POST: "Are you running for president? Please answer these questions about the criminal justice system," by Radley Balko, published by the Washington Post on April 14, 2015. (Radley
Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties
for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the
Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.")
GIST: "The
recent announcement from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that he’ll be running
for president and an expected similar announcement from former senator
Jim Webb (D-Va.) suggest that we may actually see some discussion of
criminal justice reform on the campaign trail soon — at least during the
primaries. To that end, I’ve put together a quick and dirty list of
questions I’d like to see some or all of the candidates answer. I
realize there’s little to no chance this will happen. But they’re worth
throwing out there, if for no other reason than to generate some
discussion........The list of questions includes: 'President Obama recently formed a National Commission on Forensic Science
to address the use of forensic analysis in the courtroom. This comes
after a number of crime lab scandals across America in which analysts
were caught fudging data, hiding unfavorable results, faking tests and
in some cases just displaying general incompetence. It also comes after a
2009 National Academy of Sciences report,
which found that in many forensic disciplines, analysts routinely give
testimony in court that is unsupported by any scientific research.
Currently, we have tasked judges with assessing the validity of
scientific evidence. But judges are trained in law, not science. Do you
agree that there are significant problems with forensic evidence? Do you
think we should continue to ask judges to assess its validity? Would
you support looking for an alternative system of distinguishing good
science from bad before allowing it to be used in court?
Do you believe an innocent person has been executed since the United
State reinstated the death penalty in 1976? If so, do you believe this
is an indictment of the death penalty, or that the benefits of capital
punishment outweigh this risk?" The entire list can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/04/09/are-you-running-for-president-please-answer-these-questions-about-the-criminal-justice-system/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I
have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site.
The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible
years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr.
Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of
Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"
section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It
can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
Sent from my iPad
