Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Bulletin: Judge Alex Kozinski identifies "12 huge lies about justice in America"; (Link connects to entire Georgetown Law School article); Matthew Speiser; Business Insider; (Great read: Kozinski's "largely false beliefs" about the justice system are hardly limited to America - they apply to Canada and many other jurisdictions as well. HL);

"Judge Alex Kozinski, one of America's most prominent jurists, has a new article out that attacks many assumptions about criminal justice in the US. "Much of the so-called wisdom that has been handed down to us about the workings of the legal system, and the criminal process in particular, has been undermined by experience, legal scholarship and common sense," Kozinski writes in the Georgetown Law Journal. In his article, Kozinski calls much of the law "guesswork" and points out 12 widely held but largely false beliefs about criminal prosecution in America.  The very first 6 out of the 12 largely false beliefs will of interest to the readers of this blog.1. Eyewitnesses are highly reliable[ 2. Fingerprint evidence is foolproof; 3. Other types of forensic evidence are scientifically proven and therefore infallible; 4. DNA evidence is infallible; 5. Human memories are reliable; 6. Confessions are infallible because innocent people never confess;"