Who will ever
give a man back the 25
years he lost of his precious life when he was in prison?
Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2013
By Rosy Kim
For the last few decades, wrongful
conviction has been one of the biggest social problems in Texas. The articles
about wrongful convictions have become remarkable headline news, and without
reading the articles, we can’t grasp the news in our everyday life. Hence,
recently, people who are thoughtful have
argued that lawmakers should clean up flaws that lead to wrongful convictions.
It is really true. There is no way the legal
system can give people who are falsely imprisoned for a very long time their
lives back. So, the Legislature should correct the flaws in the system that
stole innocent people’s lives. The reason is that wrongful convictions rips
away innocent people’s precious lives and deprives them of their family.
The United
States is a great symbol of democracy. However, the great democratic country
has stolen innocent people’s freedom due to flaws in the justice system. According to the statistics that are reported
by college researchers who have established the first registry of exoneration
more than 2,000 people have been exonerated of serious crimes since 1898 in the
United States. Among those exonerated,
84 of them were from Texas.
In one of the biggest wrongful conviction
cases in Texas, Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not
commit, and he was 57 when he was freed from the prison. What words can give comfort for him? How much
monetary compensation can give back his priceless life? After he got free, even
though he got 1.96 million dollars from the government, but more than this money,
who will ever give him back the precious life he lost when he was in prison?
Moreover, if the wrongful conviction happened due to prosecutorial tactics such as hiding or suppressing evidences or information, this is extremely morally wrong, the sin never gets forgiven. There should be strong punishment for withholding evidence by prosecutors, and also there should be separated governmental department to oversee prosecutors to decrease the number of wrongful convictions.
Moreover, if the wrongful conviction happened due to prosecutorial tactics such as hiding or suppressing evidences or information, this is extremely morally wrong, the sin never gets forgiven. There should be strong punishment for withholding evidence by prosecutors, and also there should be separated governmental department to oversee prosecutors to decrease the number of wrongful convictions.
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