How Innocent Is the Innocence Project?

You know how sometimes things just really don't pass the smell test? You can't prove your hunches, but things just don't add up, too many coincidences, too many impossible-to-beleive things. Tonight the TV series "Dateline" miked for all it was worth the "sad" story of Ryan Ferguson who was convicted of murder when his accomplice testified against him at his trial. Well, of course, to the rescue, a lawyer shows up who specializes in helping convicted criminals get off. They made a big point of saying this lawyer took the case pro bono. There have been many of these cases lately..... too many. Here's the part that just doesn't pass the smell test. An irrational number of them have succeeded in getting really bad people exonerated. The Innocence Project's own web site puts the number at more than 300 since they started their business in 1992. An astounding number, given the biases that already are built into our systems to prevent truly innocent people from getting convicted in the first place. Yet in spite of those measures, these public-spirited lawyers would have us believe that the judges, juries, prosecutors, and all others involved in the original trials got it completely wrong. Sorry, doesn't pass the smell test.

Nobody is saying that law enforcement officials never make mistakes, but far too many have been overturned since the "Innocence Project" started snooping into old, settled cases and getting them reversed by casting doubt on DNA evidence. Many times, the witnesses who testified at the original trials are no longer available, or are now sympathetic to the convict since they "have served enough time." Maybe the biggest factor in these pro bono cases is money. How can money play a role if the cases are taken by the lawyers without requiring a fee? They simply sue the pants off the municipalities, courts, police departments (read tax payers) and anyone else they can think off. Of course the lawyers take a large cut from the proceeds of the lawsuits they win. They are hardly dispassionate, heroic onlookers who are just trying to right wrongs. They're in it for the money. Millions and millions of taxpayer dollars.

Fortunately, the judge in the Ryan Ferguson case wasn't buying the "recanted" testimony of the star witness and Ferguson's conviction was upheld. Of course, the lawyers trying to get him off and reap a huge windfall from so doing, are going to appeal. Here's hoping they fail, and fail again and wind up losing money for their efforts.