Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News

Texas Issues Tim Cole, Who Died in Prison, Its First Posthumous Pardon – AOL News.

Back in October of 2008, I blogged a series on the increasing failures of our national crime and prison policies. At that time I pointed out that states such as California were already spending 10% of their budget for prison costs with it expected to go higher. Since then, you have probably been hearing the news about overcrowding leading to mandatory prisoner releases in California. However, at that time I also pointed out:

A study done by the Federal government shows that it is a mixture of policies that are close to creating the perfect wave of monetary meltdown for California. Among the reasons for this perfect wave are: mandatory sentencing guidelines, increased number of crimes that require incarceration, tighter parole policies, giving too much discretionary power to non-judicial authorities to return a parolee to jail without a hearing, etc.

I also pointed out the startling fact, documented by both “conservative” and “liberal” news sources–look back at the posts cited above– that our prison population is going up despite the fact that our crime rate is going down. This has been the result of well over 20 years of pressure, particularly from political conservatives, for what is called a “law and order” approach to crime. It was, and continues to be, a very popular political tactic to claim that supposedly “liberal” judges were letting hard-core criminals off on technicalities, or not sentencing them to long enough terms, and that we had to get hard on crime. As I pointed out in the earlier series, this has led to the point that the United States of America has a higher proportion of its residents in jail than any other country on Earth. We also have the highest total number of prisoners in the world.

But, it has also had another unintended, but totally predictable, side-effect. Laws were passed to supposedly cut-off “inappropriate” defenses. Laws were passed to give less discretion to judges and to increase minimum mandatory sentences. Laws were passed to lessen the possibilities of non-jail punishment. Laws were passed to make it easier for prosecutors to prove crimes. Public pressure forced every elected prosecutor to take cases to court regardless of how thin the evidence was–one can see that reflected in the various crime shows on TV where more than once people are taken to trial on very thin evidence. Public pressure made every parole board hearing a pressure cooker for members of the board, who are always pilloried for any consideration they give, even if it is allowed by law. Politicians-wishing-to-be-elected are on the hunt for any failure in the parole or judicial system as proof that their opponent is soft on crime. Despite the several year drop in various types of violent crimes, the continuing drumbeat of “law and order” is reflected in polls that show the populace to actually have a higher fear of crime than they did three decades ago when the crime rate was higher!

What is the totally predictable side-effect? We began to convict innocent people on insufficient evidence. As well, more than once the designation of a “person of interest” by the police has targeted an innocent person, who is immediately thought guilty by both the media and the common citizenry. (Think about the security guard who was supposedly an Olympic bomber several years ago in Atlanta. Think about the researcher in a government facility who turned out to be fully innocent.) In fact, that has become a favorite tactic when the police want to convict someone in the court of public opinion without a trial and to put psychological pressure on them. Prosecutors’ refusal to ever declare someone innocent, even after they have soundly lost a trial, contributes to the atmosphere current in America that if you are taken to trial you must be guilty and that if you are found “not guilty” it simply means that you “got away with it.”

The case cited at the beginning of this post is simply the latest in the over several hundred people who have been found illegally and immorally put in jail, but have been freed thanks to the efforts of organizations such as The Innocence Project. When those organizations first began, many political conservatives simply labeled them as “liberal” organizations who were trying to prevent “true” justice. Several hundred innocent people later, that charge is no longer thrown at them. It is not either liberal or conservative to free innocent people; it is just. English jurist William Blackstone famously said many years ago, “Better that ten guilty persons escape, than one innocent suffer.” Benjamin Franklin said, “that it is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer.” A Georgia circuit court held in 1877 that it was “better that some guilty ones should escape than that many innocent persons should be subjected to the expense and disgrace attendant upon being arrested upon a criminal charge.” But we have forgotten those sayings and we have thrown away our standards. Now our standards are closer to it being better to convict and to let God sort it all out at the Last Judgment.

I would urge you to go to the website of The Innocence Project and click on the link that will show you some of the reforms of the law that they suggest. You may even wish to donate to them. The reforms are designed to return us to what we used to be, a country which adequately safeguarded the innocent from either being convicted or from subjecting the innocent to “the expense and disgrace attendant upon being arrested upon a criminal charge.”

But, I do have a final comment. I notice that there are several overtly Christian “pro-life” organizations that hold prayer vigils, picket abortion clinics, organize votes (though too many of them have become political boosters of a particular party as the Party of God), and spend much energy on that issue. This is a good thing. But, where are the Christian “pro-life” organizations who will do the same thing in favor of the innocent who are unjustly accused and/or unjustly convicted? I am not asking anti-abortion organizations to take on additional duties. But, where are the parallel Christian organizations who, in the name of being pro-life, will also take up issues such as this one? I fear that too many theologically conservative Christians have adopted the general attitude of the populace and are all too willing to convict innocent people in the name of “law and order.” I would love to see James Dobson make as strong a statement in favor of protecting innocent adults from the legal system as he has made on any of several other moral issues. I am certain that God is a just God. But, I am just as certain that someday too many American Christians will have to face Him and He will say, “I was innocent and you convicted me.”