What should we make of a criminal justice system that wrongfully convicted 160 African-American men and women, nearly twice the wrongful incarceration of whites over the course of the last several decades? These statistics are even more alarming when we note that blacks make up a mere ten percent of the U.S. population, but 60% of those in prison. In each of the 160 aforementioned cases, DNA evidence later exonerated the prisoner. However, the average time served by these innocent men and women was thirteen years. What must it feel like to be taken away from family and friends for a crime one didn't commit? How does a person reconstruct a life torn apart by false accusations, and the myriad degradations of prison life, suffered over the span of time it takes for one's newborn to graduate from high school?
I have been pleased to learn of "
The Innocence Project," a public policy organization "dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice." This organization has also compiled statistics by race of the wrongfully convicted:
160 African Americans
80 Caucasians
21 Latinos
2 Asian American
4 whose race is unknown
Shouldn't the corrupt judges and prosecutors, who fabricated evidence in order to win these cases, be brought to justice as well?
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