It sounds ridiculous, but consider the convoluted legal reasoning prosecutors, the state and courts employ to keep people in prison or even execute them, when they are actually innocent. Witness the cases of Rodney Reed and Lamar Johnson.
washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11…
washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11…
Rodney Reed is scheduled for execution November 20, despite a comprehensive showing he was wrongfully convicted.
His lawyers have petitioned SCOTUS on the question of whether it is constitutional to execute an actually innocent person. theappeal.org/dna-testing-co…
His lawyers have petitioned SCOTUS on the question of whether it is constitutional to execute an actually innocent person. theappeal.org/dna-testing-co…
SCOTUS is unlikely to take up the case, perhaps because the answer logically would almost certainly be yes. There is no constitutional right to have DNA tested and legally no clear violation of due process in his case.
But Rodney Reed is not alone.
But Rodney Reed is not alone.
Lamar Johnson was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1995. St. Louis prosecutors agree he is innocent and filed a petition to have his conviction overturned. Too bad said the court, the petition was filed 24 years too late and Mr. Johnson remains in prison.
All of which is to say, the argument made by the petitioner Benjamin Schreiber that he should be released because he actually died is really just as logical as any of the arguments made by the state in the Reed and Johnson cases.
That's because the criminal law isn't some rational neutral set of rules, which when applied to a set of facts results in a just outcome. It's a tool that is manipulated in such a way that it is used primarily to oppress Black and Brown people.
