Guilty When Charged

Chronicles Magazine ^ | Wednesday, December 28, 2005 | Paul Craig Roberts

[Ninian Dryhope]

"There are far more guilty folks running around loose than there are innocent folks in prison."

You dang right!

[Lancey Howard]

I remember when this author wrote with sense and clarity. IIRC, he worked in the Reagan Administration. But Paul Craig Roberts has become kind of a libertarian version of Ramsey Clarke. Seriously goofy. The next Sherman Skolnick. He used to be a regular columnist in a lot of regular newspapers, but I don't see him around too much anymore except in things like this 'Chronicles Magazine'.

[timestax]

bttt

[iowamark]

"Not all the wrongfully convicted are poor. Some are wealthy and prominent people targeted by corrupt prosecutors seeking a celebrity case in order to boost their careers."

Who are some of these wealthy and prominent people wrongfully sent to prison?

I hope that you won't cite Mumia Abu-Jamal or Martha Stewart.

[lafroste]

Let's see the state-by state rolls before this big lie gets accepted as fact.

There are about 32,000 inmates in NC, out of a population of about 5.5 million. That's one inmate per 172 population. This tells me that "excluding children and people +65" excludes a bit more than half the population.

[JudgemAll]

If there's supposed to be a presumption of innocence, why does the state spend far more money on the proposition that you're guilty than on the proposition that you're not guilty?

---

The theory is they have burden of proof.

The reality is judges put burden of proof on defense or sway juries around into such guilts.

The other reality is that the author is right. Cops and prosecutors lie all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME. Their motives are not even for justice in the first place but money greed control. A recent case of neglected child abuse in my town point out that decisions are solely based on who they can squeeze, it "don't" matter to them who is going to care for the child, just as long as the child is good meat to get the moneyed party extorted, and if it cannot, the other party abuses children and exploits them, and that is fine with the courts.

And it is impossible to get proper evidence from them rechecked. Reasonable doubt is a dicey thing, it depends on the lawyer's ability to pick the jury and make them feel uneasy about convicting someone, and "liberal" juries are usualy not that bad.

But it all depends on the lawyer's willingness. Most of the time they're in the virtual pay and agreement with the courthouse and feel bad for ridiculing prosecutors. Lawyer bad advice and laziness playing good cop are the prime reason for discouraging clients and making them do guilty pleas.

The system is rotten because the lawyers are. It's a catastrophy. Drug dealers, feminists, you name it, whoever whatever criminal can get someone rich caught works for them, and the more out of the county the better, so local criminals are their prime "informers". Lawyers get handsome pay from big time dealers too.

[JoeSixPack1]

The horrific tortures and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, the public justifications of torture by the president and vice president of the United States, and the CIA kidnappings and torture of detainees in secret prisons put the American “liberators” in the same camp as Saddam Hussein.

ROFLMAFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jocon307]

I hate to sound like an old fart, but Jury Duty is a very important responsibility. A jury trial is one of the mainstays of our system. You should really try find it in your heart to participate willingly if called again. Around here you can only be called every three years.

Happy new year!

[zip]

Total bullsh*t and you know it. Leftist a$$holes like you make me want to puke. Run back to DU and have a laugh.

Everyone in prison is innocent and American military are all terrorists. /sarcasm off

[zip]

Paul Craig Roberts - Archived Articles

Proves my point, this guy is a leftist wacko. How can anyone use him as a source? geeesh

[GeronL]

He used to be considered conservative but then decided to join the wrong side.

Useless Idiots

[zip]

I guess what riled me up was the declaration that all prisoners are innocent and all Military personnel are sadists. I know there are occasional problems with tainted witnesses etc BUT THOSE ARE THE EXCEPTION NOT THE RULE AS that idiot wrote and the military took appropriate action (overreacted IMHO) to halt "torture".

[R. Scott]

Like my mama used to say, “Where’s there smoke there’s fire.” If they weren’t guilty of something they would never have been arrested. She was very naive.

[MarkL]

Someone I know was in jail for drug posession, and she was sentanced to 4 months. Due to circumstances, she actually spent 3 days shy of 5 months in jail. First, someone misplaced her paperwork, then the judge who was on her case was taken ill, and then the DOC decided to ship her off to a different jail. Her lawyer actually thought that she had been released, since the jail told him that she wasn't there. They didn't mention that she had been transfered! Once at the new jail, when they got the release papers, nobody at the DOC could figure out whos responsibility it was to get her back to Kansas City (Overland Park, KS actually).

I told her that the next time she was sent to jail, she should claim those 27 days of extra time spent as credit towards any new sentance!

Unfortunately, the girl's got a bad drug problem, and has been back in jail for some time now. I hope that this time, she's getting some of the help she needs while in jail. If she doesn't, she's going to kill herself with her addiction.

Mark

[wolfcreek]

We could start by releasing the 2 million or so people who are in prison for minor drug possession. Maybe then, the court and prison systems would be less burdened and more efficient.

[R. Scott]

Perfectly innocent people "cop a plea". Yep.

Some do. That is why, if I were ever accused of a crime and it looked like I didn’t have a chance of justice I would have to take a plea – but it would be an Alfred Plea.

[MarkL]

We (The People) give the courts and police the power to hold our lives within their hands. With that power, comes great responsibility. Corruption in this area needs to be dealt with in a brutal and final fasion.

While there are always going to be mistakes in the criminal justice system, outright corruption must NEVER be condoned!

There's a very simple way to ensure this sort of thing never happens. When a prosecutor, judge, or police officer is proven to have provided false evidence, covered up evidence, or manufactured evidence, they need to be convicted and sentanced to whatever sentance the wrongly convicted got.

A good example of this is something that came out a few years ago. The FBI in (I think) Boston had a confidential informant who they knew was continuing to engage in criminal acts. When two other men were accused of the crimes that the CI had committed, not only did the FBI agents cover up the fact that it was the CI who committed the crime, but they actually helped the police's case against the innocent men. One of the men actually died in prison (of natural causes), and the other spent a very long time in jail before he was proven innocent. Those FBI agents, and everyone else involved in the coverup need to be sent to the same prison, for the rest of their lives.

Mark

[MarkL]

I got my first jury duty letter this past summer. I immediately called a lawyer friend and asked how I might avoid this burden.

Not to sound too preachy, your lawyer friend is absolutely right. The jury system is based on the concept of decent people being willing to make a decision based on the laws, testimony, and evidence presented to them. Without good people willing to serve, the jury system becomes... Well, pretty much what we're seeing today.

I've been called to sit on a jury 3 times now. The first while I was in college, living out of state, so I was unable to do so. Twice now, I've had to take off of work, and pay my own parking (the per diem from the courts didn't cover the cost of parking downtown!) to sit for 4 hours, three days in a row, before being dismissed as not being needed.

I've gone, and felt good about it, because I know that it's part of my responsibility as an American citizen.

Mark

[MensRightsActivist]

America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, having passed Russia. 93% are male. Here's one Free Wil Hetherington

[Wolfie]

ping