Free Willy…and Many Others

A recurring topic on this blog, because it's an interest of mine, is people who were convicted of a crime and later totally exonerated. This happens often enough to make me, as it should make anyone, extremely uncomfortable with our justice system. One problem is prosecutors who, having sent someone to prison, don't want the embarrassment of having that conviction overturned and maybe have it be suggested that they cheated somehow to get that conviction. Often, they act like it's a bothersome technicality that DNA testing or other evidence proves that they guy they insisted did it didn't do it.

In this article, Lara Bazelon discusses this problem. And in this one, she summarizes seventeen cases where there was hard proof someone was wrongly convicted and the prosecutors still tried to keep the person behind bars. It's one of those things that I'm amazed isn't cause for more outrage.