Monthly Archives: December 2008

25 More Reasons for Criminal Justice Reform

Activism, Corruption, Crime and Punishment, Criminal Justice Reform, Death Penalty, General, Human Rights, Individual Rights, Legal, Police Watch, Strategies For Advancing Liberty, Theory and Ideas

20 months ago I wrote a post (click here) to recognize the successful efforts of The Innocence Project in exonerating 200 wrongly convicted (14 of which were on death row). In the time between that post and this one, the Innocence Project has helped 25 more wrongfully convicted regain their freedom! If this trend continues, we could see 275+ wrongfully convicted set free by the organization’s 20th anniversary in 2012. While this is all very good news for these individuals and their families, much more needs to be done to prevent others from being victimized by the state.

Many states offer nothing with regard to compensation for the wrongfully convicted. Of those which do, the IRS insists on collecting taxes from this compensation (a complete moral outrage). The Innocence Project is working to correct this injustice.

25 states do not have laws which require forensic evidence to be preserved post conviction. For those who wish to appeal and challenge their convictions, the chances of proving their innocence are much dimmer. One of the main reasons these states refuse to preserve biological evidence is the costs associated with storage.*

There are many other reforms which need to be made with regard to the use of informants (who have an incentive to tell the authorities what they want to hear to shorten their sentences), government fraud and misconduct, and unsound science (among other needed reforms).

I would also submit that it is time to revisit the issue of the death penalty. We now have 225** reasons to demand a national moratorium on the death penalty; 225 cases where the system failed, convicted the wrong person, and allowed the real perpetrators walk free. Even one innocent person killed by the state is too many.

In closing, the following is statistical data about the 225 exonerations In the Innocence Project’s winter 2008 Newsletter: The Innocence Project in Print.

Innocence by the Numbers: Eyewitness Misidentification

Percentage of wrongful convictions cases later overturned through DNA testing that involved eyewitness misidentifications 76%

Percentage of those misidentifications that were cross-racial 51%

Percentage of those cross-racial misidentification cases where a Caucasian witness’ misidentification led to the wrongful conviction of an African-American or Latino defendant 90%

Percentage where an African-American or Latino witness’ misidentification led to the wrongful conviction of a Caucasian defendant 1%

Percentage of all the misidentification cases where eyewitness testimony was the central evidence used against the defendant (without other contributing evidence like false confessions, invalid or improper forensic science, or snitch testimony) 20%

Percentage where more than one eyewitness misidentified the same innocent defendant 37%

Highest number of eyewitnesses misidentifying the same innocent defendant 10

States where eyewitness misidentifications have contributed to a wrongful conviction 32

States that have passed reforms to improve eyewitness identification procedures 7

States Legislatures considering eyewitness identification reforms for 2009 12 and the District of Columbia

» Read more

Stephen Littau
http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/

Pricing And Politics

Economics, Free Trade, Government Regulation, Theory and Ideas

I firmly believe that many political problems are born of the average Americans inability — and unwillingness — to try to think and understand the world around them rather than accept conventional wisdom. This is clearly evident in peoples’ lack of understanding of pricing; it is disturbingly evident in the political policies they seek as a result of this lack. It’s clear enough when you hear about “price gouging”, and every economic argument that prices must rise to avoid shortages falls on deaf ears. But it’s the same principle when folks rail in favor of “windfall profits taxes”, as if businesses have the power to just arbitrarily select the level of profits they’ll earn.

Someone should really tell Ford, GM, and Chrysler, because they seem to be having some trouble with this concept!

Given that this is such an important concept, and given that it’s really quite simple, it’s surprising that the simple rules of pricing aren’t more apparent. But it’s not something that most people regularly have to think about. And sadly, because it’s so simple, it is not often explained — which I’d like to change.

The misconception of pricing is obvious. Most people think that prices are determined by a simple formula:

Price = Cost of materials + Cost of labor + Overhead + reasonable profit

It sounds so axiomatic that it is taken at face value. It’s so often true (but for a different reason) that it seems correct. But it’s not that clear.

Pricing is actually determined by the following equation, with a second equation added for clarity:

Price = whatever the market will bear
Profit (or loss) = Price – Cost of inputs – Cost of labor – Overhead

Note the difference between the two. Price is not a PRODUCT of the equation of material/labor/overhead/profit. Price is determined through a wholly different process, and profit or loss is the product of the pricing equation.
» Read more

Brad Warbiany
https://thelibertypapers.org/

Free Speech Or Slander ?

