As I See It: Inattention to Injustice Puts Politics Over People

    November 14, 2007
    The Kansas City Star (MO)
    By Stephen Wyse


    The American Bar Association recently called for a moratorium on the death penalty because of racial disparities and concerns for the wrongly convicted being executed for a crime they didn't commit.

    Two years ago, after a hearing on the Integrity of Justice Act, (HB557) Republican Richard Byrd, the chairman of House Judiciary Committee in Missouri, promised a special committee to study proposed reforms and possibly begin "best practice" recommendations to improve the reliability of the criminal justice system so that the guilty were held accountable and the innocent weren't sacrificed.

    Byrd cared about justice and making sure that the criminal justice system did the best job possible: If bureaucratic toes had to be stepped on, then so be it.

    Unfortunately, within two weeks of committing to appoint a special committee, Byrd was dead. House Speaker Rod Jetton honored Byrd's promise and appointed a committee to hold hearings. He surprisingly named a Democrat to chair it. Hearings were held at law schools in Columbia and St. Louis. Experts from New York and Chicago and across Missouri presented testimony, including law enforcement and prosecutors.

    An extensive report was compiled and submitted to the speaker's office. This is where things took an unusual track. Normally, when a special committee issues a report, the speaker's office issues a press release and makes the report available to public.

    In this case, the report was buried and no public comments or appreciation for the committee's work was ever communicated by any part of the Missouri House. But then again, this is an issue that largely affects people of color. No lobbyist capable of making contributions supports this legislation and "those people" are regularly ignored by Republican presidential candidates and the GOP leadership in Missouri.

    In a state government dominated by concerns of self-interest and exploiting issues of race to win votes, it makes no pragmatic sense to rock the boat. Many rank-and-file Republicans co-sponsored HB 557, but until Byrd, legislative leadership had killed these reforms, which were designed to make the assignment of guilt more reliable and prevent the innocent from being wrongly convicted or executed.

    Seven Missourians, all people of color, have been wrongly convicted and later exonerated by DNA. They are part of a growing club. DNA evidence is not uniformly preserved and is a factor in a very small percentage of cases. The only government study of post-arrest DNA verifications found that one in four of those arrested were cleared by DNA evidence. It is believed that 10 percent of those currently in prison, 200,000 individuals, are innocent of the crime for which they are behind bars.

    Stephen Wyse is an attorney, past chair of the Missouri Bar Sub-Committee on DNA Exonerations and a former police officer. He lives in Columbia.



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