This has finally taken place in China....

So, this has finally indeed happened....in the United States, a country with an endless, expensive and many, many say overly cumbersome process, over 2000 people convicted of a crime have been exonerated.  That is alot.  Of course, the US has over two million people in prison as well.   The highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world.  

It is hard for exoneration of a prisoner in China to take place.  So much FACE is involved and with too many departments unwilling to to admit they have perhaps made a mistake.   A strong lack of a freedom of the press does not help things.  Still, kudos is to be given where it it due, and it looks like china is now focused on a turning a wrong into a right.  But the elephant in the room is this:

If a country as fastidious with its criminal justice system as America can still make mistakes, then what about the Heavenly Kingdom......?

You’ve read my previous rants on this subject(no, actually you haven’t, but not for the lack of trying on my part…you guys need to get off the relationship posts for a change and read something with substance.), but here I am to force feed you yet again.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/justice/new-york-wrongful-conviction/index.html

When is China gonna release someone due to overwhelming DNA evidence that shows the prisoner is innocent?   Takers anyone?

Actually, there have been a few…but nothing due to police work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution

In a country that is as process driven as America is(and the West generally), to still have someone falsely winding up in jail is incredulous.  Granted, the above was over twenty years ago.

While we all know China is as equally process driven when it comes to Justice(uh-em), one has to wonder just how many people still innocently pass their days away behind bars in China.

DNA in China needs to be used for something else beyond assuring the SLUT(excuse me, I mean mistress) that gov’t officials screw day in and day out isn’t having their baby.

DNA and Justice in China 

DNA Testing in China vs in America

According to the Innocence Project, there are over 300 people in America that have been exonerated from a crime they have have convicted of, thanks to DNA testing.   18 from Death Row.

More detailed data is below.

 http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php

I support the Death Penalty.    However to my surprise being found guilty of killing someone does not automatically carry a death sentence.   A relative of mine was murdered not so long ago, and to my surprise his killer was not given the death sentence.   Why?  His case did not meet one of the seven  criteria that would have qualified the killer for such a sentence.    This coming from a very RED state.

I was flabbergasted to hear my relative would not get the “justice” he so deserved.

I honestly believe that the legal process in America is the most time consuming, torturous process  internationally on Earth.  It strives for perfection.   It can take over a year just to try a murder case.   

The jury must unanimously reach a verdict.  Even the vote of one juror can make a person innocent, and keep the person from jail.   

And yet we make mistakes.  

How is this possible?

America is unique.  It is a country perhaps more than any other that is obsessed with the mythic chase of social perfection.   There is no place so self critical.   All we hear about in America is how defective we are as a society.   I swear that Americans who have never lived abroad would think their country is nothing if not dysfunctional, socially backward, and beyond all hope of progress.  At times it is depressing to watch the news, or catch up on current events online.    We are a nation obsessed with self improvement.  

The use of DNA is an excellent example of how America has used this philosophy to make itself a better place. 

Then I got to thinking about China.  Another nation that is very, very pro death penalty.(the sentiment is beginning to decline in America)

China is many things but cannot in the least be described as a process driven nation when it comes to Justice.    There are no juries.   No attorney client priviledge.

http://newenglandinhouse.com/2012/01/24/how-global-is-the-attorney-client-privilege/

Where justice in America is a tool used to keep the power of the State at bay, in China it is a tool used to maintain the power of the State vis a vis the individual.

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=299&subcatid=50

And there is actually a legal double standard in China for punishing lawbreakers.  One for Party members, and one for non Party members.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/30/double-jeopardy-crime-and-chinas-communist-party/

And now I’m left to wonder about the role of DNA in China today.  It is used primarily to conduct paternity testing.  But with the speed of the judicial process in China, isn’t it possible that mistakes have occurred?   How many people in China sit unjustly imprisoned today?    Executed?  Not by political fiat but by incompetence?    

If mistakes could take place in such a process driven and open society such as the United States, is it possible such a thing could occur in China?  And wouldn’t the use of DNA to vet against judicial error be a good thing?  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution#China_and_Taiwan

DNA testing in America has brought some confidence back into the American judicial system, and helped to ensure that bad practice does not creep back into how we try the accused.

Will we ever be able to say the same for China?

Posted 5th July 2013 by Fletcher Francis Fontenot