Supreme Court Decisions

I always thought that the essence of the American justice system was “better a hundred guilty go free than convict one innocent person.” It is a principle that has worked well for over 200 years.

Since William Rehnquist has been chief justice, the court has slowly sacrificed the rights of defendants on the altar of expediency. But who cares about the rights of criminals? So what if the search warrant is defective, if it’s only a good-faith error, we can allow the evidence to be presented to the jury since the defendants are guilty anyway. Innocent people have nothing to worry about, have they?

Now we learn that this Supreme Court believes there is nothing wrong in allowing an innocent man to be executed while they debate whether the Constitution requires evidence of innocence to be fully considered before execution (“Court to Decide If New Data Can Stay Executions,” Feb. 23).

This is not only contrary to this country’s tradition of “justice for all,” it is just plain crazy!

HERBERT SIMON

West Hollywood