For those who may still wonder why some of us insist on calling it the “criminal LEGAL system,” not “justice.” DAs pressure a man to plead guilty to a rape they already KNEW HE DID NOT COMMIT, withholding the DNA they KNEW exonerated him. 13 YEARS in prison. My GOD. - ThreadSky

johnpfaff.bsky.social • 132 days ago

For those who may still wonder why some of us insist on calling it the “criminal LEGAL system,” not “justice.”

DAs pressure a man to plead guilty to a rape they already KNEW HE DID NOT COMMIT, withholding the DNA they KNEW exonerated him.

13 YEARS in prison. My GOD.

Comments

benny6toes.bsky.social•132 days ago

I've been calling it a "punishment system" (not a lawyer) since that's what seems to be the end goal.

luluroche.bsky.social•132 days ago

Very sad.

mudsludge.bsky.social•132 days ago

Jfc we really need consequences for people with power

lukemaynard.bsky.social•132 days ago

I just noted who you are; there's nothing I could teach you, Professor, about US criminal & sentencing law.

But for interested people who follow you: 13 years in prison for rape is far longer, the way men are treated, than a disproportionate 13 years for drugs or fraud. The yard is a crueler place.

thewesterhazys.bsky.social•132 days ago

These prosecutors should be in jail. Full stop.

thepplpplhv.bsky.social•132 days ago

It should be mandatory that they serve the same amount of time. This is disgusting.

emergentwake.bsky.social•132 days ago

If I follow the story correctly, the prosecutor was David Romano, identified in this article as "the best attorney in West Virginia":

https://www.wvnews.com/theet/news/court_and_police/he-s-the-best-attorney-in-west-virginia/article_2f488336-d7c7-11e2-8309-0019bb2963f4.html

thewesterhazys.bsky.social•132 days ago

Jfc

emergentwake.bsky.social•132 days ago

The other prosecutor listed as the respondent still works there.

http://www.legaldirectories.com/Armstrong-James-F-189216-Atty.aspx

Also, it looks like after everything, they still made him take an Alford plea on the robbery, and only dismissed the sexual assault charges. So he's still got a felony conviction.

thewesterhazys.bsky.social•132 days ago

Once again confounded by how different the country we like to think we are is from how it actually functions. How do you not get a clean slate ffs

fbcooper.bsky.social•131 days ago

Let me guess: Not one of those prosecuting attorneys, self proclaimed "officers of the court", spent a day in jail. This behavior is criminal fraud. But of course I assume they have immunity for lying to suspects (when they aren't in front of a judge).

cgblue.bsky.social•132 days ago

Those fuckers ought to get tossed in the can for a baker's dozen years.

johnpfaff.bsky.social•132 days ago

Another fun one.

ADA rips up a deal offer when the defendant has the gall to … ask for her LAWYER.

“Plead, but blind to even your rights, or we will make you pay.”

That’s not justice in any sense of the word.

(Josh here is @joshuapvaughn.bsky.social, showing why local coverage matters.)

rawrtigerlily.bsky.social•132 days ago

Yeah, I'm not sure our criminal law system was ever that concerned with actually solving crimes. They were about making cases. I have a member of my extended family who ended up spending more time in prison for being the person who sat in the car during an armed robbery where someone got shot...

rawrtigerlily.bsky.social•132 days ago

Than the people who went into the store and the person who actually shot the victim, because of some convoluted series of plea deals where the person who should have got the least time just lost out, thinking obviously their charges & sentence would be less serious.

segyges.bsky.social•132 days ago

Plea bargains in multiple-defendant cases are the prisoner's dilemma, and you are penalized for lacking eagerness to testify against other people and also for not having as much valuable information (e.g., being in the car outside when the actual crime happened).

It's a weird incentive structure.

segyges.bsky.social•132 days ago

Your best result is to be the sidekick to the person who pulls the trigger, give up nothing under interrogation, and then take a cooperator's deal immediately.

This is not, in fact, usually the person who deserves the least punishment.

ghostyspook.bsky.social•132 days ago

Yeah I have some real issues with the use of things like felony murder in general and all the ways plea deals can go down

eltopo71.com•132 days ago

Prosecutors live on their stats, so once they decide to prosecute the focus is no longer on establishing the truth, but on winning the case.

squeakenjoyer.bsky.social•132 days ago

the whole legal pipeline is basically about maximizing the amount of slave labor for the prison industrial complex

The cruelty in the system makes more sense when you understand that Slavery is still alive and thriving in America, it's just that only the government gets to do it to people.

rawrtigerlily.bsky.social•132 days ago

It's just deeply disturbing to realize we put this much money into policing, and at the end of the day the detectives & the prosecutors making the most money largely just want to put *someone* behind bars, not necessarily the person who did it. If I behaved this way in any job I've had, I'd be fired

mikestucka.bsky.social•132 days ago

I was thinking the relatively Netflix movie "Rebel Ridge" might do more to raise awareness and anger over civil asset forfeiture than every nonprofit report and news expose to date.

ratsinmyhair.bsky.social•132 days ago

Don't
Fucking
Talk
To
Cops

romanpiso.bsky.social•131 days ago

The 'Justice' system we have was created in ancient times by the elite for their benefit. It is actually a 'revenge' system that harms many people & society. My work will give us those answers. We need to create a truly modern society.

Justice & Justness
https://www.academia.edu/11700360/Justice_and_Justness

romanpiso.bsky.social•131 days ago

Many people go thru life turning a blind eye to the conflict that they are actually enduring on a daily basis. In reality, many people alienate themselves from the reality of their situation as a means of coping with it.

