What do you do when someone you know is falsely accused of a crime?

[Liara Covert]

People periodically reach stages in their lives where they ask themselves why life seems so difficult. Its possible to begin to realize everything that happens is a mirror teaching you things you forget or repress about your inner self. The universe will not permit anyone escape lessons he needs to learn, but those lessons are not always straightforward. When you complete a lesson, you change and how you view current conditions also changes.

Yet, to sense you can only ever change how you think and feel may leave you at a loss when someone you know is falsely accused of committing a crime. Have you had a similar experience? How would you respond if you do?

[WordKeeper]

Your question is one that tests the boundaries and limits of any moral system and any philosophy. I do not have a systematic response but I have watched with great interest the response of people emerging from prison through the work of the Innocence Project. The ones who emerge with any ability to pick up and have a productive life have been able to forgive.

One extraordinary example of this was written by a man who served many years in prison, falsely convicted of rape. He wrote this book with his accuser whose "eye-witness" testimony cemented his conviction. It is titled Picking Cotton.

I will be following your thread with great interest.

[Engle]

I have been falsely accused of something I did not do. It was not a crime, but I can say it was the most disturbing, helpless, vulnerable feeling especially when people tend not to believe you.

I cannot imagine the pain of someone being found guilty and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.

In fact, we have had quite a few here in Canada and it took modern science of DNA to resolve them. These cases slipped thru the legal brain trust of lawyers, judges, police officers, politicians, jury....everybody.

What's worse is that some of those who secured the ' false ' convictions got promoted for exemplary performance

If names are to be mentioned, they are Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Steven Truscott.

The current one making the rounds is of a Dr. Charles Smith whose ' expert ' testimony as a pathologist sent many innocent parents/relatives to jail in the death of young children.

[Liara Covert]

Wordkeeper,
thanks for your reflections. Concerning the case I mention, the individual has not yet been convicted. The situation currently evolves based on accusations made by police about the individual in one country while this individual has been living in another country. It is a bit complicated.
The whole scenario raises issues about definitions and beliefs about guilty until proven innocent or, innocent until proven guilty. When the crime committed by someone evokes intense emotion, authorities want results, regardless of whether they have the right person. What does this reveal about vengeance? Authorities are not necessarily recognized for compassion.

Consider this: many people engage in some form of disordered thinking. Some people believe there is a thin line that separates criminals behind bars and those people who view themselves as free and clear. Perhaps the common denominator is human tendency to jump to unfounded conclusions. How often does one make a host of errors in judgment based on misplaced assumptions? A slew of unexpected semi finalists in Britain's Got Talent are causing people to recognize how cynical assumptions are on a mass scale.

Consider the trend among some people to view themselves as victims, to fear consequences even when they feel they have done nothing wrong. People who think like this are unwilling to take responsibility for their choices. Yet, what does it reveal about the people close to them, friends and family? Does it imply we focus too much on what ifs, forget to live primarily in the present?

Engle:

Consider a case in Canada where RCMP officers are currently in court and may soon be tried for murder. They tazered a Polish man and killed him in the Vancouver International Airport. He had apparently wandered around for hours and could speak nothing but Polish. His mother was on a different level of the terminal and missed him and went home. How could no person help him during the hours he wandered around in despair? The 5 police initially argued the man came at them with a kitchen knife and was very dangerous. Little did they know a bystander had videotaped their violent treatment of the foreigner. Their defense no longer holds water. They rationalized their unjustified abuse and murder of this person but saying the lives of five huge men were in danger from a small man with a breadknife.

Paul Palango has a controversial new book out about how the Canadian RCMP have lost more than public respect-- Dispersing the Fog - Inside the Secret World of Ottawa and the R.C.M.P.

One case explored through Palango's expert investigative journalism is that of Maher Arar. He only received a class action settlement of 10.5 Million from the Canadian givernment after being sent back to Syria and tortured. It was a wrongful accusation of suspected terrorism with a twist. The politics and emotions involved shape the story.

