How does injustice happen

About 800 years ago, the world's first systematic forensic science monograph, "Wash the Grievance Collection" in our country; more than 400 years ago, the Ming imperial historian Lv Kun's famous words, "for the defense of the wrongdoing of the first day of the defamation is the first day of the rationale" has been recited to this day by the people of the country. However, there has never been a work that explores the conceptual causes of injustice in China. The publication of the Chinese translation of the book "Why Wrongful Convictions Happen: Eight Major Judicial Myths Leading to Wrongful Convictions", co-authored by Jim 61 Petro, the former Attorney General of Ohio, and his wife, has made up for the shortcomings in this regard. 6 factors and 8 myths leading to wrongful conviction Author Jim 61 Petro engaged in legal work for 28 years, so the book does not stay in the theoretical exposition, but the case to say, the case to explore the feelings of the United States version of the "Zhao Zuohai" through the encounters of the 6 factors leading to wrongful conviction and the 8 behind the judicial superstition vivid and tragic to present in front of us. The six factors leading to wrongful conviction and the eight judicial myths behind them are vividly and tragically presented in front of us. Lu Xun said, "Tragedy destroys the valuable things in life for people to see", and the author's reflection is more valuable because of its sorrow, and also because of its efforts to avoid more mistakes. The author confesses, "Early in my career, I had great faith in the accuracy of the trial system. I felt that most people who were prosecuted were guilty. While I still believed that the truth was more on the side of the prosecution than the defense, I came to the opposite conclusion from enough cases." According to the authors, false confessions, admissibility of informant statements, poor quality defenses, unreliable science, government misconduct, and faulty eyewitness testimony are the six main factors that lead to wrongful convictions. Under the U.S. Constitution, the Miranda rule (a suspect has the right to silence and the right to counsel), the Brady rule (the prosecution's refusal to turn over exculpatory evidence is a violation of the Constitution's Due Process Clause), the discovery of evidence, and DNA testing, why are there still so many cases of wrongful convictions? Through his research, the author found that the most fundamental reason is that misconceptions mislead people's (prosecutors, juries, judges, etc.) behavior, and that the six factors are just symptoms. He states, "A lifetime in politics has taught me that as a nation it is very difficult to fix our system before the misconceptions are changed. However, by changing the misconceptions involved, we can dramatically reduce the number of wrongful convictions and create a safer nation in the process." To this end, he breaks down eight misconceptions (which he calls "judicial myths") and constructively communicates what the right concepts should be through solid data and numerous case examples. He summarized the eight major judicial myths that should be dispelled as follows: "Every prisoner in jail will claim innocence; our justice system rarely wrongs good people; guilty people will confess; wrongful convictions occur because of reasonable human error; eyewitnesses are the best evidence; wrongful convictions are corrected in the appeals process; challenging a conviction hurts the victim; if there is a problem with the justice system, the system is not working; and if there is a problem with the justice system, the system is not working, the victim is being harmed. If there are problems in the justice system, professionals within the system will improve them." Since "superstition" is blind and wrong, and the result is bound to undermine the rule of law and violate human rights, this book is a work of courage for Americans to expose themselves, and it is a book of morality to take responsibility. The authors soberly see: "The size of our prison population (the largest in the world) means that even a relatively small percentage of wrongful convictions in reality manifests itself in the incarceration of a large number of innocent people. If the justice system is 99% accurate, that means 23,192 innocents are wrongly incarcerated; if the justice system is 99.9% accurate, that still leaves 2,319 innocents in prison." He doesn't think in terms of a "70/70 split", he thinks that even if it's just one person who is wrongly convicted, that person is too tragic to be ignored. "Life after prison is very difficult, and not only do they miss out on many of their favorite things, but they miss out on cultural progress." And once wrongly convicted, the chances of vindication are so slim that "most successful exonerees struggle for years with dedicated pro bono attorneys and stoic relatives to save their lives, if not their lives, from the rigors of the U.S. justice system." And if a wrongfully convicted death sentence has been carried out, it is irreversible and no amount of compensation will help. The good of his law should be taken, and if he does not change his mistakes, he is said to have gone too far. At present, the states of the United States are spontaneously carrying out a large-scale "redress of grievances project", and a large number of people are using DNA technology to find out the innocents in the wrongful convictions, and this book is a display and "case study" of the wrongful convictions found by the "redress of grievances project. This book is a demonstration and analysis of the wrongful cases found by the "Justice Cleansing Project". Tocqueville said: "The reason why I visited the United States is not simply to satisfy my own curiosity, but my hope is to find lessons from the United States that we can learn from." We are not reading this book to look for the dark side of America or to find excuses and pretexts for the wrongdoings in our own country. Shen Jiaben said: "my law is not good when it goes, when to go and not go is paradoxical; his law is good when to take, when to take and not take is stupid", it should be said that the United States of America's lessons are worth learning, the experience should be drawn on. It is necessary for every judicial worker to look at this book, especially the staff of the procuratorate and public security organs. On the one hand, Article 1 of the Organization Law of the People's Procuratorates of China is very clear: "The People's Procuratorate is the State's legal supervision organ." This is the same as in the United States, where prosecutors are charged with the responsibility of seeking justice, not just prosecuting crimes. On the other hand, China has a tradition of emphasizing confessions, and the phrase "under Chui Chu, why ask but not receive" was once regarded as a golden rule, and in the absence of a comprehensive right to silence in the Criminal Procedure Law, this book is of special importance to China's judicial practice. (Published in the Weekend of the rule of law, 11/22, page 22)