Daniel Gwynn Blog Update
Date: 6/6/16
Subject: "Where's Accountability"

I was reading an article in the Prison Legal News about how the lies of the Chicago police, and the concealment of exculpatory evidence by the DA's office, led to Mr. Jermaine Walker spending 10 yrs of his life in an Illinois prison for something he didn't do. Convicted and sentenced to 22 yrs for drug possession with intent to deliver within 1,000 ft of a school. This conviction was overturned because the transaction the arresting officers attested to was not on video footage of the scene they claimed didn't exist. The prosecutor was found complicit in helping the officers conceal this evidence. Mr. Walker was set free 3/25/16. Mr. Walker may have been exonerated, but 10 yrs of his life was stolen by the malfeasance of these officials.

What's so crazy is that the police officers & prosecutor that manufactured & hid evidence still have their jobs. No one was punished or sanctioned. The law was clearly broken here. The police & prosecutors are supposed to be held to a higher standard because they are entrusted with the crest of society's moral standard and empowered to serve & protect society's virtue. So why isn't the injustices perpetrated by these trusted officials punished & the public more outraged over the act & inaction? It's morally offensive that this criminal conduct is perpetrated in a court of law. Prosecutors seldom face discipline for their misconduct. Courts have a strong tendency to view such misconduct as "Harmless Error" and rarely reverse convictions on that ground.

Governmental misconduct was a contributing factor in 46 of the first 273 DNA exonerations nationally. In 2011, the Commonwealth (Com.) suppressed exculpatory evidence in Mr. Dennis' case, where witnesses provided information that could impeach the Com.'s witnesses. Also, in Seifullah Abdul-Salaam, the Com. failed to disclose DNA evidence. I've found 240 cases where the prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence in this State alone. These prosecutors walk into a courtroom and paint the vilest pictures of defendants to win a conviction with no regard that the defendant could be innocent. Then 10-20 yrs later, come to find the prosecutor hid evidence to win that conviction and not punished. Where's the justice in that?

Daniel Gwynn