New York Detective Helped Convict the Innocent

On June 22, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/retired_nyc_homicide_detective_investigated_for_misconduct_wrongful_convictions_partner/

This officer’s work apparently involved railroading the innocent with the full cooperation of a number of prosecutors in more than fifty cases.
I hope you have the opportunity to work in a prosecutor’s office. I believe in justice but prosecutorial discretion is too broad and the desire not for justice but for a good “kill” ratio often outranks justice as a priority in some of these offices.
Here is an important quote from the article:

“The prosecutor’s duty to the truth arises from several sources,” Gershman wrote. “The most important source is the prosecutor’s role as a minister of justice. In this role, the prosecutor has the overriding responsibility not simply to convict the guilty but to protect the innocent. The duty to truth also derives from the prosecutor’s constitutional obligation not to use false evidence or to suppress material evidence favorable to the defendant. The duty to truth also arises from various ethical strictures that require prosecutors to have confidence in the truth of the evidence before bringing or maintaining criminal charges. The duty is found as well in the prosecutor’s domination of the criminal justice system and his virtual monopoly of the fact-finding process.”

This quote parallels my views on the subject. Justice is not equal to God but stands high in its importance to morality and a life worth living.

Please read the full article.

James Pilant

From around the web:

From the web site, TOT Private Consulting –

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2013/03/nypd-detective-who-got-innocent-man.html

The NYPD detective whose corner-cutting investigative work, combined with a community’s blood lust for quick justice, put an apparently innocent man in prison for 23 years insists he’s being scapegoated by the very district attorney who pushed for the conviction.

“They threw me under the bus,” Louis Scarcella told The Post yesterday after DA Charles Hynes indicated he’d asked a judge to vacate David Ranta’s conviction, more than two decades after Ranta was found guilty of murdering a prominent rabbi in Williamsburg.

“I was appalled when I got the news,” the retired cop said outside his Staten Island home. “I stand by the confession 100 percent. I never framed anyone in my life. You have to be a low devil to frame someone. I sleep well at night.”

While Scarcella was sleeping, Ranta, 58, was languishing in a Buffalo prison, convicted of the February 1990 murder of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger after a botched jewelry heist in the Orthodox Jewish community.

From the web site, General Strike –

http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/david-ranta-convicted-more-than-20-years-ago-for-a-murder-he-didnt-commit-is-a-free-man-after-a-re-examination-of-his-case/

An ‘overwhelmed’ David Ranta left prison with a small bag of belongings and family members ecstatic to see him outside of his cell. His conviction began to fall apart when it was revealed that case detectives used questionable tactics in his case, including coaching witnesses.

An innocent man was sprung from prison Thursday — more than 20 years after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a beloved Brooklyn rabbi.

David Ranta, 58, could barely contain his excitement, smiling broadly at relatives who hadn’t seen him as a free man since his 1991 conviction. Ranta was found guilty of shooting Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in a botched jewelry heist in Williamsburg.

The conviction crumbled after a year-long investigation revealed case detectives coached witnesses, did not keep notes and gave incentives to felons who provided information.

And from the web site, From the Trenches –

http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/who-protects-new-yorkers-from-the-nypd/44295

Heyward is not alone in his suspicion of foul play in Hynes executions of justice. The DA has recently come under great scrutiny for spending years refusing to review convictions that he and his predecessor obtained through working with a homicide detective of such dubious repute. Last week, the Hynes office was forced to reopen 50 cases in which NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella was involved, after the Times uncovered that he obtained false confessions, lied, and relied on testimony from a single, crack-addicted prostitute to obtain a number of convictions. While families of those convicted through Scarlla’s police plan to start bird-dogging Hynes, others, like Heyward, have vowed to win justice for those they will never see again.

“It doesn’t matter how long I have to be out here fighting and exposing the reality of what happened. I’m going to keep at it,” said Heyward who believes there is a clear conflict of interest between New York City’s DAs and the NYPD since they are both on the same side of the law. “When cops are involved, it’s like district attorneys forget how to prosecute.”

