Daniel Gwynn Blog Update
Date: 4/3/14
Subject: Distressed

Lately, I've been distressed over the blatant disregard for human life and rights by our criminal justice system. In Feb. 2014, a Missouri man Herbert Smulls was executed while his appeals were still pending and only minutes before the court's decision on whether to grant him a stay of execution. A month before that, another man was similarly executed. Evidence of our "infallible" criminal justice system hard at work to mete out justice. Whether or not these men deserved to be executed is not the issue. There was no respect for the law, the process or for human life. Where is the public outcry!?

I've also been watching "Death Row Stories", a documentary serial on CNN exposing the flaws in our criminal justice system. These citizens of the United States of America were subjects of a cruel miscarriage of justice—witch hunts. The police and prosecutors were so determined to charge these individuals that evidence leading to the real perpetrators were overlooked and incriminating evidence was manufactured to win the convictions. To compound these egregious miscarriages of justice, the appellant courts continuously denied relief despite the revelations of the police misconduct (withholding evidence) and the prosecution misconducts (manufacturing key evidence).

Gloria Killian was incarcerated for 14 years before her conviction was reversed after exposing the prosecutor's lie about a deal made for perjured testimony, and Edward Lee Elmore wins a new trial after 30 years of incarceration which the prosecution threatens to appeal at length unless Lee takes a deal for his guilty plea cry? Where is the accountability for these government officials professing a tough on crime stance?

Though the law itself is fair on its face and impartial, it is applied and administered by public authorities, often with an evil eye and an unequal hand. The courts are practically immunizing prosecutors from claims of racial bias and failing to impose any meaningful check on the exercise of their discretion in charging, plea bargaining, transferring cases and sentencing has created an environment in which conscious and unconscious biases are allowed to flourish. Prosecutors are well-aware that the exercise of their discretion is unchecked, provided no explicitly racist remarks are made.

Don't you think that I've got a right to be distressed when the public's interest in justice continues to fade? I sympathize with the public's plight over the rise in crime, but I believe that if we focus on fixing the criminal justice system that we could make a huge dent in getting back on the right track. We got to be involved to make a difference.

Daniel
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