Monday, March 3, 2014

USA - We All Have Rights

OFF THE WIRE
By CopBlock
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