“I’m overwhelmed,” Ranta said outside a courtroom in downtown Brooklyn, carrying a purple laundry bag with all his belongings. “Right now, I feel like I’m underwater, swimming.”

Smart on Crime

On May 31, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Smart on Crime

Oregon Prosecutors Vie For Reduced Drug Sentences | ThinkProgress

Increasingly, conservatives who have historically followed a “tough on crime” mantra are embracing a “smart on crime” approach that reallocates resources to move away from over-criminalization and towards more efficient, effective criminal laws. Earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed two laws that embrace alternatives to incarceration to nonviolent drug and property offenders, and eliminate jail time for juveniles who merely misbehave. And ten bipartisan members of Congress have formed a committee devoted to over-criminalization.

Oregon Prosecutors Vie For Reduced Drug Sentences | ThinkProgress

A few years ago, it was not clear whether or not America’s preoccupation with long prison sentences for even minor crimes would even be possible of change. But now, there is a definite away from such policies as “three strikes,” etc. It is one of the most historically important changes in the history of criminal justice in the United States.

Over the past forty years, we went from a nation that relied much more heavily on rehabilitation to a nation with the highest incarceration in the world. That high incarceration emasculated state budgets causing cuts in all kinds of traditional services and made it impossible for states to deal with long term problems like deteriorating infrastructure.

I am delighted that these policies are changing. The freed up human potential and the enormous sums of money available because of these changes will make American a better place to live.

James Pilant

Austerians Create Unemployment

On May 11, 2013May 30, 2014 By southwerkIn Economic Justice

Austerians Create Unemployment

Austerity Has Cost The U.S. Economy 2.2 Million Jobs: Study

Austerian doctrine states that if we can get the deficit down even during periods of economic slowdown and massive unemployment, we shall see an economic upturn. So far this hasn’t happened anywhere on earth. (There are some claims that two former states of the Soviet Union have done okay with it. I don’t believe that. If you want to, that’s okay. It’s just that I don’t go to the former Soviet Union for my economic data.)

But they have managed to move the economy. Their philosophy has resulted in the destruction of 2.2 million jobs and that’s only in the United States. Ideas move the world, and here we have solid evidence that bad ideas can move the world in the wrong direction.

James Pilant

The Real Cost of Austerity

Live in Prison Everywhere?

On May 11, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Live in Prison Everywhere?

Why does Norway have a 21-year maximum prison sentence?

There are essentially five goals of sentencing: retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, restoration, and rehabilitation. The last of these, rehabilitation, is probably one of the most controversial. In the U.S., for example, rehabilitation is considered a secondary goal, after retribution. Americans want their prisoners punished first and rehabilitated second.

This appeals to a societal sense of justice and fair play that has considerable cultural inertia in our country. Any talk of prioritizing rehabilitation ahead of retribution very typically generates complaints about how doing so will endanger public safety, ignore the needs of crime victims, and—most damning of all—coddle criminals.Never mind that certain forms of rehabilitation have been shown through research to reduce the risk of future offending, we want our pound of flesh first and foremost.

The same is not true the world over, though. Norway, by contrast, has a very progressive approach to sentencing that prioritizes rehabilitation as a primary strategy for reducing future criminal behavior. That doesn’t mean they don’t use prisons, it just means that the conditions of confinement are geared toward reducing the risk that an offender will return to a life of crime after release

Why does Norway have a 21-year maximum prison sentence?

As the author well notes, not everyone shares American’s passion for punishment. As I often tell my students, one of the reasons we should become familiar with other cultures is that any system that has functioned successfully over a long period of time has to have some good ideas, and every culture needs thought renewal and the occasional shake up to develop. This is one of those ideas that deserves examination.

James Pilant

Employers Living a Fantasy?

On April 30, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Employers Living a Fantasy?

