OFF THE WIRE
Victor Taglia shared this post for the second portion of the Bitcoin-Fueled Content Contest.
Too often do guilty lawbreakers go free because of a technicality.
Even though I dislike it just as much as the next person, it does not
mean I do not support it, because in fact, I do. If a person’s rights
are violated, they have been violated. It does not matter who the person
is or what the person has done. People who are coerced into testimonies
should not be put in jail based on that testimony because more often
than not, those coerced testimonies are false and the person is
innocent.
In an infamous 1991 rape-murder case in Chicago, three teenage boys
were arrested for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old southwest
suburban girl. Harsh interrogation tactics were used against them and
they were ultimately coerced into signing a false confession. One boy
was told he would go home right after he signed this piece of paper.
Another was told that if he didn’t sign it, he would die in jail. In the
end each had a confession to a crime they did not commit and were
sentenced on those statements alone, even though the DNA evidence said
otherwise. Each of those men lost 27 years of his life for a crime he
did not commit.
In America, rights are everything. As long as rights are being
violated, nothing is going to happen to lawbreakers. However, there is a
way to stop innocent people from going to jail and guilty people from
getting out. Stop coercing statements and violating people’s rights! If
that were to happen, innocent men would never be put in jail and guilty
men would never be let out. But because that is not going to happen,
guilty men will keep being let out of jail on technicalities because
even though what they did was wrong, their rights were still violated
and that will not be tolerated.
Story mentioned above:
90 minutes video – http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicago-the-false-confession-capital/5/
Innocentproject.org article – http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Three_Men_from_Cook_County_Illinois_Exonerated_of_1991_Rape_and_Murder_Exonerations_of_Two_Others_to_Follow.php
Victor Taglia
