Feeding on the Weakest

The Innocence Project lists four major categories of false convictions exonerated by DNA:

1. Eyewitness Misidentification (such as from a biased lineup)
2. Misapplication of Forensic Science (such as misstating match probabilities)
3. False Confessions (generally tricked from the young and incompetent)
4. Jailhouse Witnesses

Only one of these provides at least six different categories of strong people a chance to prey on the weak.

Eyewitness misidentification can happen to anyone. But they say it is more likely to happen when white people identify black people. Cops are more likely to used biased lineups against the poor. But there is only a slight benefit of having a lawyer or expert, to argue about faults in the process, to the extent the judge allows. Pretty much any public defender can point out the faults in a lineup. Certainly victims who identify the wrong attacker do not benefit. So eyewitness misidentification provides cops a chance to abuse the black and the poor for fake glory. But in general, black people are more effective at politically organizing against this sort of thing than other scams. Newspapers used to benefit from fake eyewitnesses, when cops fed them mugshots of black people to print, which bystanders could then see in the paper and swear they recognize. But that is more frowned upon these days.

Misapplication of forensic science, in my experience, there is not much you can do about. There is some set rule or case law for how they can describe forensic evidence. The poor are less likely to be able to afford lawyers and experts who can recognize and fight against it. Forensic junk testimony provides cops a chance to abuse the poor, and lawyers and experts a chance to make money off the rich.

False Confessions are generally seen as coming from the young and incompetent. So they give cops a chance to frame the dumb, and look like they are solving crime. And rich kids may have rich parents, and hire one expensive lawyer.

Jailhouse witnesses can happen to anyone. You don’t need to open your mouth, only have your case on TV, or the guards take you to court and leave all your papers in your unlocked cell where others can quote the accusations, and say you confessed to it. So you are basically set up like a piglet for the slaughter, for the entire justice system to feed off of.

The smart may be better able to testify on their own behalf in defense against a jailhouse witness. So this gives the state a chance to prey on the dumb. Fake jailhouse confessions are generally in proportion to how long you are in jail. Poor people who cannot afford bond, meet hundreds of richer people who can get out on bond, find the poor person’s arrest affidavit on the clerk website, and claim the poor person confessed to the accusations. So the rich can feed on the poor.

Cops benefit from jailhouse witnesses, because they control the jail. So if they tell the papers they are heroes for making an arrest, but have no actual evidence, they can quickly arrange for a fake jailhouse confession by providing newspapers in the jail, with the details for the fake confession. And of course people with prior convictions, will have their prior convictions mentioned to the jury if they testify in their own defense against a jailhouse witness, making them prime targets for cops. And newspapers benefit because cops have an incentive to feed them sensational stories, for jailhouse witnesses to read and then claim the suspect confessed to.

Also it is generally the most dangerous sociopathic felons in the prison who invent false confessions, but it can give a chance for two or three of them to prey on a single dumb person in just one case. So jailhouse witnesses are great for the most dangerous felons. Jailhouse witnesses are also great for lawyers. Three sick sociopathic lawyers can get three sick sociopathic clients out of prison, by preying on just one innocent person.

And jailhouse witnesses are the best for prosecutors, because there is only one chance at the beginning, for a misidentification, a false confession, or some category of junk evidence. But they have literally hundreds of dangerous sociopaths in the jail facing drug mandatory minimums, available for years. And they can bring all of them into the office in chains, and coach them to lie about some incompetent under threat of a life sentence.

So jailhouse witnesses are unique in that a single dumb or incompetent person who cannot make bond can feed all the local papers, three defense lawyers, three sociopathic felons, a whole team of prosecutors, a police department, and anyone smarter or richer than them. For this reason, all of newspapers, police, prosecutors, dangerous felons, defense lawyers, the smart, and the rich, will line up to defend the use of fake jailhouse confessions to feed on the weak.

Jailhouse witnesses are the one racket that provides meat for all the sickest predators.