Low-Wage Workers Feel Worse Off Now Than During Recession: Survey

The survey revealed that many people at the lowest rung in the workplace view their jobs as a dead end. Half were “not too” or “not at all” confident that their jobs would help them achieve long-term career goals. And only 41 percent of workers at the same place for more than a decade reported ever receiving a promotion.

Yet 44 percent of employers surveyed said it’s hard to recruit people with appropriate skills or experiences to do lower-wage jobs, particularly in manufacturing (54 percent). While 88 percent of employers said they were investing in training and education for employee advancement, awareness and use of such programs among the lower-wage workers was only modest.

Although President Barack Obama made it a national goal to “equip our citizens with the skills and training” to compete for good jobs, the survey shows a U.S. workforce that has grown increasingly polarized, with workers and their bosses seeing many things differently.

Seventy-two percent of employers at big companies and 58 percent at small ones say there is a “great deal” or “some” opportunity for worker advancement. But, asked the same question, 67 percent of all low-wage workers said they saw “a little” or “no opportunity” at their jobs for advancement.

Low-Wage Workers Feel Worse Off Now Than During Recession: Survey

Time for a Legal Revolution

On April 26, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion1 Comment

Time for a Legal Revolution

Public defender system struggles under huge caseloads | McClatchy

Anyone who’s ever been arrested or watched a television cop show knows the fundamental right Gideon helped win for every American:

“If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you.”

But this month, the 50th anniversary of that landmark Supreme Court ruling, here in Gideon’s home state and elsewhere around the country, the criminal justice system continues to struggle to live up to the promise demanded by the Supreme Court in 1963.

“The truth is we clearly haven’t,” said Abe Krash, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who helped represent Gideon in his Supreme Court case. “In public defender offices, there are many extremely conscientious attorneys, but they are tremendously underfunded and overburdened.”

A 2011 report by the Justice Policy Institute found that most of the country’s public defender offices and systems lacked enough attorneys to meet nationally established caseload guidelines. Also, the report found that most defender offices did not have sufficient support staff, such as investigators and paralegals.

“When defenders do not have access to sufficient resources, they may be unable to interview key witnesses, collect or test physical evidence, or generally prepare and provide quality defense for their client, resulting in poorer outcomes for the client,” according to the institute’s report.

Public defender system struggles under huge caseloads | McClatchy

The United States and The Imprisonment Rate by William Denton

On April 24, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

(Originally put up on May 24, 2012 – now reissued!)

It is my privilege to present my colleague, William Denton. Some days ago he showed me this article and I was very impressed. He has very kindly offered to share it with my readers. It is my pleasure to present the work of our guest columnist, William Denton.

James Pilant

The United States and The imprisonment Rate

By: William Denton

America is known throughout the world as a place of freedom, where anyone has the chance to do and become whatever their heart desires also referred to as “The American Dream.” America is considered home to approximately 5 percent of the world’s population, although America is known for its many attributes and liberties it holds 23 percent of the world’s prison population making the United States the highest prison populated country in the world, (“Wikipedia, 2012). Our prison rate along with our continuous dilemma of overcrowding prisons can be attributed to our enacted draconian laws that make any chance of success to reduce our prison rate and subsequently alleviating our over-crowded prisons impossible. In a 2009 statistical study 754 per 100,000 American Citizens are incarcerated. In the previous year, “a report released in February 2008, indicates that more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison,” (“Wikipedia, 2012).

