Justice, American style. In July 1997, Michelle Bosko is raped and murdered. Police find no sign of forced entry and recover numerous semen and skin samples as well as fingerprints. The detectives ask the husband for his "gut feeling" for who did it. The husband fingers their neighbor. After many hours with a detective with a history of coerced confessions, he confesses and implicates his roommate. His roommate implicates three other men. Subsequent confessions from those men implicate a total of seven men. None of the suspects match the DNA or fingerprint evidence. Two years later, on a chance recovery of a jailhouse confession, a suspect admits to the killing. He has several rapes/assaults to his record and was a friend of the victim. He later confesses to the crime and says he acted alone. He matches the DNA and fingerprint analysis. The district attorney does NOT believe him, and convicts a total of five people for the crime.
posted by patrickje on Aug 19, 2002 - 51 comments

The War on... education? It's estimated that 7000 US college students will lose their entitlement to at least some financial aid because of previous drug convictions. Which is nice. Now, the follies of the "war on drugs" are well-documented, but this takes the cake. I thought that punishment was for the criminal justice system to dispense...
posted by holgate on Oct 24, 2000 - 20 comments