[Ninian Dryhope]

This article is nonsense.

[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.

[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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[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

[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.

[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

[Wolfie]

ping

[hispanichoosier]

I'm a prosecutor. There's a criminal underclass out there that commits crimes, gets punished, and keeps coming back for seconds and thirds. Indeed, if you mention a certain last name in our county, many can vouch that the clan has a notorious past. Paul Craig Roberts will never meet this underclass because he doesn't work or associate with them. Rest assured, though, they are out there, ready to prey on him and his fellows (no pun intended re: Hoover Institution).

[Nonstatist]

Unless you believe Americans are 12 times more criminally inclined than Europeans, why is one of every 80 Americans (not counting children and the elderly) locked away from family, friends, career and life

Because America respects property rights and the Europeans don't, maybe ?

In some Scandanavian countries you cant get more than 16 years (before parole) for 1st degree murder. And burglary, rape, assault are not vigorously pursued. The jails are empty because they like their criminals in the street (but fenced off from the well connected).

If you don't believe it, check out the crime rate trajectory for Denmark, Sweden, etc. Almost like South Africa (and they have far fewer teenagers in Europe than here too, etc).

[Ninian Dryhope]

Driver charged in fatal crash - by Erin Cox

(Waterbury-WTNH, Dec. 28, 2005 Updated 6:54 PM) _ The man accused of killing an elderly couple in a horrific crash faced a judge from his hospital bed today. The families on both sides have many questions about what happened.

Joseph and Kathleen Ivkovich, both 68, were familiar faces in Prospect. Now the community questions why these grandparents were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Out of all the vehicles in the whole world and all the people in the whole world, how could you be so unfortunate to bet at that intersection on that precise moment," said Leo Fortier from the Prospect VFW.

Waterbury police say the Ivkovich's were killed Tuesday when their sport utility vehicle was struck by a stolen car blew a red light and slammed into the couple's red Jeep. The accident happened at Freight and Riverside streets, near Interstate 84 and Route 8.

Prosecutors say it didn't have to happen because the driver, Timeek Heath, 22, was a wanted man.

"He would not have been out on the streets," says Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly. "That's the sad part of it all."

Heath was injured in the crash. He was arraigned on two counts of first-degree manslaughter, first-degree larceny and several motor vehicle crimes from his hospital bed.

Neither reporters nor Health's family was allowed to attend the arraignment, so during a briefing by Connelly the family asked its own questions.

"He was running from police and smashed into these two people," Connelly said.
"Does that mean they were chasin' him or was he just running from them," asked Heath's brother.
"I'm not going to answer that," Connelly said.

Detectives were back at the accident scene Wednesday, but whether officers were pursuing the stolen car just prior to the crash remains under investigation.

Heath was wanted. There were three warrants for his arrest. Two on failing to appear in court, one for violating probation.

"My regards go out to the families involved." Heath's brother said, "but if they were chasing my brother the police are at fault because they should not have been chasing him."

Neighbors in Prospect say the Ivkovich's door was always open. The couple had been married 44 years, had six children and nine grandchildren, are remembered for volunteering at the VFW.

"Today we feel like we lost family," Fortier said.

Heath is expected back in Court in early January, nearly a year to the date he got out of prison.

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=4293309

Typical example of one of the poor victims of our criminal justice system. In fact, this creep should have stayed in jail longer, since he is a career criminal.

[Richard-SIA]

What, has this guy been in a cave for a few decades?

Who didn't know about this?

Except for the puff about our treatment of terrorist bringing us down to Saddam's level none of this is new.

Abuse of "Plea Bargain" and "Piling on charges" has merely taken the place of the older, more honest and obvious, rubber hose squad.

As the post O.J. saying goes, "Hey, I've got enough money to get away with one murder".

The wealthy with a legal team can usually get away with almost anything, the peons are beaten into submission via the means posted in the article.

Most of our "Freedom" has become an illusion, at least for the majority of U.S. citizens. Illegal aliens may be the only ones with unfettered access to our "inalienable rights"!

Yea, I'm adding another layer of flame proof underwear.

[republican4ever]

Somehow this article does not sound right altogether, even if some aspects might have some truth to them. If we are not to trust our own Judicial system, whose are we to trust.
It is not by any means perfect, but it certainly is better than most.
Americans might not be more crimininally inclined than Europeans, but maybe we catch more crooks... just think of France!
Abu Ghraib was really bad, but it far worse under Saddam...mistreatment is definitely not the word to use there!