Each U.S. state is responsible for the United States ranking 1^st in the world for its high incarceration rate. However, when examined individually each state incarceration rate can vary from 854 per 100,000 to 151 per 100,000 citizens, (“Wikipedia,” 2012). The infamous three strike laws and the mandatory minimum sentencing have caused the explosive increase in the incarceration rate nationwide, leaving each to implement methods if any, to alleviate the growing issue of their overcrowded prisons. Some will argue that a state with a higher incarceration rate compared to a state with a lower incarceration rate is due to the state that has the highest and lowest crime rate. Although that can be an arguable point it still doesn’t explain why for example Louisiana incarceration rate is 854 per 100,000 citizens and other states have incarceration rates anywhere from 151-300 per 100,000 citizens, (“Wikipedia,” 2012). Another aspect that is irrelevant into claiming why one state has a higher incarceration rate than another is because of the state’s population which is going to subsequently have a higher crime rate. We know that Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate, but ranks 25^th for population, while New York ranks 3^rd for highest population and is ranked 37^th for incarceration rate at 307 per 100,000 citizens, (“Wikipedia,” 2012). The population of a state and crime can be determining factors of a states incarceration rate, however, other factors that have remarkable results in having low incarceration rates are the states who have sufficient “parole and probation programs; diversion programs, increasing good-time programs for people incarcerated, and sentencing reforms for non-violent offenders,” (Morris, 2009). Without any implementations to reduce the incarceration rate states will continue to have these unnecessary draconian numbers.

The United States compared to Russia who holds 2^nd place for incarceration rates, followed by South Africa ranked 3^rd and Europe who ranked 4^th is still substantially higher than the runners up. Russia who has a 611 per 100,000 people incarceration rate compared to the United States is a 134 per 100,000 differences. That difference alone is substantially higher than that of many other nations worldwide. The state of Louisiana who again has an 854 per 100,000 incarceration rate is higher than our nation’s current imprisonment rate and every other nation worldwide, (“Wikipedia, 2012). Although there are multifarious reasons along with speculations of why America has the highest incarceration rate, two factors are true today. Reason one being that American citizens are “being locked up from writing bad checks to using drugs that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries,” (Liptak, 2008). The second reason being the American Citizen is “kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners of other nations,” (Liptak, 2008).

In my opinion only, I think American Law has gotten to the point of everything being political correct and that anyone who commits a crime has to be punished no matter what the crime is. These draconian drugs laws are really the culprits that are responsible for the major increase in our prison population and overcrowding. The majority of inmates incarcerated today are for non-violent drug offenses that initially when these laws were enacted during the “War on Drugs” campaign where to mainly target the producers and distributors of the drug trade not the additive customers that are being sentenced today. As a result of these laws still in effect, although the violent crime rate is decreasing in the country, prison population is still increasing. I think that is how we stand above all other nations in the incarceration rate because of our drug laws, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three-strike laws. As I mentioned above, writing bad checks to drug offenses are rarely imprisonment punishments in other countries, and our country has longer prison sentences that contribute overcrowded prisons. We are punishing for offenses that probably could be resolved through other forms of punishment that does not have to do with imprisonment just like other countries.

I am completely against our statics involving our imprisonment rate and the number of incarcerated inmates we currently have. There are a couple states that have a higher imprisonment rate than actual countries throughout the world. These statics need to be pounded into someone’s head and take a hint of what reformalities we need to reduce these harsh rates. These enacted three-strike rules and mandatory minimum sentences, and all other harshly related drug laws need to change. They are ruining lives, in lieu of helping people and destroying families for what? Nothing. Drugs are an addictive substance that people need help to reform, so putting these non-violent offenders in overcrowded prisons is not going to rectify the problem, but going to make it worse. I feel like we are wasting our money for no positive gains when it comes to incarcerating offenders for drug offenses and other minor crimes that can be solved in another form of punishment. Are American laws are in desperate need for reform.

