‘Sentencing the Wrong Man to Die’
I found your front-page story of the man who was almost executed for a crime he did not commit on the basis of perjured evidence to be truly frightening. Not frightening because he came within hours of being ritualistically killed in the name of “justice.” Not even frightening because prosecutor Robert Bonanno knew that his witness was perjuring himself and knew there was physical evidence that quite conclusively proved the defendant’s innocence, and that he used the inexperience of the defense lawyer to get away with several questionable maneuvers designed to suppress these facts.
No, I find it frightening because no one--not Bonanno, not the justices who couldn’t be bothered looking at the evidence, not even the defense lawyer himself--finds anything wrong in this! It’s just the way the game is played.
A crime is committed and we can’t find who did it, so we’ll just pick some likely candidate and doctor up a little evidence against him, and if he can’t hire someone wily enough to uncover the deception, we’ll just strap the stupid jerk down and kill him, and justice is served!
Truth? What’s that got to do with it? It’s just a game of debate, that’s all!
MARVIN JONES
Los Angeles
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