There is reason for the public to shudder at the high number of wrongful convictions coming out of the state’s judicial system, even if they are not your hands gripping the steel uprights of a prison cell.
It means that real perpetrators are free to commit more crimes.
“The consequences are too grave for not using available, proven methods of preventing wrongful convictions,” said Stephen Saloom, policy director for the past eight and a half years of the Innocence Project. “It’s outrageous.”
What Saloom referred to was the failure, once again, of the New York state Legislature to enact reforms that would require law enforcement and prosecutors to videotape interrogations and use double blind lineups.
Bills requiring both methods be used and taught to police trainees died in committees.
“We know that our criminal justice system relies on unreliable forms of evidence — false confessions and eyewitness misidentification — proven methods are readily available and prosecutors and law enforcement don’t want to be required to use them,” Saloom said.
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