Innocents incarceration
by Demond A. Jackson
Last year there were an unprecedented 125 exoneration in this country. Majority of the cases were corrected by the efforts of law enforcement i.e. The special prosecutors units founded in 2002, the unit examines convictions based on bad evidence, false testimony, coerced confessions and other factors. Prosecutors and law enforcement agents have cooperated in the reversal of 67 wrongful convictions, a record number, according to report by the National Registry of Exoneration.
In an article written by Kevin Johnson for the USA Today, King County District Attorney Kenneth Thompson stated “People are coming to the understanding that wrongful convictions are not only destroying the lives of people who have been wrongfully punished, they are also undermining the integrity of the criminal system.” University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross said “It turns out that (wrongful conviction) is a much more common problem than everybody realized.”
DNA evidence is the major cause for this change in perception when it come to questioning conviction. Simply because DNA is an unquestionable factor when it comes to establishing “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” especially in murder cases, rape cases and even robberies. DNA evidence is currently contradicting the eye witness testimony of yesterday prosecutors.
Kirk L. Odom a resident of Washington D.C. served 22 years for a rape charge. During his incarceration Mr. Odom was raped several time, attempted suicide, dealt with extreme depression, family estrangement and contradicted the HIV from one of the assailant who rape him. After being exonerated for his crime, Odom file a wrongful conviction suit in which he was granted 9.2 million dollars, the second highest award handed down from a judge. Yet monetary aid can never make up for what this man and others like him have endure. 46% of the 125 exonerations last year, concluded no crime ever occurred.
The scale of justice presently are truly unbalanced, the integrity of the courts and law enforcement is at an all time low across America. The ideology of the justice system once was ” Justice requires that if one innocent man is convicted and in order to right that wrong the law would require the release of a thousand guilty men, let the thousand go! Because no innocent man deserve to have his liberties taking unlawfully.”
This is not the case presently. Courts are constantly creating case law and handing down decision to uphold illegal and unlawful sentences and conviction. Simply to preserve the conviction and sentences of thousands who are guilty at the expense of the innocent. For those of you who believe in the myth that if a person is in prison they deserve to be there, guess again… Innocent men and women go to prison everyday and if your not mindful it just might be you… who matches the description of the actually assailant.
I'm the son of an African American queen, born and raised in Los Angeles California, where I was groomed in its infectious gang culture. For the past decade and half, the federal Bureau of Prison has been a institution of self-education, self-evaluation and the reason I now possess knowledge of self. That being so, I now strive to expose the solution to the problems that our plaguing our communities, America's youth and this country as a whole. There's a saying: "There's nothing new up under the sun." Simply put, if there's one thing in this universe existence, that has seen all thing that mankind has done or not done, it is the sun. That means the moral dissension that taking place currently is nothing new. Historian have written about times where the moral fabric of a nation was so tattered where the only solution for change was war a destruction. This country was built and establish to be the nation it is today. By the disenfranchised, those who were being oppressed by the Queen and her fellow Aristocrats. Therefore if this country is to change once again for the better. It will begin and must begin with the actions and the voice of the disenfranchised i.e, America's minorities, poor and it's third class citizen the American Ex-felon. That being said I'm committed to "WRITING MY WRONGS..." and sewing seed of knowledge and truth that will blossom into peace, prosperity and positive change
Writing Contact:
DEMOND JACKSON #05934-088
FCI Victorville Medium II
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
PO BOX 3850
ADELANTO, CA 92301