Relentless Pursuit of Truth

Washington, DC (TLS). In today's criminal justice system, it is important to approach allegations with a few simple yet profound adages.

First, hold everything up to question.

Second, things are often not as they appear to be.

Third, when facing a mob mentality, take the opposite view to flesh out the truth.

Fourth, never assume that an arrest is to be equated with guilt.

Five, if something doesn't make sense, trust your gut and assume that something is amiss.

Six, constantly question your own motives and assumptions.

Seven, always be ready to recognize and correct your own errors.

Eight, always go where the truth leads, even if it leads to the unthinkable.

In the years 2000-2002, former Governor Ryan of Illinois began to notice some disturbing trends in the state's criminal justice system. Although as a state legislator, Ryan had been a law-and-order, pro-capital punishment zealot, as Governor he noticed some glaring discrepancies that were troubling.

For one thing, the state's attorneys seemed to be displaying an alarming cavalier attitude in the aggressive prosecution of citizens who appeared to be easy targets with little means of defending themselves. In short, Illinois was going after poor minorities in disproportionate numbers.

Further, the vast majority of these poor minorities were being found guilty and sent up for lengthy prison terms or winding up on death row.

A bit of personal investigation on Ryan's part revealed even more disturbing information. The evidence in a significant number of these cases was purely circumstantial and subject to an astute attorney's objections. The problem was that most of these particular cases had been tried by public defenders who simply let these glaring lapses pass by unquestioned.

And then came the most damaging information of all. DNA testing, which was at the time coming of age in forensic science, had shown several prisoners on death row to be totally innocent of the charges. These men were immediately set free.

Governor Ryan was so disturbed by all of these facts that he announced an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in the state of Illinois until a full investigation could be conducted into the practices and protocol of the state judicial system.

In all over 20 human beings sitting on death row were found to be innocent of the charges when DNA evidence was tested and presented.

What does this tell us about our criminal justice system in America?

It is not perfect, that's for sure. Mistakes are made, sometimes innocently due to nothing more than sheer human error.

Much of the time, however, a more sinister process is at work involving overly-zealous prosecutors who want to rack up the 'wins.' This win-lose mentality spills over to the officers who investigate and charge persons with crimes. The entire system begins to judge itself solely on the basis of the percentage of convictions per arrests. It becomes a numbers game like a baseball team racking up wins and losses based upon the number of convictions it gets out of the arrests made.

This mentality totally disregards truth and justice.

The result in Illinois was that scores of human beings were arrested, tried, and convicted by the courts and by juries, and sent to prison and to death row. The only problem was that a significant number of these persons were innocent.

And most of them were black.

My point is that in the pursuit of truth, one must cast aside all assumptions and question everything, particularly the 'party line' provided by law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys. This is not showing any disrespect. If they are truly engaged in the pursuit of truth, they will not mind being questioned and held up to doubt.

The mob mentality must always be held up to suspicion, merely because mobs tend to feed off of frenzy. There is a good reason why blacks in the South came to fear lynch mobs. The nature of the mob mentality is that reason is thrown out the window and pure emotion takes over. The result is that innocent black persons were sent to their deaths, hanging by a rope.

Black persons today can perpetuate a mob mentality that is every bit as dangerous as KKK lynchings in the past. We saw it in Durham, and we see vestiges of it in Clinton. While the end result is not a white person hanging from a rope in the woods, the mob of today has the criminal justice system do its dirty work by using corrupt politicians who will hang an innocent person out to dry, all in the attempt to appease certain groups for political gain.

This behavior is abhorrent and is to be condemned.

Having said these things, we must remember that truth often leads us down roads where there are big surprises. Over 20 black men in Illinois that were vilified, accused, condemned, and given up to be executed were found innocent when ALL the evidence was considered.

This means that many state's attorneys were forced to recant their vitriolic words used to convict these innocent human beings. And what about the juries who were sure these men were guilty?

Sometimes even those we are 100% sure are innocent turn out to have secret lives hidden from view. The Liberty Sphere is prepared to accept and admit our mistakes in those incidents. But we will never cease the relentless pursuit of truth, even in the midst of overwhelming odds.

At times a reporter, an investigator, an attorney must 'go with their gut.' There are times when your gut tells you something just isn't right when a unanimous chorus all around claims it has the truth. I learned a long time ago to go with my gut. When my gut instinct tells me something isn't right, then a thousand Huns with swords can't force me to believe that all is well.

If I am wrong, I will admit it. But if I am right, one innocent human being on the brink of ruin is worth facing down a mountain of opposition.

To my way of thinking, the absolute worst thing that can happen to a human being in this life is to be falsely accused, charged, and convicted, and having the entire community believe you are the devil incarnate, in spite of the simple fact that you are innocent. If I can prevent that from happening to one innocent human being, then I will consider my efforts a success.