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Volume 34, Number 4, 2003 reprinted with permission of the author PROSECUTORS, PREJUDICES AND JUSTICE: OBSERVATIONS ON PRESUMING INNOCENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE AND LAW Christine Alice Corcos* THE rhetoric surrounding the proposed trials of suspected al-Qaeda members for the September 11, 2001 atrocities, as well as the barely suppressed anger of congressional representatives over former Enron executive Kenneth Lay's refusal to testify before them, should not surprise anyone who has read Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, or any of the other books and films that question the presumption of innocence. Indeed, as Turow points out, the presumption of innocence could be considered one of the American legal system's dirtiest little secrets: try as we might, we really have a great deal of trouble accepting that those who are accused might not be guilty, and that the burden of proof lies not with the defendant to exonerate himself but with the prosecution to convict him. That we continue to try is to our credit, as well as absolutely necessary to our legal system, but given the rhetoric of the past eighteen months, it has become difficult. When the Attorney General of the United States is quoted as suggesting that using secret military tribunals to try suspected al-Qaeda members for terrorism is justified because "common knowledge" labels them terrorists, when persons who look as though they are of Arab descent are judged purely on that basis, and when elected representatives and civic leaders of all political persuasions tell us that everyone should stand behind President Bush's attempts to curtail civil liberties because otherwise we are not patriotic citizens, we must remind ourselves that these are not unusual reactions.1 Indeed they are the reactions expected of a society under [793]
physical and psychological attack.2
They represent a natural human reaction: we do not find the presumption
of innocence easy or natural to adopt, particularly in times of crisis.
It runs counter to our intuition and makes us uncomfortable. If the individual
on trial might be innocent, then the guilty person is still "out there"
and leads to the conclusion that the legal system is not infallible. Therefore,
an innocent person could be accused and convicted. If the innocent can
be convicted and the guilty go free, where is justice? And of what use
is the legal system? Since, as Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out nearly
two hundred years ago, Americans worship law so questioning the legal system
would require questioning our most fundamental beliefs.3
Therefore,
we have the uncomfortable feeling that the persons on trial are probably
guilty.
[794] always understood it, and have explained it to us repeatedly.6
They also force us to admit that maintaining the presumption of innocence
is a duty that we shirk too often--precisely because it is so difficult.
It is also a duty that once shirked has consequences, but those consequences
do not follow immediately. They come years or decades later, and they are
difficult to trace back to an initial lack of moral courage, assuming one
exists. In the last thirty years, the presumption of innocence, as demonstrated
by novelists and scriptwriters in literature, film, and television, has
given way to a presumption of guilt once an accusation is made.7
Society finds it easy, even comforting, to abandon that presumption of
innocence and to trust those who bring the accusations, rather than ourselves
to question their motives or their ability to locate not the most convenient
defendant, but the defendant who is most guilty.8
Writers remind us that those who administer the legal system can twist
meaning to suit the fashions of the day and deliver any of us into the
tender mercies of our peers, who may be more eager to presume guilt, to
achieve resolution of social crisis, than to presume innocence and continue
the investigation.9
[795] a particular judicial chapter and move on. But for the real truth of
events, we must turn to other interpreters: writers, poets, painters, historians,
anthropologists, who have their own biases, but who habitually examine
the human heart more extensively than do the functionaries of the legal
system.
[796] indictment of the legal system and suggests that one of our most honored
principles--the presumption of innocence--is honored more in the breach
than in the observance.
