According to Tim Bakken, while almost all the participants within the system hope that only guilty people will be convicted, the unfortunate reality is that innocent people are convicted and imprisoned at an alarming rate. With the privatization of defense institutions, accused innocent people are themselves responsible for finding the facts that could exonerate them. Though the poor are represented by public defenders—in fact, almost no one who is charged with a crime has enough money to pay for a complete defense—it is still accused people, not public officials, who bear the entire burden of proving their innocence.
Join us when Professor of Law at the US Military Academy, West Point examines his book The Plea of Innocence: Restoring Truth to the American Justice System ont this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.