we had and not be held responsible for it. then release us and we are not released because no matter what the sentence in prison is, its a life sentence with the registration and the stigma that goes with it.
Some not being able to find housing, or jobs, not allowed to enjoy life because we can’t go to most places either to stay on a vacation. (Example, Disney) Can’t be with our children or Grandchildren to enjoy the day. When was the last time any child was ever abducted from Disney World or Disneyland?
Registration for life. It should end at some point. The other day when I registered a man came in with some lady, and sat down while she went to the counter and signed him in. He had to be in his 70s. She went to the counter and supported him while he answered the questions. I’m certain he was a threat to someone when he could hardly stand up.
There is something wrong with the system. It’s broken beyond any repair.
To have people that no longer live in the state or have passed away that are still on the list.
Maybe on day we as a people will realize the injustice of our system of justice. Especially a punishment that never ends.
This is not a recent problem, it predates the founding of this country. People have been wrongly accused and convicted, evidence withheld, coercion, etc. since about 15 minutes after the rule of law was established. And lets not forget the legal profession, whose numbers include an overwhelming number of defenses lawyers who have no idea what they are doing but will take your case and your money, nonetheless.
Is it fixable? I am not so sure since whatever oversight is created is as corruptible as that which is being overseen.
Forwarded from the Innocence Project, the Death Penalty Information Center and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: From Thursday the Governor of the State of Tennessee Bill Lee Commuted the Capital Punishment Sentence of Pervis Tyrone Payne and Re-Sentenced him to Life for 2 Counts Homicide in the First Degree. https://justiceforpervispayne.carrd.co/
Forwarded from the Innocence Project, the Death Penalty Information Center and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: From Thursday the Governor of the State of Oklahoma Kevin Stitt Commuted the Capital Punishment Sentence of Julius Darius Jones and Re-Sentenced him to Life for Homicide in the First Degree. https://www.justiceforjuliusjones.com/
The Justice Statistics in both Canada and in the United States show that Drug Offenders Re-Offend at 80% and Higher and that both Homicide Offenders and Sex Offenders Collectively Together Re-Offend at 5% and Lower. Plus according to Statistics from the Innocence Project 90% of all Sex Crimes Cases and 85% of all Homicide Crimes Cases Lack the Physical Forensic Evidence for Adequate and Proper Prosecution because of the Very Low Forensic Standards for Violent Crimes in North America Hence the Very High Rate of Wrongful Convictions among those Accused, Prosecuted and Convicted of both Homicide Crimes and Sex Crimes Collectively Together.
It’s the same as being innocent and forced into plea bargain. Once that is done, than all hope is lost!
It’s the same when forced into a plea bargain. Yet, with that bargain, there is no way out. Even if innocent.
My husband took a plea deal for the crime he was accused of. We received new evidence three years ago that shows he is innocent. Duval county does have a conviction integrity review unit. We petitioned them in 2018. We just received notification that they are reviewing his case. Pray for us that this wrong will be corrected.