Well, No Rush

Comments (15)

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1. c u n d gulag says:

   March 16, 2012 at 4:44 pm

   OH JEEZ!
   YOU MEAN THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED?
   NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

   In VA, file this as “Not A F*CKING Shocker.”

   Reply
   • firefall says:

     March 16, 2012 at 5:30 pm

     VA? ha, you think its any better in other states?

     Reply
2. The Golux says:

   March 16, 2012 at 4:58 pm

   I misconstrued the title to mean that The Round Mound of the Put-down was no longer on the airwaves.

   No such luck.

   Reply
3. Icarus Wright says:

   March 16, 2012 at 4:59 pm

   Virginia knows it has DNA evidence that may prove the innocence of dozens of men convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Men just like Barbour. So why won’t the state say who they are?

   Or conversely, who the guilty aren’t.

   Reply
4. firefall says:

   March 16, 2012 at 5:33 pm

   79 excluded out of 214? One third of the random sample of convictions shown to be wrongful? Jesus wept, I knew the Law* system in this country was rotten, but I had no idea it was that ludicrously unjust

   *I refuse to call it a Justice system at this point.

   Reply
   • DrDick says:

     March 16, 2012 at 6:48 pm

     The Innocence Project alone has exonerated 289 convicted people since 1989. This alone is enough to ban the death penalty.

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     • mpowell says:

       March 16, 2012 at 7:59 pm

       Only 17 of those were death penalty cases. Those guys are doing great work, but the numbers alone were that much of an indictment of the system since they represent such a small part of the total number of convictions in that time frame.

       But the numbers from this study are simply shocking. According to the article, there were only 214 cases where the biological evidence could actually be used. And in resulted in 79 exonerations! That’s a pretty large sample and also basically random. And the false conviction rate is over 30%. Proof beyond reasonable doubt my ass.

       Reply
       • Davis X. Machina says:

         March 16, 2012 at 9:39 pm

         They probably did something else, though, that they didn’t get arrested for or charged with.

         So it’s ok. on balance.

         Reply
       • David Kaib says:

         March 17, 2012 at 7:09 pm

         There have been 140 exonerations from death row since it was reinstated in 1973. The most recent from this year had been convicted 23 years before. The longest someone has been on death row before being exonerated was 33 years.

         Reply
5. Davis X. Machina says:

   March 16, 2012 at 6:21 pm

   What you fail to understand is that taking steps to liberate innocents from the grasp of a clearly over-reaching state would be inconsistent with libertarianism.

   Reply
   • R Johnston says:

     March 16, 2012 at 7:02 pm

     It costs money to free people. It costs nothing to prosecute them. Duh.

     Reply
6. cpinva says:

   March 16, 2012 at 7:12 pm

   it could cost the commonwealth of va a significant amount of cold, hard cash, if these people were to discover that, indeed, they had been wrongfully tried and convicted. as well, the prosecutors in those cases are now, in some cases, members of the state legislature, or partners in prestigeous law firms. being shown as incompetent (or worse), in a prior situation probably isn’t going to look good on their resume’s.

   the state forensic lab knows exactly what it’s doing, and who it’s doing it for. this is planned ineptitude.

   Reply
   • wengler says:

     March 16, 2012 at 10:00 pm

     Of course the counter-argument is that it costs money to continue to incarcerate someone that is wrongly accused. A lot of this comes down to saving face and the fact that everyone but the person locked up is happy with the current arrangement.

     They really don’t want to deal with the victims’ families that they’ve been lying to all of these years.

     Reply
7. Joey Maloney says:

   March 17, 2012 at 3:12 am

   Geez, I clicked through thinking I was about to read that Limbaugh’s radio show had been cancelled.

   Don’t tease us like that.

   Reply
8. Mike Schilling says:

   March 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm

   Warner, embarrassed by the revelations, then ordered in late 2005 that every sample obtained between 1973 and 1988 be rechecked.

   I was so expecting that sentence to end “destroyed”. Good for Warner.

   Reply