The innocent stuck with the stigma of incarceration history

[Ceicei]

Those who served time in jail or prison and later found to be innocent (exonerated of the crime) are having a difficult time getting full acceptance (recognition of their innocence) by society and/or the government. Some are unable to find a job, others cannot get their assets back, still others do not get compensation for the time/skills they had lost while being incarcerated. It is like society continues to penalize them even though they are finally found (via DNA or otherwise) to not be the one who committed the crime.

It would have been nice if the theory of "proven innocent after the fact and allowed to start fresh with a clean slate" would be true in practice, but theory often does not mirror real life.

http://www.reuters.com/article/dome...29?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

Thoughts, opinions?

- Ceicei

 

[Empty Hands]

At heart, most people believe that if you are accused of a crime, you are guilty. If you are found "not guilty" at trial, then you "got away with it" on a "technicality." Same thing with later exonerations. Add to that the state almost never willingly admits a mistake, and you have a recipe for treatment like this. The only way to correct it is to make the system easier and more responsive to getting exonerated crimes scrubbed from your record. That is far easier than changing the minds of all the individuals you will meet that will stop listening after they hear you've been in jail.

 

[Ceicei]

Hypothetical situation:

As the owner or director or head instructor of your martial arts school, would you hire a person who was found, though DNA proof, to be innocent of his/her crime and in the process of getting the record expunged?

Why or why not? What considerations or factors would you take to arrive at your decision whether to hire? Would it depend upon how well you know the person or upon how your community reacts? Would it depend upon the original reason for the incarceration, even though the person now is exonerated? Would it depend on whether the record is in process or fully expunged?

If any of you had actually faced this hiring situation or know of someone who did, how do you feel about this and what do you think could be done differently?

- Ceicei

 

[Cryozombie]

If any of you had actually faced this hiring situation or know of someone who did, how do you feel about this and what do you think could be done differently?

- Ceicei

When I was a retail manager I fought to hire someone whos background check showed up that he had been in Jail for 6 months... He was guilty of what he went in for... but IMO he did his time and why the hell should he keep paying? So of course if the system proved he was innocent I'd give them a job.

 

[punisher73]

I believe that there are some people who may get convicted and are innocent of their crime, but having worked with the courts for 4 yrs on the Transport Divsion and sitting in on HUNDREDS of cases both at the pretrial and trial stage. I have a hard time believing the "estimates" that they are giving.

Every person you talk to "didn't do it" even if they were on film clear as day they will deny it. I also don't buy the fact of plea bargains and it inferring that all of these innocent people ONLY took the plea because they were afraid of a strict sentence.

I can only go by the county I live/work in, but juries are VERY hesitant to convict on serious charges without a solid case that does not leave a reasonable doubt of the peron's guilt. WHY? Because they don't want to send an innocent person to jail/prison. Think about that, 12 people ALL have to agree that there is no reasonable doubt that the person who is accused of that did it. How often do you get that many people to agree on something? Can mistakes happen? Sure, I'm not saying that they dont'. But our system is set up so that we would rather set 99 guilty people free than send 1 innocent person to jail.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I have taught more than one who was quilty of crimes the got caught on and ones I knew they had not got caught on, so i guess it would depend on the person and what I thought of them as an individual and why i thought they wanted to study
And YES I have taught known gang members and "bikers"

 

[Empty Hands]

Every person you talk to "didn't do it" even if they were on film clear as day they will deny it.

That isn't the topic. We are talking about those who were convicted, and then exonerated by the state later.

Your post is also a perfect example of what I was talking about in mine.

 

[punisher73]

That isn't the topic. We are talking about those who were convicted, and then exonerated by the state later.

Your post is also a perfect example of what I was talking about in mine.

From the article:

Ninety percent of convictions are guilty pleas often made out of fear of a harsher sentence at trial, and the report roughly estimated 29,000 innocent people were convicted during the 15-year period in the study but not exonerated.

That is part of the article, it talked about their "estimates" of how many innocent people are in jail/prison. How did they arrive at that? How were the people exhonerated? Are we talking about DNA evidence that was now tested because we are able to do so and it shows that the person's DNA doesn't match, or are we also talking about the cases where a lab messed a bunch of stuff up and the case was overturned? The article does not differentiate that, which in turn makes some people believe that they were guilty and got off on a technicality and that is the issue I have with articles like that. They brush over the problem and point it out without educating the average person on the "whys".

They should have spent more time talking about the original study. The study used in the article DOES differentiate the different types of exhonerations, and also what types of cases are most likely to be overturned (about 90% are rape cases, followed by robberies). The study can be found at www.projectjustice.org As a general public, we have a BIG stigma when it comes to rape, and I think that plays a large part of the treatment in these cases. I have talked with my friends and co-workers about this many times. I have always said I would MUCH rather be falsely accused of murder than rape. There is always that stigma attached to rape.

So how do we fix this? It's easy to point it out like the article, but what are some solutions?