John White brought me up to watch the first jury trial I'd ever seen. Ned Halsey was making the opening statement for the state, and as he gestured across the courtroom, John, in his generous, avuncular way ... whispered my initial lesson... If you don't have the courage to point, ... you can't expect them to have the courage to convict.14In Turow's world, the prosecutor may be portrayed (and understood) as overly ambitious, uninterested in the protection of individual rights,15 or interested only in protecting the status quo. Since the novel is written in the first person, we are meant to assume (or presume) that the opinions are Rusty's, but that is what is important. He is a thirteen-year veteran of the DA's office who has acquired some cynicism along the way--cynicism that sometimes gets in the way of our objective evaluation of his statements. But we can see his disillusionment with the system he has served. Here is the description of Rusty's nemesis Nico Della Guardia, who eventually prosecutes him for the murder of Carolyn Pohlhemous: I met Nico a dozen years ago, on my first day as a deputy P.A., when we were assigned to share an office. Eleven years later I was the chief deputy and he was head of the Homicide Section and I fired him. By then he had begun overtly attempting to run Raymond out of office. There was a black physician, an abortionist, whom Nico wanted to prosecute for murder. His position made no sense as a matter of law, but it excited the passions of various interest groups whose support he sought. Nico planted news stories about his disagreements with Raymond; he made jury arguments--for which abundant press coverage always was arranged--that were little more than campaign speeches. Rusty's description of Della Guardia's chief henchman Tommy Molto is equally unflattering, especially when you consider that Molto is a former seminarian. A driven personality. The kind to stay up all night working on a brief, to go three months without taking off a weekend. A capable attorney, but he is burdened by a zealot's poverty of judgment. As a prosecutor, he always seemed to me to be trying to make facts rather than to understand them. He burns at too high a temperature to worth much before a jury...17Molto is the DA in charge of creating the case against Rusty. He is the kind of prosecutor who frightens us, the kind some people accused Ken Starr of being, the kind Starr was portrayed as by some of the media--single-minded, on a crusade, ignoring all exculpatory evidence and blind to the fact that accusations, once made, are lasting. When Rusty discusses Della Guardia's presence at Carolyn's funeral, as well as the upcoming election, with his boss Raymond Horgan, we see the kind of political pressure that remains undiscussed, but plays a part in prosecutions and sometimes results in scapegoating. I inquire about the meeting with the mayor, and Horgan rolls his eyes. "He wanted to give me some advice, just in confidence, me and him, because he doesn't want to appear to be taking sides. He thinks it would help my chances a lot if we arrested Carolyn's murderer before Election Day."18The political payoff associated with quick resolution of high profile crimes meshes with police concerns about "doing one's job" and leads inevitably, and sometimes intentionally, to the trial and conviction of innocent people. We know our legal system is not perfect, and we assume this is part of any system created by human beings. As part of the profession, lawyers learn to accept its faults, but they also may become complacent, or willfully blind to the excesses of the moral pigmies among them. As Rusty tells us after an encounter with the medical examiner who has leaked information to Tommy Molto: "I sit in my office and brood. Oh, how fucking clever. Everything we asked for. And nothing more. Give the results--but not the opinion. Call when the forensic chemist reports, but don't mention what it says. Let us run as long as possible in the wrong direction. And in the meantime, leak every goddamn thing you know to Molto... God, I think politics is dirty. And the police department is dirtier. The Medici did not live in a world fuller of intrigue... Every one ... needs a break. And you give it. In a big-city police department ... there is no such thing as playing by the book. The book got trashed many years ago."19 Apparently many of Rusty's ideals were also trashed. But as Turow reminds us, we are willing to accept the faults of the system as long as we are not its victims. We [798] may make presumptions about the number of innocent people likely to
be convicted if particular kinds of evidence are admitted, or excluded.
We may allow jurors to continue to believe, and may believe ourselves,
for example, that eyewitness testimony is more credible than other kinds,
simply because it is given by a human being.20
We are not Rusty Sabich, who could so easily have been convicted, and we
are not Juan Melendez, the Florida man who spent seventeen years on death
row for a murder to which another man had already confessed repeatedly.21
