Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jan 2002
Source: Blade, The (OH)
Copyright: 2002 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48

JUSTICE? PAVLOV WOULD BE PROUD

Chicagoan Edward I. Turner is just another victim of war. The drug war has 
turned our justice system into an assembly line, and like all assembly 
lines it produces defective products, in this case the conviction of an 
innocent man - before the only evidence that could have vindicated him was 
ready for review.

It wasn't the prosecutor who demanded that the evidence be studied more 
closely to make sure they had the right guy. After all he had two men, a 
car, and some cocaine, pretty much an open and shut case, right? The jury 
and judge agreed, guilty as charged!

Ahh, but he was innocent, wasn't he? And the only explanation for that is 
rapid-fire cookie-cutter justice. These are the kinds of things that happen 
when people are conditioned to respond in a particular manner to a 
particular stimuli.

Ding! Ding! "There were drugs." Ding! Ding! "He was in the same car." Ding! 
Ding! "How say you?" "Guilty! Guilty! Hang 'em high!"

Pavlov would be proud, but we still don't know if the system responds 
because it is just or just because.

And what of those who hadn't the benefit of a poor quality video to 
exonerate them? Nothing but a feast for the dogs of war. Ding ding!

Jim White

Oregon
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MAP posted-by: Beth