A Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) investigates and reviews convicted offenders' claims of innocence and wrongful conviction. The rules for reviewing a case are far too stringent and must be relaxed or broadened to allow more cases to qualify for being reviewed. That's the first problem.
The second problem is that a CIU only reviews cases that went to trial which is only about 3% of cases. Since about 97% of cases are resolved by plea bargains, this is where the majority of railroading innocent people, and over punishing guilty people occurs.
Currently each judges uses a colloquy to protect themselves, and police, by preventing any further review of what has transpired prior to making a plea deal. In law, a colloquy is a routine, highly formalized conversation. Usually, colloquies are the conversations among the judge and lawyers. For example, when a defendant enters into a plea bargain and the judge is supposed to verify that the defendant understands that they are waiving their right to a jury trial. But judges go further and require defendants to waive their constitutional rights to withdraw their guilty plea even if new evidence is found, or if misconduct is found among police and prosecutors. This is outrageous, and even more so because all to often, defense lawyers don't inform their clients about these drawbacks. In this manner, illegal acts to coerce a confession are buried so they can't be brought up again, ever. Again, this is a preemptive strike to prevent you from striking back should you uncover any misconduct or malfeasance that took place during the handling of your case.
Study wrongful convictions of people on death row that were eventually overturned and the inmates released. Rather than admit their mistakes, the most common response by the unscrupulous prosecutor who was responsible for the injustice has been to continue to impugn the innocent people whose lives they had ruined. Almost unanimously prosecutors have opposed retrying cases, even when evidence overwhelmingly indicated that an innocent person was sent to jail.
The criminal justice system had strayed far from the tenet of “innocent until proven guilty.” Whenever a person is accused of a crime and immediately incarcerated, chances become much higher for prosecutors to get an easy conviction, and it increases their chances of getting a false confession from a defendant who is innocent.
And that is how you build a successful career as a “tough on crime” public servant.
The second problem is that a CIU only reviews cases that went to trial which is only about 3% of cases. Since about 97% of cases are resolved by plea bargains, this is where the majority of railroading innocent people, and over punishing guilty people occurs.
Currently each judges uses a colloquy to protect themselves, and police, by preventing any further review of what has transpired prior to making a plea deal. In law, a colloquy is a routine, highly formalized conversation. Usually, colloquies are the conversations among the judge and lawyers. For example, when a defendant enters into a plea bargain and the judge is supposed to verify that the defendant understands that they are waiving their right to a jury trial. But judges go further and require defendants to waive their constitutional rights to withdraw their guilty plea even if new evidence is found, or if misconduct is found among police and prosecutors. This is outrageous, and even more so because all to often, defense lawyers don't inform their clients about these drawbacks. In this manner, illegal acts to coerce a confession are buried so they can't be brought up again, ever. Again, this is a preemptive strike to prevent you from striking back should you uncover any misconduct or malfeasance that took place during the handling of your case.
Study wrongful convictions of people on death row that were eventually overturned and the inmates released. Rather than admit their mistakes, the most common response by the unscrupulous prosecutor who was responsible for the injustice has been to continue to impugn the innocent people whose lives they had ruined. Almost unanimously prosecutors have opposed retrying cases, even when evidence overwhelmingly indicated that an innocent person was sent to jail.
The criminal justice system had strayed far from the tenet of “innocent until proven guilty.” Whenever a person is accused of a crime and immediately incarcerated, chances become much higher for prosecutors to get an easy conviction, and it increases their chances of getting a false confession from a defendant who is innocent.
And that is how you build a successful career as a “tough on crime” public servant.