Fighting for the Innocent!

We all agree that a stable society must have a strong, punitive justice system that maintains order and security. One flaw in every justice system, however, is the perpetual possibility of mistakenly punishing the innocent. Unfortunately, in our justice system, this happens too often.

There are six primary reasons for wrongful convictions:

1. Eyewitness misidentification: Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. It is difficult to recall exactly the circumstances of any situation, especially one that catches a person by surprise. For example, do you remember the exact wording of every interaction you had yesterday?  As time goes by it becomes even more difficult to recall what happened.

2. “Snitch” testimony: Witnesses, usually those already in prison, come forward claiming to have heard the suspect confess in order to get favorable treatment on their own cases.

3. Police and prosecutorial misconduct: Examples of this include crime labs claiming that they had test results when no tests were actually performed, and prosecutors and police hiding evidence pointing to another suspect. Unfortunately, these occurrences, if discovered, happen long after the trial, and those who commit such obstructions of justice are rarely punished.

4. False confessions: Authorities are often eager to close a case and thus put pressure on those accused to admit to a crime they did not commit. The accused, scared and feeling overwhelmed by the odds against them, admit to the crime, figuring that they will be punished anyways and that this will result in a less harsh sentencing. A recent example of this is the case of the Central Park Five, in which four of the five then-teenagers confessed to raping and killing a woman in Central Park years ago, and recently were proved innocent through DNA testing.

5. Poor defense counsel: Lawyers can, and often do, make many mistakes when defending a client. This is especially true in the case of public defenders, who receive enormous caseloads and are so overburdened that it is impossible to do a thorough job on each case.

6. Junk science: This applies both to methods that are not really science when empirically tested, and to legitimate science performed poorly. Poor evidence, later disproved with stronger science, has led to too many incarcerations.

How many prisoners in the American justice system are actually innocent? While it is impossible to truly know, over the past decades, experts have offered varying percentages: “>Jon B. Gould and Richard A. Leo put it at 3 to 5 percent; “>John Roman et al, places its estimate at 5 percent, except for sexual assault, for which the wrongful conviction rate may be as high as 15 percent!

Jewish law strongly upholds the principle that the innocent should not be punished. When G-d reveals to Abraham his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:17-33), Abraham challenges G-d: “Will you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” When G-d offers to spare the cities if there are 50 righteous people, Abraham solicits for forgiveness if there is a number slightly lower; eventually, G-d decides that if there are even 10 righteous people, he will spare the cities. Thus, from the time of Abraham it was important that punishment should be reserved for the guilty, and the innocent should be spared, even, sometimes, to the extent that it may mean letting the guilty go unpunished.

Today, there are those who are dedicated to ensuring that the innocent do not languish in jail. “>The Innocence Project, founded by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld of Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1992, is a group that uses the relatively new science of DNA testing to establish the innocence of many prisoners. The staff of lawyers and Cardozo clinic students, and allies in many states, has thus far “>, James Bain was convicted of raping a 9-year old boy in Florida. The primary evidence at the time revolved around the blood type of the semen on the victim’s underwear. The jury believed the prosecution’s claim that Bain’s blood type was AB, even though the blood sample was group B. Once DNA evidence became available, Bain tried five times to get the Circuit Court to examine his case, but was rejected each time. Finally, after the Innocence Project became involved, DNA evidence was examined, and confirmed that Bain was not the rapist. James Bain was exonerated and released on December 17, 2009, after serving 35 years for a crime he did not commit.

The case of the “>“Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves.”

There are more than 50 Innocence Projects in the United States, under the umbrella of a network called the Innocence Network, and they can use our help. This is nothing short of the championing of justice over injustice, and as a community, we must support their work.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder and President of “>Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century.” Newsweek named Rav Shmuly