[kismet]

What is the question? I understand lamenting and scratching our heads about how much injustice, insanity and hypocrisy there is in the world, particularly within politics and corrupt government. It is simply a system and belief system of coercion and control, not of cooperation, community and compassion. The entire "justice" system has nothing to do with helping people be better in society or improving people at all. It is purely a system of control and the only effect they are looking for and hoping for by locking people up is one of general deterrence of the rest of society. They don't care about the individuals at all. They are all just collateral damage, whether they deserve it or not. There are no repercussions for the government for lying or perjuring themselves, so they do it non-stop. They will throw anything and everything that they can at the wall just to see what sticks, if it doesn't stick, oh well, no one will hold them accountable for that. I've seen agents contradict and admit prior lies on sworn statements in open court, and nothing happened to them at all, it was never even ACKNOWLEDGED by the judge or anyone, even with full written documented proof of their perjury. Yet if a citizen does that, it is awful and a "serious offense". I cannot stand all of the double speak and B.S. about people "paying society back" by locking them up. Really? I am part of society and how am I compensated by these non-violent people losing years of 'their' life? The reality is that it is society that pays, not them. Society pays the bill for putting them there and gets nothing back out of it. If they really want these non-violent and often first time offenders to "pay society back", they would just give them a financial fine that they would give to the community, plus give them community service so that the society they live can benefit from their time and effort, instead of some private corporation benefiting from the 5cents an hour "slave labor" of the person, with the real cost of them being there and doing free work for the private corp. being subsidized by the public tax paying society. That is insanity. A drug war? Really? All wars are all just to financially benefit private interests. Nothing more.

[bluedragon]

Well said. I love the fact that there seem to be other people who oppose violence and vengeance by the state and especially the fact that the justice system is not meant to insure the avoidance of judicial errors at all costs. If they were, then lawyers and prosecutors would not be so entrenched in their roles. District attorneys would not select jury members according to how likely it is that they will vote for the death penalty. There would be no plea bargains that have a chance of persuading an innocent man to give up his right to a trial, for fear that the prosecutors would "go for" the maximum penalty if he dares to defend himself. And the amount of penalty would not be set arbitrarily. And so many other wrong things...

[Daffy Duck]

What do you do when someone you know is falsely accused of a crime?

If I know they're falsely being accused of a crime, I would testify on their behalf with any sort of evidence I had.

My mother and sister attacked my father once, and when I stepped in between them, my mother called the police and claimed that I attacked them. When the police showed up, they questioned all of us. My father was the only one with visible marks and bleeding from his mouth, but he did not press charges. When the police questioned me if I attacked my mother, I told him, "Honestly officer, I've never been in a physical fight my whole life, I'm an extremely non-violent person. But if I were angry enough to attack my mother, she would still be unconscious right now." In other words, if I were to actually attack someone, he would know. They didn't question me again.

[themaster]

What do you do when someone you know is falsely accused of a crime?

Alright, I'll take the bait..

You do ABSOLUTELY nothing.. in fact maybe you could appreciate them for the example, their setting..

But let's say you want to help them.. well you’re on a LOA board?? I suggest you teach that person how they create there reality, so if they want out of their self created mess and maybe, maybe self default'd mess they can get out of it..

[Dreamline]

I know someone falsly accused of a most heinous crime. The thing that makes this case different is that no one in the country had ever been charged with this crime before. It's like a made-up crime to suit the needs of a particular police jurisdiction. Very strange case. Everyone he knows has heard the details of the case, including several attorneys, and they don't even agree that what he was accused of even IS a crime. So it's especially devistating to know that you are basically a decent person who something incredibly bad, and cosmically weird, has happened to.

He has lost his jobs, two of them. The only jobs he has ever wanted to do for the only two companies he has ever wanted to work for in his life. But he has not lost the love of his family, nor a single friend, nor his wife, nor his lifestyle, in general. A sympathetic and somewhat bewildered judge kept him out of prison. The case is in appeal but because of the unique nature of the "crime" it's difficult to find representative cases. The total cost of the trials is already over $90,000. He has no retirement fund because of it.

He will be damaged for life from the experience but we do whatever we can to help him preserve the person he always was and help him grow to an even better version of himself. Which, for me at least, includes lots of LOA.

Jennifer