Wall Street Journal eats crow: 40% of convicts innocent by DNA 
evidence

by MC5


The Wall Street Journal admitted on its front page July 12 that 
40% of convicts asking for DNA tests have been exonerated by those 
tests so far. That's it--one sentence admitting that there is hard 
evidence that the injustice system is full of shit. It does not 
result in any political earthquakes or blood-curdling screaming by 
the ruling class press and it's not hard to see why: After years 
of hyping up the "fight against crime" the reactionary newspapers 
like the Wall Street Journal are eating crow. These reactionaries 
were not able to cover their tracks once DNA evidence appeared on 
the scene.

At least two out of five convicts are innocent. The Wall Street 
Journal mentions it in a sentence. All this time, the Wall Street 
Journal and other bourgeois papers have been backing lying cops 
and prosecutors out to prove their effectiveness and run for 
office.

According to Amerikan civics classes, it's supposed to be "proof 
beyond a reasonable doubt" to convict someone. But in fact, there 
is a reasonable doubt about this whole so-called justice system. 
DNA evidence alone are exonerates 40%. There are other ways 
prisoners should be exonerated too, including by exposure of 
frame-ups. Cops and prosecutors willing to lie in the cases now 
disproved with DNA will also lie in cases where they do appear to 
have DNA evidence on their side. It's not that there was one set 
of cops and prosecutors involved in the disproved cases and 
another set in the proved convictions.

MIM is not saying there is no crime in the U$A. Quite the 
contrary, the U$A is the sickest country in the world. There needs 
to be some serious social medicine administered. Unfortunately 
U.$. sickness manifests itself especially in its cops, judges, 
prison guards, wardens and politicians, whether they be district 
attorneys or governors. They are great at getting elected and very 
poor at solving crime.

The imperialist economy in the U$A is at high tide: it's time for 
these people in the so-called justice system to get real jobs 
instead of living off the government dole. The proletariat, 
lumpen-proletariat, and middle-classes are tired of paying their 
salaries with tax dollars so they can convict innocent people at 
astounding rates.

The professionals in the so-called justice system ought to make 
use of this strong economy to come forward and tell the truth, 
instead of worrying about their employment security like narrow-
minded labor aristocrats. As Marxists, we say to hell with every 
alleged public service union that does not encourage integrity and 
instead worries about the job security of cops, prison guards, 
prison construction workers etc. Under the dictatorship of the 
proletariat, cops, guards, military professionals and similar 
professionals will know they are public servants or they will be 
forced out.

Cops should come forward and admit how their brethren have framed 
people. The situation in Los Angeles is a start. Prison guards 
should come forward with the abuse of prisoners they see on a 
daily basis. Lawyers and judges ought to be the ones telling the 
public that overall the justice system does not alleviate crime. 
Once crime has been committed, it's usually too late to undo it. 
The social causes of crime have to be addressed and not ignored in 
hate-filled rhetoric of prisons and punishment that gets so many 
politicians elected--and so many people killed in murders that are 
not prevented in this sick system.

There is nothing productive about having a lot of prisons built 
and people guarding ever larger numbers of innocent people. That's 
why we say to people in the justice system: Get a real job. Decent 
people do not have to frame up others to make a living. Decent 
people in the justice system need to get scientific about their 
professions and understand the bigger picture.

As almost every issue of MIM Notes shows, the U$A leads the world 
in imprisonment per capita. There is nothing that the Russians, 
Chinese or any other alleged foreign enemy ever dreamed of doing 
to the U.$. people that the U.$. politicians are not already doing 
to oppress the U.$. people.

MIM has been there bringing the scientific facts to the public for 
years. In a very similar article about convicting the wrong 
people, MIM wrote in MIM Notes 99 in April, 1995: " For example, 
in an experiment with a staged theft with 100 eyewitnesses, the 
eyewitnesses faced a police lineup that did not include the 
perpetrator. 21 eyewitnesses still picked someone from the lineup. 
In a similar study, even when the eyewitnesses knew that the 
criminal might not be in the lineup, 33% still picked the wrong 
person." 21% of the time supposed eyewitnesses pick someone from 
the lineup even when the perpetrator was not in the line-up. 
That's what the science shows. Yet it's been ignored by the ruling 
class press and politicians who cannot afford to have the masses 
understand the full implications. The editors of the Wall Street 
Journal and other reactionary papers are afraid that the people 
may demand other methods of fighting crime if they are not 
distracted by the righteous rhetoric of "fighting crime" with 
their individualist methods.

The middle-classes of Amerika deserve a major portion of the 
blame. They fall for the rhetoric of these politicians they elect. 
The middle-classes are prone to believing in individualism and 
rarely expose themselves to the overall statistical situation. 
Hence, a big problem can get bigger and bigger unless someone in 
the individual lives of middle-class people is affected. Yet, the 
injustice system is locking up Amerikans of all sorts at 
preposterous rates.

When people are imprisoned at these rates--as they have been for 
decades now--the whole system stands under indictment. Even if 
every convict were truly guilty, the question becomes why there 
are so many guilty Amerikans. What about the system is generating 
crime would be the question if everyone in prison were truly 
guilty.

It is no longer a question of one famous case or another. It's not 
about O.J. Simpson or any other individual. It's about admitting 
that the U.$. system must be a failure if it has to lock up so 
many people. Now even the Wall Street Journal knows the U.$. 
system is not just locking up so many guilty people: a large 
portion is innocent.

MIM is not surprised. A system built on cops and prosecutors 
getting ahead based on lies, a system where people look out for 
their job security because jobs are not guaranteed for all, a 
system where sheriffs and prison construction companies profit 
from prison labor and prison building contracts, a system that 
built itself on slavery and the massacre of indigenous people--
such a vicious system surely is not going to succeed in convicting 
the guilty and protecting the innocent.