Constitution, Free Speech, Individual Rights, Legal

A case in Maryland is requiring that state’s highest Court to find the line between freedom of speech and business disparagement:

In a First Amendment case with implications for everything from neighborhood e-mail lists to national newspapers, an Eastern Shore businessman argued to Maryland’s highest court yesterday that the host of an online forum should be forced to reveal the identities of people who posted allegedly defamatory comments.

It is the first time the Maryland Court of Appeals has confronted the question of online anonymity, an issue that has surfaced in state and federal courts over the past few years as blogs and other online forums have increasingly become part of the national discourse.

The businessman, Zebulon J. Brodie, contends that he was defamed by comments about his shop, a Dunkin’ Donuts in Centreville, posted on NewsZap.com. The shop was described as one “of the most dirty and unsanitary-looking food-service places I have seen.”

The comment was posted in a 2006 exchange among anonymous posters named CorsicaRiver, RockyRacoonMd and others. Brodie is not certain which poster is responsible for that and other remarks that he claims were defamatory, and he has only their screen names. Brodie is demanding that Independent Newspapers Inc., the company that owns the site, divulge the identities of his critics.

A Circuit Court judge in Queen Anne’s County ordered the company to hand over the information. The company appealed, setting up yesterday’s argument in Annapolis.

(…)

A number of state courts have heard similar cases, and Levy urged the Maryland judges to follow the lead of New Jersey, where in 2001 an appeals court crafted a standard for cases involving subpoenas to identify anonymous Internet speakers. The court required plaintiffs to produce “sufficient evidence” of their cause of action and mandated that judges balance First Amendment rights against the strength of the plaintiffs’ case and the need for identities to be disclosed.

But Poltrack argued that the circuit judge, Thomas G. Ross, conducted a balancing test of his own and concluded that Independent Newspapers was obligated to identify the users sought by Brodie.

Poltrack said that requiring plaintiffs to provide evidence at such an early stage was unfair. “It’s a tremendous and onerous burden,” he told the judges.

It may well be, but the bias should always been in favor of freedom of speech, and anonymity is an important part of the right to speak freely.

In this case, it seems very unclear that an anonymous post that the Plaintiff’s store was “dirty and unsanitary-looking” would not seem to rise to the level necessary for a Plaintiff to be able to pierce the veil of anonymity. At most, it’s an expression of opinion.

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com

Ted Stevens, William Jefferson, Rod Blagojevich, And The Corruption Of State Power

Corruption, Economics, Fascism in America, Government Regulation, Politics

In light of yet another example of the eternal truth that power corrupts, and absoulte power corrupts absolutely, Steve Horwitz wonders why we’re still talking about handing yet more power over to the government:

I simply do not understand how those who are in favor of giving government all of these new powers because they sincerely believe that doing so will work out the way their blackboard designs intended can keep a straight face. What kind of cognitive dissonance must it take to believe that the people YOU are handing power over to are “not like” Ted Stevens or Rod Blagojevich? How deeply must one be in denial or engage in rationalization to believe that they are “different?” How blind must one be to think that trillions of dollars in bailout money won’t go to the highest bidder (as the lobbyists line up on K Street…) in a process different only in its wink-and-a-nod courtesies than Blagojevich’s auctioning off of a Senate seat?

For me, the key insight of public choice is the same insight that underlies Austrian economics: it is the institutional framework that is the key to understanding the choices people make and the unintended outcomes they produce. As I said to a class last week: “Governments can’t act like businesses because businesses only act like businesses because they operate in the institutional environment of private property, monetary exchange, and competition.” In the same way, getting politicians to stop selling off their power isn’t a matter of ethics or psychology, rather it’s about changing the rules of the game such that they do not have as much power to sell. Unfortunately, the current bailout mania is changing those rules in utterly the wrong direction.

Look at it this way: the bailouts are already becoming just a legal form of the essentially the same behavior for which the governor has been indicted.

Why should we ever accept “Oh, but he’s different” as an answer to the claim that explicit bribery and selling off power are just a less subtle form of politics as usual?

The examples of Ted Stevens, William Jefferson, and, now, Rod Blagojevich make clear that the answer is that we shouldn’t.

We shouldn’t trust the Treasury Secretary with unrestricted, unreviewable authority to spend $ 700 billion in taxpayer funds.

We shouldn’t trust a “car czar” to oversee a government-run auto industry in a manner that gives priority to making a profit rather than being politically correct.

For the very reasons that the Founding Fathers enunciated 232 years ago, we shouldn’t trust government with the power we seem all to willing to give it.

There are lessons that can be learned from the political scandals that we’ve seen over the past few years, but I doubt that most people will recognize them.

H/T: Hit & Run

Cross-posted from Below The Beltway

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com
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