I look at the worn face of Raymond Horgan, my old idol, my leader... Twelve years after he got started talking about revolutionizing the idea of law enforcement, and a year too late for the best interests of us both, Raymond Horgan has finally pulled the plug. It is now all someone else's problem. And to the little incubus that argues that principles and issues are involved, there is, after twelve years, an exhausted man's reply. Ideas and principles are not foremost here. Not when you do not have the jails to hold the crooks you catch, or enough courtrooms to try them; not when the judge who hears the case is too often some hack who went to night law school because his brother already had filled the one slot available in their father's insurance agency, and who achieved his appointment by virtue of thirty years' loyal precinct work. In the administration of Nico Della Guardia there will be the same imperatives, no matter what he's saying on his TV spots: too many crimes ... too few lawyers, too many calls for political favors, too much misery, and too much evil that will keep happening no matter what the ideals and principles of the prosecuting attorney. He can have his turn. Raymond's ease at the abyss becomes my own.In the novel, Raymond Horgan is a man who had ideals, like Rusty, but who has gotten tired of the bureaucracy and the no-win situations. In the film he is much more of a one dimensional character, interested in his re-election, and therefore in catching someone--anyone--for Carolyn's murder, and eventually distancing himself from the crime. Horgan will not stand with Rusty once the accusations begin. In the film Rusty has a good deal of trouble understanding Horgan's betrayal; indeed, he seems just a little too stupid or naive to have been such a success as an assistant district attorney (ADA). Whatever their role in the drama, prosecuting attorneys are often unsavory characters, who intentionally subvert the system, or obtain the "correct" (i.e. just) result only through accident or the intervention of some outside agency. Another example of the politically ambitious attorney is Robert Vaughn's character in the [799] film Bullitt,23
who threatens the title character if he does not produce the DA's star
witness immediately, regardless of the physical threats that have been
made against the man's safety. Or consider Tom Krasny, the prosecutor in
Jagged Edge,24 who
deliberately manufactures evidence to convict an innocent man, and gets
away with it until defense attorney Teddi Barnes reveals the truth in open
court. A 1986 National Law Journal
poll indicates that most Americans
believe that "citizens' groups" contribute more than lawyers or judges
to the protections of individual rights (42% to 11% and 11%). However,
in reply to the question "which most closely represents your view of the
most positive aspect of lawyers?" 20% responded "They protect the rights
of citizens" and 6% said "They are active in bringing about social change."25
It may also be that most Americans responding to the poll did not realize,
or did not remember, that "citizens' groups" include such organizations
as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Sierra Club, in whose activities
many lawyers participate extensively. Clearly, the American public also
has presumptions about lawyers in general. Americans' presumptions about
prosecutors, as well as other lawyers, tend to parallel Rusty's views.
A 1997 Gallup Poll revealed that respondents believe only car salesmen
have fewer ethics than lawyers.26
The vitriol launched at lawyers is thousands of years old of course, but
only in the last few years have we attempted to do anything about it, which
has led to the formation of a new association--the American Lawyers Public
Image Association.27
That the public also assumes many police are corrupt28
is becoming more and more evident, and the taint now extends to the Federal
Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which was long considered a bastion of
fairness, at least by outsiders. For example, a 2000 Gallup Poll revealed
that 40% of Americans believed the FBI deliberately withheld evidence from
Timothy McVeigh's defense team.29
[800] in a small North Carolina town, has several scenes in which the surviving
victim and mother, played by Blythe Danner, angrily accuses the police
of trying to frame her son for the murder of her second husband. Referring
to their incompetence, she charges, "the police could accuse an innocent
person, couldn't they?" The chief investigator responds in another scene
by refusing to let her know the process of the investigation, since she
has (wisely) hired an attorney for her son, Christopher, the chief suspect.
"We can't work out a deal with Chris," says the police officer, "once the
lawyers are involved." Since we eventually learn that Chris is guilty of
conspiracy in the murder, we of course are meant to sympathize with the
overworked, unjustly accused police and prosecutor. But in the less well
known real life Michelle Bosko murder case, eight men were accused, and
several convicted, even though one man who confessed alleged he was the
only perpetrator, and he alone provided accurate details of the crime in
his confession.32 The
others are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole based
only on their confessions, which they, their lawyers, and a recent documentary
allege were coerced after hours of police interrogation.
