[wideawake]

How many convictions as a percentage of cases have been overturned?

Far less than 1%.

And the vast majority of overturned convictions are overturned on technicalities - custody of evidence, improper mirandizing, procedural flaws, etc. - not because the defendant was innocent.

And, as Robert Morgenthau showed us in the Central Park rape incident, people who are totally guilty can be proclaimed innocent after the fact - in other words, some of those overturned convictions were falsely overturned.

Apparently you watch far too much TV. My wife was a criminal attorney and she'll tell you that Law and Order is just a TV show.

[Little Ray]

Don't watch any TV, just video and DVD, and not much of that. Like books.

Does a lack of overturned convictions show that initial conviction was "good" or does it show that the system is good at covering its @$$?

Know of a guy in Gwinnett. Charged with child molestation. People that brought the charge are freaks with a grudge; odds are the charge is totally bogus. However, the Gwinnett prosecutor has kept this guy in house arrest for over four years and has bankrupted him; when he was in jail, the guards crippled him doing a "demonstration." They won't let it come to trial apparently 'cause they don't have evidence to convict. Just keep getting continuances. Best guess the goal it to keep him in house arrest for six years and go for bargain on "time served.

This is NOT calculated give me strong faith in the criminal "justice" system.