District Attorneys are elected officials who's job depends upon pubic opinion being favorable towards them, especially during an election year. They run on their conviction record, and because that is so important, they have a virtual free hand doing what ever they need to in order to get a conviction. They withhold exculpatory evidence, hire self admitted liars to testify for the prosecution, hire specialists to pick jurors who will likely convict, and they can do this because they know the PUBLIC DOESN'T CARE, they just want to feel safe knowing someone (anyone) is behind bars.
Unless and until jurors (that's you and me) demand hard facts and irrefutable evidence be presented at trial, question every witnesses credibility until proven beyond a doubt to be reliable, expose deals and payments made to secure testimony, nothing will change.
A whole lot of innocent people are convicted of serious crimes, including murder in trials that lack any physical evidence connecting the defendant to the crime. And I have to ask myself, why would any moral person agree to convict? Why does the court system allow jurors to harass or pressure other jurors to vote for conviction, just so everybody can go home? There have been significant studies on how otherwise moral people will, when put in a group, do quite immoral things if it makes them feel like part of the team.
In short: Why are the wheels of justice well oiled and finely tuned to gain a conviction, yet rusted and nearly frozen solid when it comes time to free a wrongly convicted defendant, especially when it's because of prosecutorial misconduct?
Michael Morton was freed a few years ago after being incarcerated for 25 years for a murder he did not commit. The DA who prosecuted him and withheld critical exculpatory evidence later became a judge who was allowed to retire with his pension intact when the Morton was freed and story of his trial became a nation wide scandal.
That whole F.U. mess occurred right here where I live in Williamson County, TX. A county with a well deserved reputation for having "hanging judges" who start with the maximum sentence and work their way up from there.
BTW:I had a spouse who was an assistant district attorney until she quit because her moral compass would not allow her to abuse her power, and so she didn't get enough convictions to please her boss. She later became an internal affairs investigator for a major police dept, ALSO in California. Yea, liberal ol' California! If that shi* happens every day in a solidly BLUE state, whatta'ya think your chances would be in a RED state?
To say the Justice System in American is corrupt to the core and badly in need of a thorough overhaul, is like saying a week-old dead fish stinks.
But others might disagree. Perhaps they enjoy the smell of week-old dead fish.
