Yesterday, I got an ad from The Sun, a magazine of independent writing. I subscribed a couple of years ago but haven't been reading it. The ad mentioned some articles in the current issue, including an interview of Prof. Lara Bazelon, professor in the law school of San Francisco University. She specializes in cases where there is strong evidence that a person has been wrongly convicted.
How many people are currently imprisoned in the US wrongly? Estimates are shocking:
It has estimated that between 2.3 percent and 5 percent of all U.S. prisoners are innocent. With the number of incarcerated Americans being approximately 2.4 million, by that estimate as many as 120,000 people may be incarcerated as a result of wrongful conviction.
Miscarriage of justice - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Miscarriage_of_justice
2% means one in 50 and 5% means one in 20. You wouldn't want it to be yourself or your loved ones. It's bad for the country and the legal system if there is one such case.
Bazelon has a book, "Rectify", about the problem. The Sun magazine is online and features the interview with her. https://www.thesunmagazine.org/
I fully believe there are people that need to be in jail but it would be better for everyone if the perpetrators are imprisoned rather than a likely scapegoat.
What is a scapegoat?
scape·goat
/ˈskāpˌɡōt/
noun
noun: scapegoat; plural noun: scapegoats
1.
a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.
Somebody killed the nice old man. I sort of look like the person who ran from the scene of the crime. Sure, how about I offer decades of my life to serving in prison despite my innocence?
