Posted on 01/29/2006 1:05:17 AM PST by neverdem
AS the words scroll across a darkened TV screen, we hear an authoritative voice announce that every year an alarming number of people in this country "are wrongfully convicted." Millions of Americans who watched these promotions in recent weeks knew they were pitches for the new ABC television drama "In Justice." But if they'd been listening from the next room, they might easily have thought from the somber tone that it was a tease for the nightly news or "20/20."
"In Justice" has received dismal reviews. But that hasn't stopped its premise from permeating the conventional wisdom: that our prisons are chock-full of doe-eyed innocents who have been framed by venal prosecutors and corrupt police officers with the help of grossly incompetent public defenders. It is a misconception that has run through our popular culture from "Perry Mason" to the novels of Scott Turow to the recent hit play "The Exonerated."
It was also seen on the front pages in recent weeks, in reporting about Roger Coleman, who was executed in Virginia in 1992 for rape and murder. DNA testing at the time had placed him within one-fifth of a percent of possible suspects, leading to widespread claims that he was innocent. The governor, L. Douglas Wilder, said he would consider commuting Mr. Coleman's sentence if he passed a lie detector test. He failed and was executed.
For more than a decade opponents of the death penalty have held up the Coleman case as the example that would prove that America executed an innocent man. Yet on Jan. 12 the Canadian laboratory that had been sent the last remaining DNA sample in the case announced the results of more advanced testing: it put the odds of Mr. Coleman not being the killer at less than 1 in 19 million. Still...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Amamzing article for the NYTimes. It is debunking the Soros left.
My wife was interested in that series, so we tried to sit through one episode, but we didn't make it all the way to the end. We could tell it was going to be one of those shows where the heroes were all impossibly attractive, sexy, young, liberal lawyers, filled with high ideals and a heroic sense of purpose, which was to selflessly struggle to free the poor, innocent, probably black prison inmate who was framed by the evil, shifty, racist police. In other words, a typical Left Coast network TV programmer's wet dream. Life is too short, so off it went. I don't even know if it's still on the air.
"The Innocent and the Shammed"
They're wearing pillowcases?
How about another heart-tugging play called "The Patently Guilty Who Scammed the System and Convinced a Bunch of Bleeding Heart Mushheads They Were Innocent, Then Proceeded to Prey on Innocents Again and Again"?
coming to a courtroom near you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.