Thursday, September 04, 2014

Rule of Law, American Style


This news story really stuck out yesterday, and that's saying a lot, with another ISIS beheading, Russia in Ukraine, ebola,.... Two African-American men in North Carolina were freed after 30 years in prison. Before we criticize anyone else's criminal justice system, let's look at what we did:
  • 30+ years ago, an 11 year old girl was raped and murdered.
  • The police arrested two half-brothers (Brown and McCollum). Both are mentally incapacitated. McCollum has an IQ of 51 and the mental capacity of a 9 year old.
  • The police coerced confessions out of the brothers. There was no other evidence against the brothers. The police interrogated them for five hours, without a lawyer present.
  • During the investigation, the police ignored a predator who lived a block away from where the girl's body was found. That predator even admitted at the time to committing a similar rape and murder.
  • McCollum and Brown retracted their confessions, to no avail. One spent three decades on death row. The other was serving a life sentence. In an appeal, Supreme Court Justice Scalia thought it was fine that McCollum be executed. In fact, Scalia even said, "How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with [the girl's brutal murder]!".
  • DNA from a cigarette butt found at the scene was traced to the predator. The brothers were finally freed this week.
  • As Brown walked out of prison, a free man, he declared, "God is good all the time."

No comments: