Manhattan DA Cy Vance is fulfilling one of his key campaign promises by implementing a new system to safeguard against wrongful convictions. He has assigned a veteran Assistant DA and ten of his top assistants to ensure that the DA's policies and procedures, as well as investigations, are not convicting the innocent.
While Mr. Vance said he believed the office had long tried to make sure that it did not make mistakes, he said a structured system would take the approach one step further."I think this will help lawyers do better what they already were doing, and with more consistency," Mr. Vance said in an interview.
It is nothing new for prosecutors to vet their own convictions and to question their investigations, said Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Astoria, Ore., and a member of the board of the National District Attorneys Association. But establishing a specific unit in a district attorney's office to examine convictions is an emerging trend, Mr. Marquis said, adding that the Manhattan office faced unique challenges because of its size. The office has about 400 assistant district attorneys.
Please watch this video and see another example of a wrongful conviction. Hopefully they are serious and really want to know the truth. The truth is there to be found and found much before having an innocent person spend years and years of their lives in prison for something they did not do. Why would it take years for a simple life saving test to be run and then to be acknowledged..I think it is unconscionable..what say you? Thank you for taking the time. D. Seltzer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vU3xG9rOx0 FREEPAULCORTEZ.ORG