Molly Ivins: The Steady Decline of American Justice

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Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:57:27 -0800

[Zepps_News] Molly: the steady decline of American justice

 

 

 

 

Molly Ivins: The Steady Decline of American Justice

 

 

Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate, February 16, 2006

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

 

 

 

AUSTIN, Texas -- Have you noticed that the system of justice in this

country is shutting down, piece by piece by piece? We have long noted

the deleterious effects of " tort reform " here in Texas, where

insurance companies are ever bolder, and injured workers and consumers

have fewer and fewer rights. But there is a shutdown in criminal

justice, as well.

 

A " Frontline " documentary on PBS, " The Case for Innocence, " gives the

most chilling case histories in a stupid and tragic trend in criminal

justice.

 

DNA identification, which has become more sophisticated by the year,

is the greatest advance in criminal detection since the fingerprint.

It has enabled the system to put away criminals who otherwise would

have gotten off scot-free and to find perps years after the crime when

their DNA shows up after an unrelated arrest. Short of a truth serum,

this is the best thing that could happen for the criminal justice system.

 

The problem is, DNA evidence sometimes shows that the system messed up

and nailed the wrong person for a crime. In fact, it happens

depressingly often.

 

The notorious inability of prosecutors to admit that they are ever

wrong is a fact of life. What is far more horrifying is the refusal of

judges and courts to look at evidence that proves innocence. Can you

imagine how that must feel -- to be in prison for a crime you didn't

commit and to finally be able to prove it, only to have a court refuse

to consider the evidence?

 

Most of this is a consequence of a noxious law that Congress rushed

through after the Oklahoma City bombing.

 

Called the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the

law was aimed at the ability of federal judges to second-guess state

courts and at the ability of prisoners to file endless habeas corpus

claims challenging the constitutionality of their convictions.

( " Habeas corpus " is a Latin phrase meaning " you have the body " and

goes back hundreds of years in common law as well as being in the

Constitution. It means that if you can show you were unfairly tried,

you have a remedy through the courts.)

 

True, the right has been abused for nitpicking purposes by some

lawyers, but to effectively abolish the right is a dreadful abrogation

of freedom. Where in the world are the militia folks now that we need

them? Where are all those right-wingers who claim freedom as their

most cherished possession?

 

The trouble with the '96 law is that it was poorly written and has

been subject to conflicting interpretations by the lower courts. The

law says that a federal judge can reverse a state court conviction

only if it was contrary to federal law or if it applied federal law

in an " unreasonable " way.

 

The Fourth Circuit, one of the most conservative courts in the

country, has ruled that this means state courts have applied the law

in ways that " all reasonable jurists would agree is unreasonable. " As

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out, reasonable jurists always

disagree on constitutional issues.

 

The new film " The Hurricane, " with Denzel Washington, is about a case

in point. Rubin " Hurricane " Carter, a contender for the middleweight

boxing title, was wrongfully convicted of a 1966 triple murder. He

spent 19 years in prison before he was finally released.

 

The movie depicts the conviction as a frame-up by one racist cop, but

as Selwyn Rabb, who originally covered the story for The New York

Times, wrote: " The actual story is more harrowing because it exposes

an underlying frailty in a criminal justice system that convicted Mr.

Carter not once but twice. The convictions were obtained not by a

lone, malevolent investigator but by a network of detectives,

prosecutors and judges who countenanced the suppression and tainting

of evidence and the injection of racial bias into the courtroom. "

 

Under current interpretations of the 1996 law, Hurricane Carter would

not be free today.

 

The most thoughtful comment in the PBS documentary came from a law

professor concerned about the criminal justice system's refusal to

consider its own errors. He pointed out that in most other systems,

when something goes horribly wrong -- a plane falls from the sky, a

type of car begins bursting into flames, a hospital patient dies from

gross malpractice -- there is a system in place to deal with the

error. There are investigations, reports and ultimately corrections

made to prevent recurrence.

 

In the criminal justice system, there are only denials and strenuous

efforts to prevent the exculpatory evidence from being presented in

court. The ease with which our criminal justice system can nail the

wrong person has been painfully demonstrated time and again.

 

(Henry Lee Lucas, the serial liar, provided one of the most bizarre

examples. He claimed to have committed more than 600 murders.Police in

26 states closed the books on 229 murders, and he was convicted of 11

of them before it occurred to anyone to wonder if he was telling the

truth.

Physical evidence against him was found in two cases. The state of

Texas managed to convict him for a murder committed while he was quite

demonstrably in another state and had to let him off Death Row.)

 

Perhaps the saddest and most terrifying finding in " The Case for

Innocence " is that in the 60-some-odd cases in which innocence has

been proved by DNA and the accused finally freed, none of the cases

has been reopened.

 

------

 

--

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government

talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court

order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order

before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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