As the pace of DNA exonerations has
grown in recent years, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures
and trends in our criminal justice system.
These cases have shown us the criminal justice system in California is
broken and how urgently it needs to be fixed.
The numbers do not tell the real cost in
human suffering and lost lives. The
stories all have the same elements but in different combinations; negligent
attorneys, witness misidentifications, lax investigations, and a rush to
judgment by the members of law enforcement.
Herman Atkins, a resident of Riverside
spent almost twelve (12) years in prison for the rape of a woman during a
robbery in 1986 before he was finally released due to results of DNA testing. In 1996 Kevin Baruxes was convicted of a rape
in San Diego County and served seven and a half (7-1/2) years of a life
sentence before the was exonerated faulty eye witness testimony. Arvind Balu
lost eight (8) years of his life convicted of a gang rape he never committed. He
was finally released after the eye witness testimony was false.
These men, however, are the “lucky”
ones. They finally received justice. How
many more men are still serving time in California prisons for wrongful
convictions? How much of your taxpayer money is used each year to house and
feed these people? Those who have been exonerated by DNA testing are few
compared to the citizens who have been wrongfully convicted in recent decades. For every case that involves DNA evidence,
there are thousands that do not. Only a
fraction of criminal cases involve biological evidence that can be subjected to
DNA testing. Even when such evidence
exists, it is often lost or destroyed after the conviction which greatly
reduces any chance of prevailing at or ever winning an appeal. Without it, wrongfully convicted citizens
have a slim chance of ever proving their innocence.
I have spent the last thirty (30) years
in prison for crimes I did not commit because the evidence in my case was “routinely
destroyed”. My negligent trial attorney failed
to serve the LAPD with the court order to have the forensic evidence
preserved. It may be a good idea for the
evidence to be “routinely” preserved at least until ALL appeals have been
exhausted. Had it been a practice to preserve evidence, I would be a free man
today!
What is even more troubling is that the
State Appellate Court refused my request to collect and test the saliva from
one of the victims even while knowing my attorney had been negligent, that
there was conflicting witness testimony, no physical evidence that implicated
me, and that the same type of crimes continued at the same locale after I was
convicted. Citizens, BEWARE, you or
someone you love could be wrongfully accused and jailed for someone else’s
crime.
(For more information and to read court documents, see www.freebrucekanter.blogspot.com)
“These tragedies must not be compounded
by stubbornness, or arrogance or, worst of all, indifference. The more we can learn about wrongful
convictions the better we will be able to prevent them, or failing that, to
identify and correct the problem after the fact.” ~ The Innocence Project
(Note: Bruce Kanter is currently incarcerated at Avenal State Prison. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and completed the Teaching Program at California State University, Los Angeles. He had a stable job, was in a loving relationship with a young woman, had friends and family, and enjoyed life before the fateful day the LAPD knocked on his door.)
This letter appeared in the June 2013 edition of the Community Alliance (www.FresnoAlliance.org), a free publication.
