Police coerced and manipulated a 12 year old boy to lie resulting in Ricky Jackson, an innocent man to spend 39 years behind bars. He had originally been sentenced to death. This on the heels of last week in Toronto after 12½ years in prison for a murder he did not commit Leighton Hay became the 18th wrongfully convicted person since 1993 to be released from prison after having been adopted by facebook/AIDWYC (Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted) on August 16, 2011 as a case of factual innocence. The Exoneration Registry in the United States puts the number of wrongfully convicted for murder at 1,025 since 1989. Canada does not maintain statistics. Because findings of wrongful conviction represent a basic undermining of the integrity of the criminal justice system, the procedures established for the review of such cases are extraordinary in nature and are rarely invoked successfully. For it to be otherwise would be to put in question the criminal justice system’s legitimacy and, by bringing attention to its fallibility, to weaken public confidence in it. The price to maintain the publics confidence in our adversarial justice system, often abused by police and prosecutors is borne by innocent persons robbed of their lives. Even after exonerated Canada does not compensate innocent persons without yet another lengthy legal battle placing roadblocks at every turn. Something to think about as we enjoy our freedoms and complain about trivial things.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 04:26:59 +0000
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