Prosecutors strive for convictions, not truth
Re: “D.C. considering taking crime lab away from police control,” Jan. 5
As a forensic toxicologist who has worked chiefly for the defense, I am quite concerned about maintaining integrity and ethical behavior in the courtroom.
Allowing police departments to independently control their own laboratories without providing independent oversight by a neutral nongovernment agency is nothing more than putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank! Many recent cases have convinced me that without strict oversight of forensic testing and testimony, we run the risk of continuing to put innocent people in prison.
Government prosecutors more concerned with convicting someone than determining what actually happened concoct fallacious theories and put great pressure on government forensic experts to provide testimony that bolsters these ill-conceived theories. Judges have a duty to allow only relevant and reliable evidence but, as pointed out by the National Academy of Sciences, they need to be better educated in the many forensic sciences to effectively exercise their “gatekeeping” role.
Any expert who provides unscientific or unreliable testimony should be brought before a neutral peer review board whose members are exempt from civil litigation.
Closing our eyes to the problem only perpetuates it.
David M. Benjamin, Ph.D.
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Kane has chutzpah for nominating O’Reilly
Re: “2010’s Chutzpah Award winners,” Jan. 3
Mr. Kane is wrong in his 10th place chutzpah pick. The people who attacked the USS Liberty were soldiers representing the government of a sovereign nation, not a bunch of self-described holy warriors attacking in the name of Yahweh or Judaism.
Mr. O’Reilly has it exactly right. Mr. Kane owes him and all Jews an apology.
Jef Jepsen
Woodbridge
Editor’s Note: Examiner columnist Gregory Kane responds: Had O’Reilly used the phrase “self-described holy warriors attacking in the name of Allah or Islam,” instead of saying “Muslims killed us on 9-11,” he would have been on more than solid ground. He would have escaped the suspicion that he was engaging in gratuitous Muslim bashing or Muslim baiting. I’m every bit as opposed to Muslim bashing and Muslim baiting as I am to Jew bashing and Jew baiting, and for that I make no apology.
Bankruptcy filings would void union contracts
Re: “As governments go broke, public employee unions must share the pain,” editorial, Dec. 28
You say “the real beneficiaries” of U.S. taxpayers being forced to bail out “public servant” employee unions are the “very unions whose excessively generous pay and benefits caused the fiscal crises.” But that assessment is only partially correct.
The “real beneficiaries” continue to be the very politicians who repeatedly vote for these unsustainably generous salaries, pensions and benefits. They buy temporary “labor peace” — and in return get millions of dollars in campaign contributions, plus endorsements and huge door-to-door and headquarters work forces, 90 percent of which go to Democrats. Bell, Calif., and the once-Golden State may be the poster children for this insanity. But other cities, counties and states are in dire straits, with Illinois, Maryland and New York leading the charge over the fiscal cliff.
The situation is unlikely to change until communities and states file for bankruptcy, which would, in many cases, void union contracts made under duress, blackmail and threat of government shutdown by those holding the purse strings (and profiting politically from the deals). Or until these sweetheart deals result in open warfare with increasingly angry and recalcitrant taxpayers who are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
Paul Driessen
Fairfax
