How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life • Hacker News Board

Re: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

#81

Post by arrrg » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 6:19 PM UTC

csmuk wrote: post #55

arrrg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand punishment-crazy people. His career was destroyed. That seems like a large enough disincentive to me. I cannot imagine that worse punishment would lead to better outcomes. It seems to me rather that if you want to fight this you should look elsewhere. Punishing this person harder doesn’t seem like a solution to me.

I'm suggesting that he needs to be accountable on his own terms for his actions and should be held to the same standards as his judgement. It's not a big deal for him as a prosecutor. Perhaps it'll be uncomfortable for a bit but the real story is: $500 fine. Acceptable risk. 500 hours community service. Acceptable risk. Struck off... Acceptable risk. Why? His career was certainly not destroyed. He can quite happily f…

Acceptable risk? How far removed from reality are you? The punishment he received seems quite horrific and life-destroying to me. Two months wages for withholding tax is acceptable. Losing your career? Not.

I’m pretty sure that if prosecutors knew that they will be punished like that and if they knew that punishment is somewhat likely they would rather not do it.

Consistency and a high detection rate seem like the most promising ways to improve this, not the severity of the punishment.

But Americans are obsessed with their draconian punishment. Nothing new here.

Re: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

#82

Post by jwdunne » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 7:26 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #9

jwdunne wrote: post #5

Why is it possible for either side to withhold evidence? Why is all evidence not put on a table for both sides to dissect? Genuine questions. Currently it seems like a competition. This isn't competitive ground, as much as I see lawyers essentially competing over number of clears/convictions. This is about people's lives!

Evidence isn't conjured into existence by the judge and then withheld by lawyers. It's discovered by the lawyers. It's not a logical possibility to prevent them from failing to bring it to everyone else's attention.

I always thought the police gather evidence? I remember from my own interactions the police are always present. This is in the UK where processes may be much different...

Re: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

#83

Post by jessaustin » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 8:16 PM UTC

I'm not sure about heaven, but American prosecuting attorneys are one reason I believe in hell.

Re: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

#84

Post by csmuk » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:31 PM UTC

arrrg wrote: post #81

csmuk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm suggesting that he needs to be accountable on his own terms for his actions and should be held to the same standards as his judgement. It's not a big deal for him as a prosecutor. Perhaps it'll be uncomfortable for a bit but the real story is: $500 fine. Acceptable risk. 500 hours community service. Acceptable risk. Struck off... Acceptable risk. Why? His career was certainly not destroyed. He can quite happily f…

Acceptable risk? How far removed from reality are you? The punishment he received seems quite horrific and life-destroying to me. Two months wages for withholding tax is acceptable. Losing your career? Not. I’m pretty sure that if prosecutors knew that they will be punished like that and if they knew that punishment is somewhat likely they would rather not do it. Consistency and a high detection rate seem like the mo…

Actually I'm in the UK.

His career is not lost. This is a minor setback. If you've ever worked in corporate law departments, you'll find lots of struck off legal professionals.

They still play golf on the same courses, still get paid the same. Their little empires just move.

Re: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

#85

Post by ghshephard » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 4:24 AM UTC

aestra wrote: post #35

ghshephard wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also curious as to how many innocent americans are executed. Given the huge number of Prisoners who have been on death row and exonerated, there must have been quite a few in the past prior to technologies like DNA testing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution Note - this doesn't even include those who were innocent, but not provably so.

Not too too many. There aren't very many executions in the US, is is losing popularity in public opinion and not practiced in all states. However, it is legal for federal crimes and military courts. For example, New York had a death penalty in 1995 that was never used and declared unconstitutional in 2004. Since the death row has been disbanded by executive order and it is unlikely executions will ever take place in…

The hope was that in recent history, far fewer people had been executed, particularly as technology, and better knowledge of what types of evidence stand up to scrutiny has improved.

I was more pondering, how many people in the past have been executed wrongly by the united states.

A quick google search suggests that 14,634 were executed in the period 1608-1987. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions.php