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Coming in October From Common Courage Press Today's Stories September 2, 2003 Paul de Rooij Predictable Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation Recent Stories August 30 / Sept. 1, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Handmaiden in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall of the UN Saul Landau Schwarzenegger and Cuban Migration Standard Schaefer Who Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson Gary Leupp Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial William S. Lind Send the Neocons to Baghdad Augustin Velloso Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey Jorge Mariscal The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante John Ross A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power Mickey Z. War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler Elaine Cassel Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts Stan Cox Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun Tom and Judy Turnipseed Take Back Your Time Day Adam Engel The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY Adam Engel An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine Susan Davis Northfork, an Accidental Review Nicholas Rowe Dance and the Occupation Mark Zepezauer Operation Candor Poets' Basement Albert, Guthrie and Hamod Website of the Weekend Downhill Battle   August 29, 2003 Lenni Brenner God and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party Brian Cloughley When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off Alice Slater Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity David Krieger What Victory? Marjorie Cohn The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International Law Richard Glen Boire Saying Yes to Drugs! Bister, Estrin and Jacobs Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters Give Their Views Website of the Day DirtyBush   August 28, 2003 Gilad Atzmon The Most Common Mistakes of Israelis David Vest Moore's Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution David Lindorff Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed Chris Floyd Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War Wayne Madsen Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum" Elaine Cassel Not Clueless in Chicago Stan Goff Nukes in the Dark Tariq Ali Occupied Iraq Will Never Know Peace Arnold Schwarzenegger Behold, My Package Website of the Day Palestinian Artists August 27, 2003 Bruce Jackson Little Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq John Feffer Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution Dave Riley an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War Lacey Phillabaum Bush's Holy War in the Forests Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Website of the Day The Dean Deception August 26, 2003 Robert Fisk Smearing the Dead David Lindorff The Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate Sarmad S. Ali Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner Christopher Brauchli Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists Juliana Fredman Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints and a Palestinian Madonna Larry Siems Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala Elaine Cassel Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers! Saul Landau Bush: a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure? Congratulations to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD   August 25, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Israeli Outlaws in America David Bacon In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime Thomas P. Healy The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out Norman Madarasz In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the Iraq Invasion Salvador Peralta The Politics of Focus Groups Jack McCarthy Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer? Uri Avnery A Drug for the Addict   August 23/24, 2003 Forrest Hylton Rumsfeld Does Bogota Robert Fisk The Cemetery at Basra Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Insults to Intelligence Andrew C. Long Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor Jeremy Bigwood The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful Fungus Jeffrey St. Clair Forest or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon Cynthia McKinney Bring the Troops Home, Now! David Krieger So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary of 9/11 Julie Hilden A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield Dave Lindorff Marketplace Medicine Standard Schaefer Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and Free Speech Catherine Dong Kucinich and FirstEnergy José Tirado History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It? Ron Jacobs Springsteen's America Gavin Keeney The Infernal Machine Adam Engel A Fan's Notations William Mandel Five Great Indie Films Walt Brasch An American Frog Fable Poets' Basement Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam Website of the Weekend The Hutton Inquiry   August 22, 2003 Carole Harper Post-Sandinista Nicaragua John Chuckman George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity Richard Thieme Operation Paperclip Revisited Chris Floyd Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law? Issam Nashashibi Palestinians and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey Mary Walworth Other People's Kids Ron Jacobs The Darkening Tunnel Website of the Day Current Energy August 21, 2003 Robert Fisk The US Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing Virginia Tilley The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War? Rep. Henry Waxman Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq Ben Terrall War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps on the Wrists Elaine Cassel Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show Christopher Brauchli Getting Gouged by Banks Marjorie Cohn Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq? Vicente Navarro Media Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush Website of the Day The Intelligence Squad Hot Stories Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From William Blum Myth and Denial in the War on Terrorism Standard Schaefer Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

September 2, 2003   Innocent, But Guilty When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong By ELAINE CASSEL Recently I exchanged emails with CounterPuncher Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture at SUNY Buffalo and editor of The Buffalo Report. We were communicating about the use of narrative in court trials. I shared with him my belief that the prosecution and the defense put forth the best "story," or version of the facts, that will convince a jury either to convict or acquit. Sometimes the "right" story wins--and justice is done. Just as often, I believe, the "wrong" story prevails, and innocent people are convicted. Given this adversarial system that puts the lawyers in charge of the evidence that the jury hears, it is no surprise that guilty people are acquitted and innocent people convicted. The availability of sophisticated DNA tests had been expected to bring factual accuracy to criminal trials. DNA tests, in some cases, can rule out a suspect as the perpetrator. But, ironically, DNA testing, which has led to the release of scores of people from prison, even death row, is becoming a victim of its own success. Prosecutors are sick of releasing people based on DNA tests that tend to exonerate them. So what are they doing? As reported in an editorial in The New York Times, they are doing whatever they can to keep those exonerated in prison or retry them without the DNA evidence. Ignorantly, some prosecutors point to eyewitnesses who can "swear" they saw the victim "do it," this in spite of extensive research about eyewitnesses testimony that shows it to be among the least reliable of courtroom evidence. The Department of Justice even went so far as to write guidelines for the use of eyewitnesses evidence, which, if adhered to, would reduce the number of falsely accused and convicted persons. These guidelines are not, sad to say, mandatory. And prosecutors loathe to free an innocent person will scour around for someone willing to swear they saw the accused "do it." Some states make prosecutors' jobs easy by having an extremely limited time period within which a convict can bring up evidence of innocence. Virginia has a 21-day rule that guarantees that no one can have his day in court to present new exculpatory evidence. Such evidence is often not available for years. Convicts have no access to physical evidence used against them; few have the money to afford legal counsel and the DNA tests themselves. If the 4th (unreasonable searches and seizures), 5th (due process of law), 8th (prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment) and 14th (equal protection of the laws) amendments to the Constitution mean anything, they mean that our system ought to do anything within its power to keep innocent people from being found "guilty" and locked away or executed. It is a disgraceful state of affairs when prosecutors vow to do all they can to keep innocent people behind bars. When they prefer convictions to justice, and finality--even if dead wrong--to truth.   Weekend Edition Features for August 30 / Sept. 1, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Handmaiden in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall of the UN Saul Landau Schwarzenegger and Cuban Migration Standard Schaefer Who Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson Gary Leupp Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial William S. Lind Send the Neocons to Baghdad Augustin Velloso Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey Jorge Mariscal The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante John Ross A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power Mickey Z. War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler Elaine Cassel Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts Stan Cox Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun Tom and Judy Turnipseed Take Back Your Time Day Adam Engel The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY Adam Engel An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine Susan Davis Northfork, an Accidental Review Nicholas Rowe Dance and the Occupation Mark Zepezauer Operation Candor Poets' Basement Albert, Guthrie and Hamod Website of the Weekend Downhill Battle     Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /