Judge Alex Kozinski has detailed 12 reasons why the criminal justice system is "worrying". (Click here for the full text of the article)
We encountered quite a few of these issues first hand during the Jon Massey Case.
As there was absolutely NO evidence in our case, it being completely a "he said/she said" situation, the first four situations didn't really apply.
However issue number 5 - the topic of human memory being reliable, was a central issue in the case. (See the blog entries (Her Own Words!, Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News, and ADAs (Apparently Dumb Attorneys) for more details on what occurred in our case.)
Point number 7 - that juries follow instructions, was also an issue in our case. Twelve jurors reported out that the ONLY reason they believed a 16 year old girl (who was known to be sexually active and who had received fairly comprehensive health and human body instruction in school) was because she could describe the difference between a circumcised and uncircumcised penis. (See the blog entry Beyond a Reasonable Doubt for details.) There should have been no doubt that she could have gotten that information elsewhere, and there should have been no conviction.
Point 8 - "Prosecutors play fair" also came into play. I can tell you that prosecutors do NOT play fair.
We had witness tampering and intimidation occurring throughout the duration of the case. (Blog entries: Witness Tampering? and Coincidence?) This in addition to blatantly ignoring all testimony that had occurred at the suppression hearing from the county's own expert witnesses.
The prosecutor additionally used an "expert" witness to testify regarding a widely discredited theory, CSAAS. (Blog entry: Junk Science)
Finally, there was the active suppression of evidence and testimony by wrongfully applying a statute. (Blog entry: Wolf Cry!)
The police are NOT objective (point 10). (Blog entries: Pick and Choose! and This Isn't CSI Folks!) We had police officers intimidating witnesses and interfering with actual criminal matters - if the 21 year old boyfriend were charged, that would discredit the case against Jon Massey.
Judge Kozinski also spoke out about the fallibility of the Grand Jury system - which we also experienced: A Grand Jury Ain't So Grand!
Then end result is that Ruby not only got what she wanted (What a Girl Wants!) but also taught her friends how to manipulate the system to their own ends (Ruby Slippers).
It is time to stand up, speak out, and reform a system that is broken and corrupt beyond retrieval.
This finding has troubling implications for criminal trials where witnesses are questioned long and hard by police and prosecutors before the defense gets to do so — if ever. There is thus plenty of opportunity to shape and augment a witness’s memory to bring it into line with the prosecutor’s theory of what happened. Yet with rare exceptions, courts do not permit expert testimony on human memory.We had a judge and a District Attorney ignoring all the interview evidence that had taken place, and those parties actually PREVENTED the jury from hearing about this testimony in both the criminal trial, and the Family Court trial. It is fairly apparent that the falsity of the allegations was well-known, yet the judges and prosecutors were determined to get a "guilty" verdict at all costs.
Point number 7 - that juries follow instructions, was also an issue in our case. Twelve jurors reported out that the ONLY reason they believed a 16 year old girl (who was known to be sexually active and who had received fairly comprehensive health and human body instruction in school) was because she could describe the difference between a circumcised and uncircumcised penis. (See the blog entry Beyond a Reasonable Doubt for details.) There should have been no doubt that she could have gotten that information elsewhere, and there should have been no conviction.
Point 8 - "Prosecutors play fair" also came into play. I can tell you that prosecutors do NOT play fair.
We had witness tampering and intimidation occurring throughout the duration of the case. (Blog entries: Witness Tampering? and Coincidence?) This in addition to blatantly ignoring all testimony that had occurred at the suppression hearing from the county's own expert witnesses.
The prosecutor additionally used an "expert" witness to testify regarding a widely discredited theory, CSAAS. (Blog entry: Junk Science)
Finally, there was the active suppression of evidence and testimony by wrongfully applying a statute. (Blog entry: Wolf Cry!)
The police are NOT objective (point 10). (Blog entries: Pick and Choose! and This Isn't CSI Folks!) We had police officers intimidating witnesses and interfering with actual criminal matters - if the 21 year old boyfriend were charged, that would discredit the case against Jon Massey.
Judge Kozinski also spoke out about the fallibility of the Grand Jury system - which we also experienced: A Grand Jury Ain't So Grand!
Then end result is that Ruby not only got what she wanted (What a Girl Wants!) but also taught her friends how to manipulate the system to their own ends (Ruby Slippers).
It is time to stand up, speak out, and reform a system that is broken and corrupt beyond retrieval.
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