Two stories caught my eye today, and while they aren’t in the tech wheelhouse of this newsletter, they do highlight how it is systems that matter, not intentions. In one story, convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh was denied a new trial. In a less famous case, a convicted murderer has the locla DA asking for his conviction to be vacated, but the state Attorney General is fighting the request. In both cases, we see how hard it is for the justice system to correct its own mistakes.
In the Murdaugh case, a judge refused to grant a new trial even though one juror said the comments of a court employee swayed her verdict and another juror admitted that the employee said prejudicial comments to them. I am reasonably sure Murdaugh is guilty, but a new trial is certainly justified. Two jurors said a court employee behaved in an inappropriate manner and one said that the employee’s behavior swayed her verdict to guilty. To not grant a new trial means that the judge is deciding that the two jurors are either lying or wrong about their own mental state. It demonstrates how hard it is for even a rich person to get basic procedural justice. Court employees aren’t supposed to show bias towards defendants, especially in the presence of jurors. He may win on appeal, but how many people can afford such appeals?
In the other case, a man, Marcellus Williams, who was convicted largely on the word of jailhouse informants, whose lawyers did not move to question the reliability of said informants, who had Black juror members removed because they were Black (read the article and you will see the most blatant use of race in juror selection you will likely ever encounter), had evidence destroyed by the police, and has all of the physical evidence point to someone else, is having his release fought by the state’s Attorney General. Read the whole article, but it is very clear that this man was not guilty — at a minimum, he did not get a fair trial. But the AG doesn’t want to release him because an overturned conviction would weaken the public’s trust in the justice system. Keeping innocent people behind bars, on the other hand, apparently gives people warm and fuzzy feelings toward the courts.
The AG’s comments are telling: the system is designed by the people who run it, to be final not to be just. AGs, prosecutors, and cops make their mark by convicting people of crime. Judges, similarly, especially elected judges, are pushed ot act as defenders of justice but rather protectors of the state. The Supreme Court itself has moved to limit appeals, going so far as to say that innocence is not sufficient for an appeal to succeed. The system is designed to keep people incarcerated regardless of guilt or fairness.
Murdaugh is likely guilty (yes, I admit, I have seen the documentaries). Williams is almost certainly innocent. Each man is having their basic right to fair trials being denied to them, even after obvious mistakes and injustices have been pointed out to the court system. Each my end up prevailing in the end, but only after years and dollars that a just system would not force them to spend.
Systems matter. The justice system is designed, it seems, to put and keep people in jail. It should be designed to find innocence and guilt. Because it is not, basic fairness is a crapshoot instead of a birthright. If you want to improve the world, it is just as important to improve the systems as to change the people in charge.