2011-05-02
Eyewitness identification is the most common cause of wrongful convictions. Of the first 200 DNA exonerations, for example, 158 involved convictions based on eyewitness testimony, according to a 2008 studyby Brandon L. Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia. NY Times, 2011-05-02
From a story about a man who was convicted of murder based solely on the testimony of two witnesses who picked out his picture from a police book.
That's it. Two witnesses, from a photo. The suspect, Richard Rosario, did not have a very good lawyer, because there were at least seven people in Florida willing to testify that he was somewhere else at the time the murder took place.
But this is America where justice is a joke. Thatimage on the left -- that's America's Lady Justice. Look at that face: expectant, suspicious, arrogant, rubbing her hands in anticipation of another long sentence.
Sanchez and Davis identified Rosario as the shooter. The prosecution also called Diaz,the hotdog vender who had witnessed the argument leading up to the shooting, expecting him to make an in-court identification. However, Diaz refused to identify Rosario as the shooter. The prosecution presented no other evidence linking Rosario to the shooting. Although many people in the Bronx knew Rosario and his fiancee lived there, the prosecution presented no witnesses who said they saw him in New York during the month of June — except the two strangers who briefly glimpsed Collazo’s murderer
Rosario's mistake was the completely ridiculous assumption that he would be treated fairly by the criminal justice system when he voluntarily returned to New York to respond to the police investigation. He should have fled the country. But then, a lot of people--far fewer, I hope, than twenty or thirty years ago-- would have insisted that only a guilty man would flee the country.