Admit it. You probably thought Richard Jewell was the Centennial Park assassin after the FBI declared him a key suspect and psychologists went on the air to describe how he fit the profile of a “lone bomber”. I know I fell for it. Mr. Jewell protested the multiple searches of his home and complained that he was set upon “like piranha on a bleeding cow.” It turned out that Richard Jewell was not only innocent, but he was a genuine American hero who saved hundreds of lives. He died a few days ago.
The Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/) reports that since 1991 there have been 207 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States –individuals who were wrongfully convicted based on “eyewitness misidentification, corrupt scientists, overzealous prosecutors and inept defense counsel.” Fifteen of these people were sentenced to death. Our system of justice presumes innocence unless guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Now you know why.
Kansas DUI cases are not immune from the same frailties that caused Richard Jewell to be wrongfully accused of being a domestic terrorist or Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer from Oregon, to be wrongfully accused and imprisoned for 3 weeks as the bomber in Madrid, Spain responsible for 191 deaths (Remember him: they supposedly found his fingerprints on the bag of detonators –oops!). Just recently I discovered that a law enforcement agency in another county was fraudulently creating the quality control documents the the Kansas Department of Health and Environment requires be turned over every month in order to maintain certification of breath testing equipment, in this case an Intoxilyzer 5000. The machine failed to demonstrate on more than one occasion that it was calibrated correctly. Instead of taking the machine out of service and getting it fixed, they just made up the numbers and allowed people to be convicted and diverted for DUI charges based on incompetent breath test results. Luckily my client was not one of those unfortunate people.
While cases of wrongful accusations and convictions may be the exception rather than the rule, it is important to remember that it can happen. In fact, it happens far too often. When dramatic mistakes like those made in the Richard Jewell case can be made in cases involving the best law enforcement agents in our country, in one of the biggest investigations ever, it is not too much of a stretch to realize that they can be made in the little Kansas DUI cases that no one ever hears about.
Thank you to San Francisco attorney Paul Burglin for the inspiration for this blog entry.
http://www.burglin.com/