
I spent 21 years in prison for a murder I didn’t commit.  [Reddit AMA] - lisper
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6uaklk/i_spent_21_years_in_prison_for_a_murder_i_didnt/
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DataWorker
"Since we can never know anything for sure, it is simply not worth searching
for certainty; but it is well worth searching for truth; and we do this
chiefly by searching for mistakes, so that we have to correct them."

The injustices done by a jury of peers who are certain beyond reasonable doubt
can be seen from Christ's trial under Pilot clear through the Salem witch
trials and into the present day. What's newer is the incentivized nature of
the American criminal justice system. Until people are educated enough to be
aware of their own fallibility and psychological biases, and the fallacies
inherent in human cognition more generally such instances of state sponsored
injustice will continue. I shudder when I hear calls to always believe the
victim, not because victims do not deserve justice, but because injustice done
by the state, legitimized by a jury of peers, is nothing more than tyranny.

~~~
AznHisoka
so should we make it mandatory for jurors to undergo training? maybe make it a
career?

~~~
Clubber
I would definitely say make jurors go through training and pay them more; a
lot more. The more expensive for the state to prosecute someone, the better.

~~~
PeanutCurry
Why would it be better for it to be more expensive to prosecute someone? The
point of laws is that we'd like to see them enforced. If the people don't like
the laws they should change them not try to cripple their government's ability
to do its job.

~~~
Clubber
"That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent
Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved."

-Franklin

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thephyber
Also relevant: In 1989, Donald Trump, a private NYC citizen at the time,
bought a full page newspaper ad to prosecute five young boys in the court of
public opinion[1].

They were later exonerated from the Central Park Jogger rape and assault and
won a large civil case for malicious prosecution. Trump, proven wrong in a
court of law, denied that they were innocent and "he refused to acknowledge
the Central Park Five's innocence and stated that their convictions should
never have been vacated."

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case#Accus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_jogger_case#Accusations_by_Donald_Trump)

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Clubber
I'm horrified by police and the justice system. I don't see them as
protective, I see them as someone in the USSR would see their police.

~~~
thephyber
s/justice/legal/

I have similar feelings, but I don't see the US and the USSR legal systems as
remotely similar.

The US system requires a much greater amount of complicity and culpability of
citizens and elected officials. We, the citizens, are completely culpable for
the entire system. Our elected representatives (for whom we are responsible
for curtailing) have given police+prosecutors:

* far too many tools+laws to invade our liberties, * detain us with insufficient evidence, * interrogate us with mentally coercive techniques, * provide a massive asymmetry to legal information, * allow the poorest of us to rot in jail awaiting trial * incentivize those charged with crimes to settle pre-trial 98% of the time * too much credibility in the mind of juries

and governments underfund the public defender's offices to the point that they
are essentially just a tool of the prosecution to help make plea deals faster.

~~~
Clubber
I agree with everything you've said about problems with the justice system,
but I've never been given the option to vote otherwise, state or local. Both
parties are happy with this way of doing justice. Until we get a viable third
party, this will never change. The two parties we have now made it awful
difficult to get a third viable party.

We may be responsible for curtailing them, but we have no ability to do so.
It's great in theory, but in current day practice, we can't do much about it.

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gimmeorilltake
I saw the screening of the movie about his story, "Crown Heights". It's a must
see.

