[kerfwango]

<p>Anyone see <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/" target="_blank">this</a>? (Full program available at link.) Good lord. Makes you question the justice system to the core.</p>

 

[RaisingArizonainNH]

<p> No. But we had to go to court to try to get my husband's pay and job back after a very illegal firing... ALL in court agreed  that we won the case.. but hmmm.. when the judge decided the case, we lost it and  the  $40,000 + .  Yeh.   Our friend was on th einside of the  state justice system ( a judge in a different area) and told us the reason was another case was coming up wihtthe  same defense and ours would set a precedent for that and they did not want the other guy to win his case... so we were judged against.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>     The justice system is very broken. I  have long believed that Justice IS  blind.... <strong>and she needs a seeing eye dog!</strong></p>

 

[yar]

<p>It's not just confessions.  Behavioral scientists tell us we can't even trust eye-witnesses a fair percentage of the time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>yar</p>

 

[jebba]

<p>My goodness, but that is true.  I work in the criminal justice field, and when I was accosted in the park, I could barely remember what the dude was wearing.  I was a terrible witness just recounting hwat happened a few minutes after it took place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And people confess all the time.  Most of the time they are truthful confessions, but sometimes they are not.  Or they say part of something is true, and officers will write in their report "suspect admitted he did it," etc when they may have only admitted to being there or knowing about the offense, or whatever.</p>

 

[kerfwango]

<p>I think the most maddening thing about it was the interrogating officers telling the suspects that they had failed their polygraphs when they had not. A mere Mundane can go to jail for lying to the police but not the other way around. Nice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>All of their confessions were coerced. They also found none of their DNA at the crime scene and had a full confession from the real DNA match who stated unequivocally that he acted alone. They still went to jail. F*cking bullsh*t. The interrogator who coerced all of the confessions is now in jail himself for abuse of the justice system and (I think) extortion. Once again, nice.</p>

 

[kerfwango]

<p>Just read this quote and found it appropriate for this thread (and so much more):</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>“History's most important lesson is that it has not been possible to make coercion compatible with truth.”</em></p>