26 years in prison - Man released on DNA evidence...fair for others?

After watching a rerun of the Colbert Report last night, I thought about his one of his guests (Jerry Miller) who was freed from prison after being cleared of his crime by new DNA evidence. This poor man was sitting in prison, rotting away for 26 years while the real culprit was strolling around, free as a bird, and he still is.

Given the surge of cases being fought and won byThe Innocence Project, doesnt this signal to everyone that our justice system has some serious flaws, and needs to be carefully reviewed?

Since Mr. Miller was misidentified by an"eyewhiteness", and then convicted by a jury of his peers (mostly white), does this instance not say that every other criminal receive the same benefit of this man, and have their cases reopened and reviewed with the proper evidence at hand, or even have the criminals retried?

It just seems wrong to allow this man to be vindicated by technology, and let others with similar situations remain in prison, knowing that they were wrongly accused.

What do you all think should happen?

In those cases where DNA can be a factor and can be applied to the case, there should probably be a review.

This is a sad story, but we know that justice is flawed, simply because it is a human institution.

In the natural world, there is no such thing as justice.

Justice is a human concept applied by humans to humans.

So, we can have a flawed justice system or we can have no justice system.

You would be hard pressed to find a better system anywhere on Earth.

But flawed or not, we should have the best system possible.



[edit on 2007/8/21 by GradyPhilpott]

Here's another case of a man exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence eighteen years after he was sent to prison.

A man wrongly jailed for 18 years in a child rape case was released from prison Tuesday after new DNA testing cleared him of the crime.

Dwayne Allen Dail, now 39, hugged his attorney as Wayne County Superior Court Judge Jack Hooks Jr. set aside his conviction.

District Attorney Branny Vickory had asked the judge to dismiss the original charges against Dail because of the new test results. The tests showed that DNA found on the 12-year-old victim's nightgown matched that of another man already in prison. The results also excluded Dail as the rapist.

www.usatoday.com...

These kinds of cases are staggering in their implications.

How can anyone ever repay a man who has spent his entire young adult life in prison on false charges?

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
In those cases where DNA can be a factor and can be applied to the case, there should probably be a review.

This is a sad story, but we know that justice is flawed, simply because it is a human institution.

In the natural world, there is no such thing as justice.

Justice is a human concept applied by humans to humans.

So, we can have a flawed justice system or we can have no justice system.

You would be hard pressed to find a better system anywhere on Earth.

But flawed or not, we should have the best system possible.



[edit on 2007/8/21 by GradyPhilpott]

Very well stated Grady.

Personally, I dont think that society could ever possibly repay a man that has been wrongly imprisoned for such an unbelievably long time.

18 years, 26 years..there is nothing that could replace those lost years. Who do we point the finger at? society, the system, the jury? Something is not right, but it is next to impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of this breakdown.

Maybe him winning the lottery would be a good start...