REFERENCES

Liptak, A. (2008). U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht23prison.12253738.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Morris, T. (2009). Louisianan’s Incarceration rate is No. 1 in nation. Retrieve March 17, 2012, from

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/louisianas_incarceration_rate.html

Wikipedia. (2012). Incarceration rates worldwide. Retrieved March 16, 2012, From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Incarceration_rates_worldwide.gif

Wikipedia. (2012). List of U.S. States and Territories by population. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population

Wikipedia. (2012). List of U.S. States by incarceration rate. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_incarceration_rate

Extreme sentence in warning shot case drawing more criticisms of mandatory minimums (sentencing.typepad.com)
Mandatory minimums require federal drug defendant’s sentence of life + five more years in prison (sentencing.typepad.com)
Prison overcrowding puts system in trouble (kfor.com)
Dan Froomkin: If Prison Is the Disease, Not the Cure, How Do You Treat It? (huffingtonpost.com)
Continued great reporting on the toughest state in incarceration nation (sentencing.typepad.com)
Must-read: “Louisiana Incarcerated: How we built the world’s prison capital” (prisonmovement.wordpress.com)
Ana Kasparian explains how Louisiana sheriffs are motivated to incarcerate (rawstory.com)
Woman gets 20 years for firing warning shot (newsok.com)

Corn Syrup Kills

On April 24, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Corn Syrup Kills

Big Soda: We’re not mass killers – Salon.com

Harvard researchers have found that over-consumption of sodas and sugary drinks may be linked to 180,000 worldwide deaths a year. The report, released Tuesday, also notes the studied beverages contribute to about 25,000 American deaths a year, placing the country third overall.

The report, unveiled during an American Heart Association meeting, links sugar-sweetened beverages to “133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 6,000 cancer deaths” a year. The study’s co-author, Gitanjali Singh, also recommended regulations to curb the intake of sugary drinks, specifying that “taxing sugary drinks in the same way as cigarettes, or limiting advertising or access, may help reduce usage.”

Big Soda: We’re not mass killers – Salon.com

Prison Population is Falling

On April 23, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Prison Population is Falling

The Washington Monthly – Ten Miles Square – Why The Prison Population is Falling

The number of people incarcerated went up every single year from the mid 1970s until 2009. Over that more than 30 year period, there have been economic booms and contractions, changes in the relative strength of the major political parties, alterations in the demographic makeup of the US general population, the waxing and waning of drug epidemics, and countless other changes in American life. What that should tell us is that any simple explanation for why America has the prison policy it does at any given time is wrong or at least incomplete.

Pew notes that over the past 5 years, incarceration fell in 29 states (ruling out another simple explanation: that this is all due to the court order to reduce overcrowding in California prisons). …

The Washington Monthly – Ten Miles Square – Why The Prison Population is Falling

An American Dream

On April 14, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

An American Dream

High-speed trains in the United States: Is Alfred Twu’s fantasy map too fantastical? – Slate Magazine

Last month, graphic designer and railroad aficionado Alfred Twu published a stunning map of what America would look like if virtually every last nook and cranny of the country were connected by a state-of-the-art, 220-mph rail network. Twu’s plan for a national high-speed rail system could get passengers from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Albany, N.Y., in just under 12 hours. It captured an old-school patriotic longing among young tech-savvy Americans for big, prestige projects with a design that was elegant in its simplicity. Online media outlets described Twu as a “visionary.” “This Is What America’s High-Speed Rail System Should Look Like” was one typically glowing headline.

Some conservatives had a different description for Twu and his map. “High-speed rail supporter Alfred Twu has gotten a lot of attention for having boldly drawn a map of where he thinks high-speed trains should go,” wrote Randal O’Toole of the libertarian Cato Institute. “Twu’s map is even more absurd than Obama’s plan,” he wrote, describing the map, and high-speed rail in general, as a “ridiculous fantasy.”

O’Toole’s reaction demonstrated one of the principal reasons why American high-speed rail has been mostly stymied: One person’s beautiful vision of the future is another’s terrifying government boondoggle. The Obama plan to use $8 billion in stimulus money as a carrot to get states to invest in high-speed rail went down in flames two years ago. It failed largely because Republican governors in states such as Florida rejected federal funds. But if there were some way to get beyond partisan politics and legal battles over right-of-way issues, what would an ideally efficient map of an American high-speed rail system actually look like?

High-speed trains in the United States: Is Alfred Twu’s fantasy map too fantastical? – Slate Magazine