“CREATE A COMMISSION ON INNOCENCE!”

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #286

I still can’t get this out of my mind. My guest on the November 8, 2019 edition of my podcast All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray on the Variety Channel of www.VoiceAmerica.com was an attorney named Justin Brooks, who is the Director of “The Innocence Project” in San Diego. This is a group that pursues the cases of convicted felons who convince them that they are factually innocent of the offenses for which they are serving time. And Mr. Brooks said that in his 20 years of working on these cases he himself has walked 29 people out of prison who were found to have been factually innocent. I hope that you agree with me that if even one person in our country is in that situation it is abhorrent, but 29 just from the efforts of this one office?! This cannot be condoned.

So what can be done? Had I been the Libertarian candidate for President I would have made it a campaign issue to establish a federal commission to review any and all cases in which any inmate in federal custody who claimed to be factually innocent would have a prompt and thorough investigation. Particularly now in the time of DNA evidence, which would be involved in many cases, no civilized society can refuse to conduct such an investigation. Of course, there could be many claims that would be false, but those could be reduced by letting it widely be known among inmates that if it was determined that they were lying, that would be a factor against them at their parole hearings. (Of course, first we would have to re-institute parole for federal offenses, which is another issue worthy of discussion.) So maybe I am just venting with you, my 2 Paragraphs Family. But we should all be aware that this is presently happening in our names, and maybe we all could contact our members of Congress and request that this commission be formed. And the same thing should happen at the state level! Your thoughts?

Notice: My new book All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray (Gaudium Books, 2020) has just been released. This book traces Libertarian thinking, and my experiences with it, and then applies that thinking in its 12 chapters to issues like Education, Healthcare, Declarations of War, Immigration, Religion, Raising and Mentoring our Children and more. If interested, please visit www.JudgeJimGray.com for more information.