NYC man freed after 18 years, wrong photo led to murder conviction | Hacker News Reader

NYC man freed after 18 years, wrong photo led to murder conviction

apnews.com

67 pointsgeox12 comments

He must have been 17 then -- spent more than half of his life in prison, and served virtually the whole sentence of 25 years.

The police officer who deliberately framed him was .... "disciplined"?

"Disciplined" is what I was when I was being disruptive in Grade 7 classroom.

The cop retired, not sure what discipline means. Anything beside a full pension removal and charges is not enough.

What about the judge who knew the photo lineup was bogus?

Pension should be transferred to this person.

Maybe the cop should be put in jail for 18 years now, to balance things out?

I don’t believe in prison, so no.

But deliberately faking evidence does mean forfeiture of pension imo.

Odds on the cop ever facing a day in prison?

Shocking abuse of power.

No mention of any compensation anywhere.

If this is wrong what else is wrong? That is a system failed here where else does it fail?

It’s a human system run by humans. It fails on a regular basis. At the same time, the volume of bad people the system has to deal with is staggering. I encourage you to go attend a sentencing hearing or criminal trial and watch the system at work. These are people who are destroying society and wrecking their communities. The volume of their crimes is just staggering. So you calibrate the system to achieve an error rate you can live with while performing its function and then do your best. And you have systems like habeas and conviction review boards to hopefully catch the mistakes.

It’s worth also understanding the nature of the errors. Like in this case, the wrongfully convicted person wasn’t just a random innocent guy the police picked off the street. He had a prior arrest record for brandishing an gun and was in all probability also a gang member. Yes, he’s entitled to due process like everyone else and I’m glad the system ultimately fixed the problem. But you shouldn’t have misplaced sympathies here.

>But you shouldn’t have misplaced sympathies here.

Being disgusted that someone spent 18 years for a crime they didn't commit is a misplaced sympathy. Brandishing a firearm or potentially being in a gang isn't murder. We have different charges for different crimes for a reason.

https://innocenceproject.org

Estimates (probably high) are 4.1% of people on death row are innocent. You certainly wouldn't excuse 4.1% of flights crashing.

https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/innocence

> is a misplaced sympathy.

I think you meant isn't a misplaced sympathy?

Yes, it was a typo and by the time I noticed it, I couldn't edit anymore.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com