What O.C. Conviction Rates Really Say

* Re “Lagging on the Felony Front,” July 30:

If, as you report, of those arrested for felonies, 37% are convicted in Orange County, compared with 50% in the five most populous California counties (including Orange), it does not follow that our district attorney and courts are somehow under-performing.

Because people are presumed innocent until they are convicted, what your figures more logically show is that our police are detaining too many innocent persons and [seeking] to overcharge some of the rest.

It appears that the Orange County criminal defense bar and criminal courts are outperforming those of the other counties.

And if acquitting the innocent costs more than falsely convicting them, so be it.

VOLNEY V. BROWN JR.

Dana Point

* What am I missing here? A woman who is in her seventh month of pregnancy is punched in the stomach by her husband and is rushed to the hospital bleeding. Her husband had beaten her severely the prior week. The police list the assault as “willful infliction of corporal injury,” which is a felony. And this is prosecuted by the Orange County D.A.’s office as a misdemeanor?

I guess [Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi] doesn’t know much about battered women, or he just doesn’t care. We’ll remember that the next time he runs for office.

SUSAN L. BARRETT

Rossmoor