In the general run of things, I would say Mac is probably the finest lawyer in this office, organized, shrewd, gifted in court. Over the years she has learned to use the chair to advantage before a jury... As the jurors get a couple of days to think about what it would be like to have their legs flapping around, loose as flags, as they listen to this woman, handsome, forceful, good-humored, absorb the wedding ring, the casual mention of her baby, observe the fact that she is--impossibly--normal, they are full of admiration and, as we all should be, hope. Next September, Mac will become a judge. She already has party slating and will run in the primary unopposed. The general election will be an automatic. There are not, apparently, a lot of people who feel they can beat a lawyer with support from women's groups, the handicapped, law-and-order types, and the city's three major bar associations.37Notice that he is attributing her probable success not to her abilities, but to non-objective factors: her sex, her physical disability, and her job. Rusty is not sanguine about the likely quality of most judges. He seems to believe that if they are good, it is accidental. Of course these judges are elected; we don't know what he might think of an appointed state bench. Carolyn Pohlhemous was, in the words of her boss, Raymond Horgan, "a smart, sexy gal. A helluva lawyer."38 Horgan links both her abilities as a prosecutor and her victim status to her sexual appeal. Indeed, her sexual activities are what get her killed, just as they are what give her the opportunities to pursue a career she loves. Just like Mac, she uses sex to get attention for her work, although not quite in the same way. Mac's use of her gender is clearly more acceptable than is Carolyn's. Note that Carolyn is also a mother in the novel; the film drops all mention of her teenaged son. With neither of these images does Turow reassure us that prosecutors are as pure as needed to uphold the ideals of the legal system, even if women DAs have understandable motivations to use whatever "edge" they might have in order to advance their careers. As Rusty notes, the stereotyping that Mac and Carolyn have used to advance their careers also exists with regard to assumptions about defendants. These assumptions victimize him; they are one of the reasons he becomes the accused in the Pohlhemous case rather than the prosecutor. Why does the new prosecutor, Tommy Molto, point the finger at Rusty originally? For the same reasons that Rusty's good friend, Detective Lipranzer suspects him. Molto knows the profile of individuals likely to commit an intimate murder, as is the case in the Pohlhemous crime. Rusty had a sexual relationship with the victim. The National Institute of Justice Crime Survey's statistics for 1987-1991 indicate that 91% of women attacked or killed during that period were assaulted by someone they knew. Rusty admits as much when talking with Carolyn's ex-husband, although it's because he's considering the latter as a potential suspect. Murders aren't usually mysterious. In this city these days, half of them are gang-related. In almost all the other cases, the victim and the killer knew each other well. About half of them are broken love affairs; marriage on the rocks, unhappy lovers, that kind of thing. Usually there's been some kind of breakup in the last six months. Generally, the motivation is pretty obvious.39In this particular case, the murderer doesn't quite fit the profile. [802] Lipranzer's reasons for suspecting Sabich are more complicated. He is,
of course, familiar with the profile. But he also has trouble reconciling
the notion of Rusty as a defendant, with a perfect right to exercise his
right to silence because of his prior experience of having Rusty as a colleague
and friend who confided not only information, but prosecutorial strategy,
to him. With Lipranzer's reaction, Turow brings into the focus another
aspect of the difficulty of accepting the presumption of innocence: the
right of the accused to refuse to be a witness against himself.
I first ran across Lip seven or eight years ago... We have done a dozen cases since, but there are still ways in which I regard him as a mystery, even a danger... On paper, his job is to act as police liaison, coordinating homicide investigations of special interest to our office. In practice, he is as solitary as a shooting star... Lipranzer is a scholar of the underlife.40Lipranzer bases his suspicion on Rusty's actions: that he had a long term relationship with the victim, which ended badly; that he seems to have wanted Lipranzer to delay or forget about crucial evidence; and, that when Lipranzer gives him the evidence at the end of the film, Rusty destroys it. Readers and viewers know that Rusty is not guilty, but only because they are privy to other scenes involving Rusty when Lipranzer is not present. In legal terms, this information is equivalent to hearsay, and is either inadmissible, or if Rusty were to report it, not persuasive. Rusty is not inclined to divulge the content of those scenes to Lipranzer. Thus, Lipranzer's suspicions seem justified where they are based, quite reasonably, on his observations of Rusty's behavior. Should such suspicions, unrebutted for lack of admissible or persuasive evidence, be enough to convict Rusty of murder? Lipranzer is an intelligent and trained investigator with lengthy experience in evaluating suspects' activities. Though he is wrong about Rusty, a jury of Lipranzers privy to Rusty's activities might well have convicted him. Further, Rusty is a loner and alone. He is apparently the only one of the attorneys in the prosecutors' office who still supports Raymond Horgan whole-heartedly and does not seem to understand the depth of Horgan's ambition and impending betrayal. He is the only major character who has no place in the new administration: Molto will replace him; Mac will be a judge; Horgan will move on in politics; and, Carolyn, of course, is dead. By focusing on this isolation, Turow reinforces the notion that the defendant stands solitary and almost powerless against the machinery of government. Rusty's only remaining friend is a rogue cop. His attorney, Sandy Stern, represents wealthy clients accused of unspeakable crimes whom no other attorney will defend.41 [803] Turow's view that the defendant is indeed alone,
