There are many innocent people who have had their lives nearly destroyed because they were accused of crimes that they did not commit. Many of those people didn't even *look guilty*, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, matched the physical description of the suspect, had the same name as a suspect, etc. Even though the court or some officer of the court KNEW that the person was most likely innocent they still went aheand and railroaded the innocent person nonetheless.
Now imagine someone fabricates a case against you just to mess with you, hands police one disk with one file that contains the most vile crime you can commit against humankind and says, "Look what this filthy animal (that would be you) had in their possession. Come to the house and pick it up because I can't stand to even touch it!"
What do YOU THINK would happen?
I've seen talk shows where people have shared how they had been jailed for decades even though everyone knew they were innocent, but the system couldn't "just let the person walk" even though another had confessed to the crime or they had proof positive of another person's guilt for that crime because then the system would have to say that the prosecutors and the judge and every other person responsible for having that person jailed LIED or suppressed evidence that would exhonerate that person so they had the choice to take a plea (I can't recall what they call it) - where you don't say you are guilty but you will accept your freedom in exchange for the state not having to say that you are innocent and the people refused... so they ended up staying in jail. Why not make the plea to get their freedom back? Because then that person has a PERMANENT RECORD. I don't know if any of you has ever been incarcerated or arrested as an adult but here in the state of Texas you can't even get an apartment if you have a record and it is VERY HARD to find employment.
Heck, I began a thread about it near 2 years ago about whether or not the boardmembers would hire someone with a record/were on probation for drugs, etc. MOST SAID HELL NO.
I've seen stories where people lost their jobs, their homes, their families even though they were 100% innocent but they were treated like they were guilty nonetheless. And no, they weren't people that "must have been doing something else wrong" to have the police pick them up.
The fact is there is no such thing as innocent until proven guilty. Once a body is accused there is NO GOD that can wash that mark off of them. And the amount of money that the innocent person has to pay to defend, then have their record sealed and expunged is an amount that MOST PEOPLE can not possibly pay.
The ironic part of all this is that the REAL criminals, the ones who practically grow up in the system because THEY CHOOSE to commit crime are out on the streets, free as birds. WTF don't the police and others that are supposed to protect GOOD CITIZENS spend more time messing with them? I am thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that innocent people don't know how to manipulate the system. I mean, why would they? THEY ARENT CRIMINALS which is most likely why they get shafted so badly.
Just my .02