The Strong System
"[P]eople should realize that the North Carolina criminal justice system is strong," THE NEW YORK TIMES' Duff Wilson today quotes David C. Evans, father of one of the Duke lacrosse team accused, commenting on the disbarment of Durham District Attorney Michael B. Nifong ("Prosecutor in Duke Case Disbarred by Ethics Panel").
What does "strong" mean? You have to wonder if it means that people rise to the top in that system if they handle cases the way Mr. Nifong did. "“From his very first involvement in this case, Mr. Nifong weaved a web of deception." That's what Doug Brock, lawyer for the North Carolina State Bar, which investigated the Nifong affair, had to say in the same article.
What about other systems? Are they strong too? So far, The Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to exonerate 203 people falsely convicted and imprisoned by district attorneys who worked in systems that were probably just as "strong" as North Carolina's. Would the fathers of those people likewise laud their criminal justice systems? Or would they say the system is wrong, and the Duke students are just lucky their case got national attention?
A visit to the IP's website (www.innocenceproject.org) offers some clues about why they might feel less supportive of our national criminal justice apparatus: eyewitness misidentification; unreliable scientific evidence; false confessions (including coerced confessions); government misconduct (example: "officials take steps to ensure that a defendant is convicted despite weak evidence or even clear proof of innocence"); incompetent, often overworked defense attorneys.
That is a "strong" system only in the sense that it pretty consistently locks people up behind stout bars. Not "strong" in the sense that it necessarily gets the right people, or results in less, or less violent crime.
But crime is money. It sells movie tickets, paperback novels; tv shows. It stokes fear and rage, which the "strong" criminal justice system, depicted in programs like "CSI" or "Law and Order", then neatly avenges in a Hollywood happy ending.
Crime is a societal disease. You can't cure it with the kind of wholesale torture that U.S. jails and prisons too often provide. But you can win the trust and gratitude of a public awash in images of vicious crime and triumphant revenge. And you can boost your chances in a close election, as Mr. Nifong did.
Will North Carolina now take a second look at others convicted by Mr. Nifong, and see if his deception weaving in the Duke case was a first and only?
Seems unlikely. Too many people, like Mr. Evans, the Duke student dad, believe that, if some passengers manage to escape the Titanic on one of the few lifeboats that function, it means "the system is strong." So why question? Full steam ahead.
That's how it works.
What does "strong" mean? You have to wonder if it means that people rise to the top in that system if they handle cases the way Mr. Nifong did. "“From his very first involvement in this case, Mr. Nifong weaved a web of deception." That's what Doug Brock, lawyer for the North Carolina State Bar, which investigated the Nifong affair, had to say in the same article.
What about other systems? Are they strong too? So far, The Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to exonerate 203 people falsely convicted and imprisoned by district attorneys who worked in systems that were probably just as "strong" as North Carolina's. Would the fathers of those people likewise laud their criminal justice systems? Or would they say the system is wrong, and the Duke students are just lucky their case got national attention?
A visit to the IP's website (www.innocenceproject.org) offers some clues about why they might feel less supportive of our national criminal justice apparatus: eyewitness misidentification; unreliable scientific evidence; false confessions (including coerced confessions); government misconduct (example: "officials take steps to ensure that a defendant is convicted despite weak evidence or even clear proof of innocence"); incompetent, often overworked defense attorneys.
That is a "strong" system only in the sense that it pretty consistently locks people up behind stout bars. Not "strong" in the sense that it necessarily gets the right people, or results in less, or less violent crime.
But crime is money. It sells movie tickets, paperback novels; tv shows. It stokes fear and rage, which the "strong" criminal justice system, depicted in programs like "CSI" or "Law and Order", then neatly avenges in a Hollywood happy ending.
Crime is a societal disease. You can't cure it with the kind of wholesale torture that U.S. jails and prisons too often provide. But you can win the trust and gratitude of a public awash in images of vicious crime and triumphant revenge. And you can boost your chances in a close election, as Mr. Nifong did.
Will North Carolina now take a second look at others convicted by Mr. Nifong, and see if his deception weaving in the Duke case was a first and only?
Seems unlikely. Too many people, like Mr. Evans, the Duke student dad, believe that, if some passengers manage to escape the Titanic on one of the few lifeboats that function, it means "the system is strong." So why question? Full steam ahead.
That's how it works.
Labels: civil rights, criminal justice, David C. Evans, Duff Wilson, Duke lacrosse, human rights, Innocence Project, Nifong
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