fighting the organized and sometimes evil system, is the focus of other
plays and films. The notion that the defendant is alone against the powerful
machinery that a government controlled process can bring against him is
clearly articulated in the film Reversal of Fortune, based on the
book by Alan Dershowitz, the lead attorney in the appellate proceeding.42Reversal
of Fortune, which is perhaps the only major film to deal with the appellate
process rather than with a trial, sounds the theme that a skewed adversarial
system, biased against the accused, leaves that individual with no one
courageous enough to speak out in his support or defense. As Ron Silver,
who plays Dershowitz, tells a student in one scene, "Imagine that you are
a mother accused of child abuse. There's no one you can trust, no one on
your side. Even the mailman looks at you funny. No one is your friend,
except your lawyer."43
To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: "Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve... They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends."44Is he suggesting that those who criticize the government commit treason? He does not say so. But such comments make it difficult for lawyers and judges to remind potential jurors that there is a presumption of innocence. Further complicating the issue is the recent statement from the Pentagon that even if acquitted, detainees at Camp X-Ray might not be freed or automatically deported. William J. Haynes II, the Pentagon's top lawyer, called the prisoners "dangerous people" and said "If we had a trial right this minute, it is conceivable that somebody could be tried and acquitted of that charge but may not necessarily automatically be released."45 The themes Turow explores in Presumed Innocent appear in earlier, equally well-known works, demonstrate that concerns about the presumption of innocence have cut through many fictional representations of the law. They have influenced and continue to influence popular culture notions of the possibility of justice as well. In [804] the Saul Levitt play The Andersonville Trial,46the
defendant Captain Wirz is on trial for war crimes committed against Union
prisoners of war (POWs) at the Confederate prison camp he supervised during
the war between the states. Levitt makes it clear that Wirz is being used
as a scapegoat for all the Confederate officers who outrank him whom the
Johnson government does not want to try, and Wirz will not be acquitted.
Indeed, the real Captain Wirz was the only Confederate officer tried, convicted,
and executed for war crimes after 1865.47
The Levitt play emphasizes the "gamesmanship" going on during the trial,
particularly with respect to the evidentiary rules and the defendant's
right to a civilian attorney. As Wirz says to his lawyer during one scene,
long before the final decision of the tribunal, "You are all playing games
with the law, and I am to die." It is clear to him, as it is clear to us,
that someone must pay for the deaths at Andersonville, and that it does
not much matter whom it is, as long as it is not someone who might still
have influence in a post-Civil War South. The Union must punish some culprits,
but avoid making martyrs. Wirz was not, and is not, important enough to
be a martyr. And his unimportance stems, at least partly, from his "alien
nature": he was not a native-born American, and therefore he was already
an "outsider."
[805] us after the fact, but that writers have been pointing out for years.51
Accusations
of his treason diminished eventually, primarily because treason is so difficult
to prove,52 but that
does not mean we are not expected to understand that Lindh was associated
with treasonous activities. Further, Attorney General Ashcroft's comments
have already occasioned criticism from Lindh's attorney, James Brosnahan,
who has requested that he refrain from prejudicial statements: "I'd think
the American people probably want the attorney general to focus on those
people who really did the harm to this nation ... and not take it out on
John Lindh, ... because in my view ... they have brought up the cannon
to shoot the mouse."53
The mouse image is particularly good in this context: a mouse is a tiny,
helpless creature--calling Lindh a rodent would not have been nearly as
effective.
A 19-year-old Indian student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was physically attacked early Friday by a fellow student who called him a "terrorist." The incident--which escalated into a fight involving between 30 and 40 people--is another in a series of racially motivated assaults on Middle Eastern and Asian college students following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.54Anyone familiar with the novel Gentleman's Agreement, or John Griffin's memoir Black Like Me knows that ugly assumptions about racial and ethnic groups are nothing new, and emerge and flourish quickly in the appropriate political environment.55 Does another witch-hunt now loom, along the lines of the McCarthy investigations, or as Arthur Miller presents in The Crucible?56 Consider the number of non-citizens already detained, without a hearing or access to attorneys, since 9/11. [806] As we now know, Lindh has pled guilty, and
Moussaoui is on trial.57
The likelihood that they will be convicted of
something is fairly
high.58 Absent prosecutorial
misconduct or ineptness, acquittals on all charges were always unlikely,
and the rhetoric that surrounded discussion of their cases reflects that
fact. And, if they were to be acquitted, they would never be considered
innocent by the rest of the world. Certainly the facts reported suggested
that they should have been tried.59
But the public never knew the extent of the evidence against Lindh, and
sadly, it doesn't seem to matter. The debate is already so fierce that
finding untainted juries will be difficult, even if potential jurors assure
the judge and attorneys that they are not already biased against the defendants.