Life Today Is Pure Conflict, But Need Not Be
https://www.academia.edu/124474115/Life_Today_Is_Pure_Conflict_But_Need_Not_Be

dougwar40k.bsky.social•132 days ago

The part that always worries me is not the fact that there are a bunch of corrupt sociopaths working in the system, because there's a bunch of those in every system. What worries me is that, after their wrongdoings are publicly revealed, they still experience no consequences.

petenaps.bsky.social•132 days ago

Prosecutors should be sentenced to double the term. It will never happen again

briantheelder.bsky.social•132 days ago

Plea bargains are essentially an extortion racket.

singhitis.bsky.social•117 days ago

Anyone who has been through the wringer knows that DAs don’t give a shit about innocent or not. They only care about having convictions so they can use them in ads to get into higher office.

pizzawolf.bsky.social•132 days ago

Yes...it would require prosecutors to spend more time and energy on the cases. To ensure innocent until proven guilty

mkwilson27.bsky.social•132 days ago

I watched Brendan Dassey’s “confession.” Couldn’t be more obvious he’s innocent, yet he’s been in jail for years.

hooli.bsky.social•132 days ago

Judging by the last sentences the Supreme Court is clearly unhappy that justice may require a little more effort than an absence of justice.
We don’t want to try too hard, hey Supreme Court!

emmafrost52.bsky.social•132 days ago

It happens more than we know, worse are the ones executed who were very clearly innocent.

nicholassmith.bsky.social•131 days ago

I wonder if, when the man was allocuting to a crime the prosecutors knew he hadn't committed, they wondered whether an officer of the court knowingly letting this man lie to the court was suborning perjury.

tyranitar14.bsky.social•132 days ago

If the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct don’t specifically contemplate permanent disbarment for prosecutors who do this (they don’t), then the rules are worthless

buttbird.bsky.social•131 days ago

I spent 40 minutes listening to the hospital lawyer tell us about the process of denying malpractice claims, and I wanted to do several murders afterward.

willcjohns.bsky.social•132 days ago

Idk 13 years seems like an appropriate sentence…
(For the DA)

taintednode.bsky.social•131 days ago

It’s not about finding the truth but getting convictions.

fullheartqi.bsky.social•132 days ago

Very first thing I learned in law school. Our professor, a retired judge, told us to not expect justice in the legal system, that the system wasn’t about justice it was about what could be argued to be true.

dpp7541.bsky.social•132 days ago

Allowing the real perp to continue to rape women. It would seem the 4th World United States prefer 19th century law. Women had No Rights.
🇮🇪🇪🇺

annabellelecter.bsky.social•131 days ago

It's great, because the actual rapist was still free to commit crimes.

sassypinata.bsky.social•131 days ago

Yeap, they also overcharge and create a sky high maximum in order to get you to plea; they add enhancements to get to a life top max; they will push to trial knowing that witnesses do not care to prosecute OR have huge credibility issues. Sad reality.

dysamoria.com•117 days ago

What the fucking fuck????????

catherineboyle1.bsky.social•132 days ago

And scotus is fine w this. Just so awful

silver-guillotine.itch.io•132 days ago

I think the phrasing "punishment bureaucracy" also hits at the heart of things

daniwelch.bsky.social•131 days ago

I haven't heard this and love it.

daniwelch.bsky.social•131 days ago

silver-guillotine.itch.io•131 days ago

I think I originally heard it from Alec Karakatsanis. Maybe not original to him though

cantard.bsky.social•132 days ago

I think a form of restorative justice would be to sentence the DAs to the sentence they corruptly forced on someone else.

sekou.bsky.social•132 days ago

The system was supposed to place the burden on the prosecution to prove it's case, not the defense 🤦🏼‍♂️

soniavieira.bsky.social•132 days ago

Enquanto promotores forem eleitos (como é o caso de alguns estados nos EUA), a voracidade para se apresentar como a lei e a ordem, isso continuará a acontecer.
Por aqui acontece também, porém menos, graças a Defensoria Pública que é forte, ao menos em alguns estados.

mikegro.bsky.social•131 days ago

This is horrifying. How do those prosecutors live with themselves?

thatac.bsky.social•132 days ago

*sits back and waits for people to learn that the laws meant to compensate people screwed over by the system like this is rife with loopholes & outs allowing them to never pay the price for doing it.*

devonunger.bsky.social•117 days ago

I watched these habeas hearings when I was an intern with a judge in that county between my first and second years of law school. It was a big reason why I ended up getting in to innocence work. I even got to do some research for the appeal after the trial court initially denied the habeas petition.

dasdoak.bsky.social•132 days ago

Jesus Christ - in a just world that man should be able to sue the hell out of the DA who did that to him.

edlondero.bsky.social•131 days ago

Seems they have cotas to achieve.

kylemann.bsky.social•131 days ago

If a prosecutor knowingly violates the Brady rule, and the defendant does time, the prosecutor should have to do time as well. If it’s caught during the trial they should be disbarred.

nmurph18.bsky.social•131 days ago

Prosecutors treat convicting an innocent man the same way poker players treat getting someone to fold a better hand

marrockv.bsky.social•132 days ago

Law and justice are mutually exclusive, one can't exist alongside the other.

tfuller3.bsky.social•132 days ago

Why do these people never end up in prison?

Is it mostly a “prosecutors don’t want to prosecute a prosecutor” or is there some more systemic than that?

jargonscotty.bsky.social•132 days ago

Thirteen years!

What about the executions?

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