Why Are Many Innocent People Convicted of Crimes?
A Grandpa Gem By PeterTaradash@gmail.com
See Also: You Tube, Grandpa@Lucky2balive888
A Grandpa Gem By PeterTaradash@gmail.com
See Also: You Tube, Grandpa@Lucky2balive888
Gem #26 -Old Title “Law Enforcement in the USA” Edited by Grandpa 10-23-2025
Does the law protect the innocent? In the old days I represented several white collar criminals in tax or financial fraud cases. As a lawyer, I was surprised to find that prosecutors, usually political appointees, or ambitious bureaucrats had absolutely no interest in the truth. They were always arranging available “evidence” only to build a case and get high profile convictions. If there was any exonerating evidence it was typically hidden, buried, or ignored.
A very good defense lawyer could often ferret out such “exculpatory” evidence. This actually happened in the 2015 Straus-Kahn case where a prominent big shot and admittedly horny French banker was tried for raping an African hotel maid in NYC. The defense team uncovered a recorded telephone call to the lady’s boyfriend immediately after the “rape.” The alleged victim said in effect, that after consensual sex with a rich hotel guest, she had “another” big fish on the hook -- presumably for blackmail.
Without a very good detective on his defense team, the banker would have done serious jail time. I suspect the prosecutors knew the woman involved was a serial blackmailer of men she had sex with at her hotel job. The prosecutors desperately wanted to convict a high profile “rapist.” There is a book called Bonfire of the Vanities in which the prosecutor said something like
“It’s easy to convict the guilty, but it’s a real triumph when you can convict an innocent.”
Juries tend to feel that any person who is indicted must have done something wrong. They are predisposed to convict. The prosecution does all they can to stain the reputation of the defendant. The prosecution usually “proves” that If they didn’t commit the crime that they are accused of, they must have done something equally bad. That alone, they insinuate, is good reason to convict them of what they maybe didn’t do. The Feds win 98% of all their criminal cases. The FBI labs are well known to intentionally fabricate evidence to support the prosecutor’s theory of the case. Jurors, however, are never allowed to be shown abundant evidence of the FBI's flagrant frauds in other cases.
The bottom line is that jurors like the Henry Fonda character (men who are sincerely interested in the truth) as in the play/movie “12 Angry Men,” just don’t exist in real life. I completely disagree with the conventinal wisdom that the law protects the innocent. It is supposed to do that, but the reality is that the law bureaucracy seldom lets an innocent high profile defendant go free. There are many examples: Martha Stewart is one. Leona Helmsley is another. Both ladies were convicted for victimless crimes. Why? Because they were famous, high profile wealthy women. Their prosecutors were able to advance with a feather in their caps for convicting them.
If someone is unlucky enough to be an African-American murder defendant with only an inexperienced public defender, you can also kiss them good-bye: Guilty or otherwise. Law enforcers—police and prosecutors—are motivated only to get convictions. They will use any methods they find useful in this endeavor.
One client who became part of the 98% conviction rate blurted out after being found guilty, “My prosecutors were so adept at creating evidence and getting witnesses to say what they wanted, that they could convict the Pope of adultery, even though the Pope wasn’t married.”
Many of today’s politicians became well known because of the publicity they got “putting away” non- criminals. Rudy Giuliani of NYC is in this category. For us old timers, the near winner of a forgotten USA presidential election (vs. Harry Truman) was Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey's only claim to fame was sending a lot of people up the river.
Being a prosecutor who wins cases in the USA will help you become a governor or possibly president. Letting the innocent get on with their lives is a backwards career move. The best way to avoid jail or any trouble with "the State," is to be an invisible P.T... Obviously, never brag to anyone about what you got away with. Don't have any friends or contacts that bring you attention or heat. Stay away from social media and stay squeaky clean.
