January 25, 2006
This story, and all those resembling it, should serve to highlight one crucial fact that we need to remember about our criminal justice system: when we incarcerate people, we are taking their life from them. Years of their life are essentially being snatched away from these folks. In a case like Alan Crotzer’s, that fact becomes especially clear when you think of his age. He was 20 or 21 years old when he went in, and he is 45 now. That is GIANT. His whole 20’s, his whole 30’s, and half of his 40’s. He was just past being a kid then, and he’s middle-aged now.
While Mr. Crotzer was found innocent, and thus the injustice there is absolutely stark, there are plenty of people spending the bulk of their lives in prison who are not the sort of “evil” people we all would expect to be kept locked away. The system – the laws, the police, and the courts – is ideally supposed to be designed to prevent mistakes, to arrest and enforce and prosecute fairly and equitably, to mete out punishments that fit the crimes, to assume people are innocent until proven guilty, and ultimately to do its job: to serve justice. But we all know that that’s not how the system always functions. (We do all know that, right? Can I see a show of hands?) In fact, I think I’m being extremely generous to say that the system might work that way 50% of the time. Maybe (and I mean that in the strongest possible way) half of the time our law enforcement and justice system acts, it serves justice fairly and equitably, without mistakes or corruption, with the folks being presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the punishment fitting the crime. Maybe. (I just had to get that in again.)
But that really is being generous, because in many cases, systemic inequities make sure that almost all law enforcement is tainted. Just look at how black people are arrested for drug offenses in disproportionate numbers, despite the fact that they do not do drugs in equally disproportionate numbers. (Translation: they get arrested a lot more than everyone else, even though they have not been shown to do drugs that much more than everyone else, if at all.) Look at how asset forfeiture policies have tainted police departments nationwide by using greed as a motivator for law enforcement prioritites. (Translation: Cops use seizure amounts, rather than public safety, when deciding what crimes to focus on.) Look at how asset forefeiture policies have resulted in corruption, and in folks being targeted simply because they have valuable property. (Donald Scott, R.I.P.)
Look, quite simply, at how police officers abuse their power with quite a lot of impunity, in the most basic ways: arbitrary enforcement, violation of due process, filing false reports, acting from anger and vengeance, to name a few. And don’t tell me it doesn’t happen, because I’ve seen all this and more up close and in person, and on more than one occasion, and in more than one jurisdiction. I realize that there are a lot of 100% upright police officers out there, or at least I assume that there are. But I also realize – and it’s important that we all realize — that there are a LOT of not-totally-upright police out there. Why is it important that we all (by which I mean you) realize this fact of our criminal justice system? Because of the topic that brought about this blog entry: 24 years of a man’s life, stolen.
In this instance it was a victim, who falsely identified Alan Crotzer, who would seem to be the main screwup. But how about the detectives who brought him in, and the prosecutor who decided to file against him (and presumably got up and berated a jury about how Mr. Crotzer brutally did this and and savagely did that, and presumably kinda coached that victim and his other prosecution witnesses, so that his case went smoothly, and presumably had the full aid of the police)? And how about that jury, and/or judge? Fools? Or are they even victims of the system’s failure too – unwitting accomplices, not allowed to have a full enough and clear enough view of the situation to make the right call?
That they all failed together is the true answer. The cops, the detectives, the prosecutor, his witnesses, the defense attorney, the jury if there was one, and the judge. And the appeals judge, assuming there was one.
That’s a little weird when you think about it. How could all those folks mess up in the same direction? Coincidence? Or does the system possibly have a tilt to it, so that things tend to slide a certain way? And are we going to sit here and pretend that a 20-year-old black man is likely to get as fair of a shake from the justice system as anyone else?
I’m not. Not when decades of people’s lives are at stake. We have to have a real and realistic view of how this system – which is, after all, acting on our behalf – really works. And part of being realistic is understanding that Mr Crotzer’s plight is not an exception – it’s an example.
DNA Exonerates Fla. Man After 24 Years
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Alan Crotzer stepped into the warm sunlight outside the courthouse Monday and raised his arms to the sky, celebrating his freedom after more than 24 years behind bars for crimes he didn’t commit.A judge freed the 45-year-old Crotzer after DNA testing and other evidence convinced prosecutors he was not involved in the 1981 armed robbery and rapes that led to his 130-year prison sentence.