If you were wrongly convicted for a crime, would you look at the justice system any differently?

I have a son who has been convicted of a crime he didn't commit. The experience has deepened the committment I have to the cause of justice. It has spurred me to learn about the causes of wrongful convictions, and to become an activist for reform.

We will never know the true number of people wrongly convicted, but thanks to the work of Innocence Projects across the country, we do know that the numbers are far higher than anyone previously thought.

Before my son's conviction, I'd read about people being exonerated after serving decades in prison for crimes they'd not committed with the kind of detatched horror one might read about a shark attack while drinking a latte in Denver. Now the horror is palpable.

As an Innocence Movement activist, I'm doing all I can to raise awareness about wrongful convictions, to include being a state-level coordinator for the June 27, 2009 Freedom March in Colorado (http://bearingfalsewitness.com/fm), part of a national grassroots effort (http://freedommarchusa.org).

I continually measure proposals to reform the criminal justice system against what I call the three 'R's of the Innocence Movement:

1. Raise the accuracy rate of court judgments,

2. Resolve plausible claims of post-conviction innocence,

3. Remedy the tragic consequences of wrongful convictions.

yep, because it would prove it was indeed flawed.

no...though it`s imperfect I think they do their best...assuming your not talking about china or iraq or somethin`
canadas justice system is good...don`t know about u.s.

There can't be absolute justice for all people. When being punished falsely, Galileo told his students that this is perfectly good for him rather than being judged rightly.
However, all citizens must observe the law, because relative justice is better than anarchy.
Social order will become better when the law will govern instead of man's will.

any person wrongly charged would have to have a changed view of the justice system.

Justice is relative so by nature is imperfect however that is no excuse to not try to change it.

Im more likely to think I had a really bad lawyer who was
ill-equipped to navigate the system to ensure I got justice.

No, because I have been.

There is no ture justus is this world,,,,for if there were we would all be in heaven,,,Man has no right to judge anyone exsept him self,,,Ture justus will come when God is viewed by all,,,love and light Mary

Yes, because it happened to me. (Not the death penalty bit, but it did utterly fail me in my time of need.)

No, there can be no justice in this world anyways, that would just reaffirm my beliefs

I already have a clouded view of so called justice. It's flawed as flawed can be and caters to the criminals not the victims. I believe if a person chooses to break the law they should pay for it. I just saw a news story where a serial killer had fashioned a strangulation device in prison while being scheduled for release and a corrections officer found the device and he as charged with manufacturing a weapon in prison and it was taken to trial. The case would have been open and shut if the jury had been made aware of the fact that this murderer had strangled four women to death and had attempted to strangle two young children and had left them for dead but the Judge said that he didn't want to prejudice the jury so he with held that information from them!!! That monster could have walked free and he would have killed again and kept killing until and unless he was caught again. He hid the bodies and they weren't found until he has shown them where he'd out them. HE claimed the device was just shoestrings tied together and not a weapon. Fortunately the jury found him guilty of creating a weapon in jail and he was sentenced to 20 to 40 more years. Someone falsey accused of a crime will fight for their freedom. I'm sure many people have been executed who were innocent. I believe the death penalty should be made automatically with smoking gun convictions and pedophiles. It's not justice to have someone sitting on death row for 10 to 40 years. I saw a web page where there were death row inmates locked up for 38 years! Three square meals a day. No bills and no responsibilities. living off the government when they have taken the life of someone else. It's just not right!!