Confessions of A Working Girl

I had  never been a huge fan of John Grisham–although I suppose I shouldn’t say that since the actual truth is, until recently, I had never read one of his books. Now I’m thinking I may want to try reading one…

Anyway, for my American Judicial Process class, we had to read The Innocent Man, by John Grisham. Less than a chapter into the book, and I was already horrified by how the case had been handled. Having just finished the book, I can only say that I am almost completely appalled by the criminal justice system.

For people who haven’t read the book, it is a story of two men who were wrongfully convicted of murder. It wasn’t just that they claimed they were innocent–they were innocent! They had alibis for the night of the murder, and there was zero evidence connecting them to the murder. One of the men had never even met the victim!

The murder occurred in 1982. The two men weren’t arrested until 1987, and then they spent the next twelve years in jail. Despite numerous requests for new trials, the two weren’t exonerated of the crime until 1999!

After reading that book, I just had to stop and think for a minute. If our criminal justice system can make huge mistakes like that–and this is no where near being an isolated case–then what confidence can we put into the system?

Having done ride-alongs with the police, and knowing people that are police, I can say that the police are not always the people in the wrong. Most of them are simply trying to do their duty of protecting the citizens of their town.

That said, there are still way too many things in the system that are corrupt.  Unless and until we fix that, incidents like this are going to remain a relatively common occurrence. Wasn’t the theory America founded on “Innocent until proven guilty”? Although that statement itself brings about problems…

Anyway, I guess my point is simply this: why do we let the criminal justice system stay twisted enough that sometimes it can be argued that we should call it the criminal injustice system?

…ok that wasn’t worded very well, but I think you get my point.