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.