I know that with the Presidential primaries in full swing, with deeply contested races in both parties, that the news is dominated by this, as is our community here. It is to be expected that other stories, and other issues, will be driven somewhat to the wayside.
But while we are attempting to choose the course that our government shall take in the future, we have a responsibility to look at the wrongs in our present and past, and attempt to address them. Government struggles to do good when its evils are not confronted. And the following is a story which I am willing to beg you to read.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Geneva France walked out of federal prison with $68 and a bus ticket home. That's all the government had to offer a woman who had served 16 months of a decade-long prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit.
The mother of three returned to her family, but her youngest child -- who was 18 months old when France was sent to prison -- didn't recognize her.
And France, 25, had no home to return to.
Her landlord had evicted her from the rental during her incarceration, and everything she owned had been tossed on the street.
France's case is the nightmare scenario for a system that critics say sometimes dispenses justice differently for rich and poor.
It shows how easy it is for the government to get convictions in cases built on shaky investigations.
Defense attorneys say a street-smart but dishonest informant and a federal agent working without oversight manipulated the system to convict France and dozens of others.
"They stole the truth," France said. "I don't think I'll ever trust people again. It's too hard."
"I don't know how a human being with a heart could stand up there and lie about another person," France said. "They stole part of my life."
Ms. France is one of the people involved in twenty-six cases tied to lies by a DEA informant which were then used to build fake cases by DEA Agent Lee Lucas. Fifteen others have still not yet been released from prison, including one man who is serving thirty years due to official lies.
And Agent Lucas is still active and working for the DEA.
In 2005, the FBI’s own Inspector General reported that the FBI fails to follow its own guidelines when dealing with informants in eighty-seven percent of all cases. In nearly nine out of ten cases, they are breaking their own rules.
And the Geneva France’s of America are part of the human cost of our tolerance of that.
In fifteen years, The Innocence Project, just one of the organizations which aids wrongly convicted Americans, has brought about the exonerations of 212 people using DNA evidence alone. Fifteen of those exonerated had been sentenced to death. They have over 160 current cases as well, and could be doing far more if law enforcement would cooperate. Of those 212 exonerations, fifteen of those are from Dallas, Texas, where District Attorney Craig Watkins is the only D.A. in the country who has embraced The Innocence Project and is actively cooperating with them. Charles Chatman, the most recently exonerated convict from Dallas, served twenty-seven years for a crime he did not commit. Imagine what that means if there is only one more person like Chatman for every city the size of Dallas in America. And then realize that it is almost certainly far more than one.
This is not an anomaly. Every few months, I compose yet another sad diary about how our government is misusing our criminal justice system. I refuse to believe that nothing can be done about it. I refuse to accept that these stories cannot be changed by the American people.
We owe Geneva France more than $68 and a bus ticket. Please, I beg you, support The Innocence Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other organizations fighting to bring these abuses to light and these victims to freedom. Please, demand that your representatives give this issue more attention. Demand that our Presidential candidates give us real answers as to how they will address this as President. Demand that the Drug Enforcement Agency relieve Agent Lee Lucas of his duties, and cooperate with the Department of Justice in his investigation.
I beg you, do not let this injustice be forgotten.