Wrongly Convicted

On the front page of today's Omaha World Herald (my local paper) was the story of six individuals that were convicted of crimes they did not commit. This group known as the "Beatrice 6" were convicted by DNA evidence in 1989. The evidence was obtained from a crime lab in Oklahoma that is now known for putting out bad test results.

Joseph White, JoAnn Taylor and James Dean were finally released from prison last October. They were in prison for 19 years. Can you imagine serving 19 years in prison for a crime you KNOW you did not commit? That absolutely, positively, sucks. The other three people involved served lesser sentences of five years each. They were released in 1994.

These types of situations cause me to lean towards being anti-death penalty. How many people are sitting in prison that have been wrongfully convicted? One website claims, "The United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, admits that statistically 8% to 12% of all state prisoners are either actually or factually innocent." [http://www.truthandjusticedenied.com/Wrongful_Conviction_Statist.html]

I can't vouch for this website or it's statistics, but what if 8-12% of people in prison are wrongfully convicted?

According to one government website as of December 2007 "2,293,157 prisoners were held in federal or state prisons or in local jails". That would mean that somewhere between 183,453 and 275,179 people currently in prison are there wrongfully. That is horrible. So much for justice. [http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/prisons.htm]

I have always had this idea that our justice system is wrought with inefficiencies and biases. You know, if you have the money you can get away with murder.

What do we do about it? What is there to do about it?

Step one: Outlaw executions except in some extreme situations.
Step two: Reach out to those that are released from prison after being wrongfully convicted. Any one out there know how to get involved with something like this?
Step three: Get a law degree and fight the injustices in our judicial system.

Any other ideas?