"Science does not trump the testimony of individuals"

[actualfactual]

"The scientific evidence conclusively proves that this man is innocent," clinic codirector David Moran said of Vinson, a former Detroiter who has spent 25 years in prison.

Moran said Vinson, 56, is the victim of a flawed forensic test and that more recent tests rule him out as a suspect.

But the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office opposes the request because the girl identified Vinson as her attacker.

"Science does not trump the testimony of individuals," Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Marilyn Eisenbraun said in court documents. She wouldn't discuss the case.

Full article @ Prosecutor dismisses new science, defends rape conviction of Detroit man imprisoned for 25 years

Reading this makes me sick.. eyewitness testimony is notoriously shoddy and I think this is prosecutorial misconduct.

 

[ewok]

That's crazy, but that's how the injustice system works.

 

[SWIMfriend]

When considering the rather LARGE number of people imprisoned for serious crimes (and even on death row) who have been found UTTERLY INNOCENT by DNA analysis (and considering that cases that involve DNA evidence aren't necessarily a HUGE proportion of all cases), it becomes a certainty that MANY MANY MANY people have languished in prison for MANY YEARS who have been completely innocent. It's horrible. There are WITHOUT DOUBT numerous innocent people who have been executed (given the fact that numerous people NEAR execution were only SPARED by DNA analysis, and DNA analysis is a relatively recent phenomenon).

Here's a very painful article about a guy in executed in Texas who was almost certainly completely innocent.

 

[Enoon]

There are probably many psychological studies that conclude that individual witnesses are actually completely unreliable. It's very sad that people in such responsible positions don't understand the human mind and condition better, and don't understand the need to rely on objective information to make these kind of decisions.