Another reason to oppose capital punishment

[jaqeboy]

Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison

Another reason for libertarians to get on board with the Innocence Project and to oppose capital punishment.

Hooray for Barry Scheck!

[John]

Hooray for Cornelius Dupree.

He never gave in to the enormous pressure of their sticking rotton system, which would clearly have let him go if he would "just lie" (through them) to the world and say that he had done something he had not done. Just say you did it. Just one little lie is all it would take - right?

"Just sell us your soul and you can walk out of here," they say.

But Mr. Dupree made no deal with those rotton devils.
God bless Cornelius Dupree.

[KBCraig]

Craig Watkins is doing his best to undo the wrongs committed by his predecessors.

[littlehawk]

How reliable is DNA testing?

[Silent_Bob]

How reliable is DNA testing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divination

[Jim Johnson]

How reliable is DNA testing?

With in the normal margin of error of 99.99% of the earths population, DNA testing is unquestionable perfection.

[Libertango]

How reliable is DNA testing?

Who's to say the DNA evidence they pick up actually belongs to the perpetrator?

-Libertango

[John]

And obviously the nice police heroes neeeeever plant any evidence. Noooo they would never. And they never eeever lie on the witness stand while under oath either.

[KBCraig]

And obviously the nice police heroes neeeeever plant any evidence. Noooo they would never. And they never eeever lie on the witness stand while under oath either.

Why, Sir, I am shocked to the core to hear even the suggestion to the contrary!

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20101224/NEWS01/12240348/N-Y-court-upholds-250-000-award-to-Shirley-Kinge

[littlehawk]

I do not buy the 99.999% accuracy the "experts" try to sell. There are false positives and negatives in ALL blood work testing...not to mention all the other mistakes of collecting samples, miscalibrated lab machinery, etc.


And then there is corruption.

[CJS]

  I had a neighbor for a few years who did DNA testing for Cook County . She said the tests are only as good as the people who read the results. She said she would pray to God she never needed a DNA test to clear her of any criminal charges as the people who run the tests are paid by the state / county just like the cops , judges and prosecutors .

  I remember her telling me about a softball league with the state police evidence techs , prosecutor's office , her co workers and evidence techs from around Gook County. Way to much fraternization to expect those results to be consistently reliable in a place as corrupt as Illinois.

She also said DNA evidence is the easiest way to frame some one because it's automatically excepted as fact . Because it only takes a tiny trace amount to contaminate evidence .... and she said she firmly believes it is done on a regular basis . Gota love the justice system here .

[littlehawk]

Yes. I worked in a lab for awhile and that is why I brought this up. People are led to believe that DNA testing is foolproof. It is not nor are other blood tests for that matter.

I once did a small experiment. I took 5 samples of my blood and sent them to five different labs for analysis (requested a basic chem screen). All five gave different results and some were astoundingly off the wall.

When an entire crime is based on DNA testing (all by itself) it becomes a dangerous tool in more than one way. DNA testing to determine biological relationships can be damaging as well.

Littlehawk

[jaqeboy]

All these are part of the reason I oppose capital punishment - the general fallibility of the criminal justice system. DNA is just one of the specifics. I remember when (I think it was the Innocence Project and Barry Scheck) it was found that 1/3 of the men on death row in Illinois were found to be (most likely) innocent via DNA testing. As I recall, the then governor commuted the sentences of all the men on death row to life in prison - the right thing to do. There's no available appeal path after execution of the death sentence!

[littlehawk]

I am strongly against capital punishment.

[Jim Johnson]

You do realize that this thread is about how DNA evidence is freeing people who have been falsely convicted and jailed for many years, some of whom where on death row. 
The fact that there are dirty cops and prosecutors as well as stupid lab techs does not mean that the DNA test is invalid.  On the contrary, a repeatably provable thing like DNA testing is an essential tool against dirty cops, zealous prosecutors and stupid lab techs.