Individuals who want to serve on juries in high-profile crimes are not
stupid. They know what to say to be acceptable to the prosecution and the
defense; they have learned that from television and movies. They know that
to the question, "Can you listen to all the evidence presented and render
a just, fair and impartial verdict?" the correct answer is "yes," regardless
of the truth. Indeed, they may convince themselves that they truly can
be impartial. People who answer truthfully, "No" do not get empaneled on
juries. Does this mean a potential juror's bias cannot be rooted out? No,
but it does mean that both the prosecution and the defense must be persistent
in chasing after it.
[807] Al-Qaeda members are not POWs, but rather terrorists and thus, as lawyers
say, res ipsa loquitur: the thing speaks for itself.61
Despite disquiet in congress, in the media and within the legal profession, there is little doubt the US public supports the measures. But setting aside cherished constitutional guarantees faces strong opposition. In the case of military tribunals, says Kuby, you end up with a situation in which someone's guilt is largely preordained, based on the accusation. "That's anathema to our system of justice. It's a show trial without the show."63Many British commentators, however, seem to overlook radical changes in the United Kingdom's approach toward the rights of suspects. Since 1994 no "right to silence" that is comparable to the Fifth Amendment exists under British law.64 [808] Further, commentators do not seem to understand the purpose of the presumption:
that no one should be required to bear witness against himself.
Alleged Australian al-Qaeda fighter David Hicks would get a fair trial in his home country, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today. Senator Hill rejected claims he or the government had demonised Hicks, who is being held in a military prison in Cuba by the United States. Hicks's family and his lawyers have accused the government of demonising him, making it impossible for him to ever receive a fair trial in Australia. But Senator Hill said while Hicks was entitled to a presumption of innocence, he would not endorse any terrorist act or a person who engaged in terrorist training. "You will see that I've stressed that these are allegations relating to Hicks, and I'm confident that within Australia he would receive a fair trial," he told ABC radio. "He's entitled to a presumption of innocence ... but I'm also very conscious of the way in which terrorist organisations work, and his training with al-Qaeda. Terrorism is horrific, those who engage in it, those who practice in it, those who train in it are not going to receive any positive endorsement from me."65Such statements as those of Ashcroft and Hill give rise to a concern that the public, believing that elected or respected appointed officials know the law, will assume that these officials are also capable of giving guidance as to the "correct" outcome of any trial. Further, who dares oppose the increased security, the investigations, the detentions of Muslims and Arabs, the limitations on our civil liberties in time of war? In time of war we see alien enemies where only aliens walked before. Some limitations are of course reasonable. But what is reasonable? Our natural inclination is to fear first, ask questions later, and eventually, perhaps, when the threat seems to have passed, relax our guard and restore the liberties taken, as we did with the Japanese Americans interned during the Second World War. But can we make them whole? I am not suggesting that the U.S. government should not investigate thoroughly real threats to our nation's safety, nor that temporary reasonable limitations are not justified. But it seems to me that what constitutes a temporary and reasonable limitation depends to a great extent on presumptions about the continuing nature of the threat. The Supreme Court has yet to review the constitutionality of FISA court activities.66 Meanwhile, that court is likely to become increasingly important in the [809] issuance of permission to U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor suspected terrorists, since the government need only make a minimum showing to obtain permission to surveil its targets. We only infrequently saw this kind of courage during the Second World War, when then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave the order to intern thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent, whose only crime was their ethnic ancestry.67 These innocents lost their homes, businesses, and four years of their lives.68 According to the commanding officer of the Western Defense Command: The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become "Americanized," the racial strains are undiluted... The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.69Among the few voices raised in defense of the Nisei was that of then Governor Ralph L. Carr of Colorado, an act which consequently cost his political career.70 The U.S. government took decades to acknowledge that these citizens were unfairly treated.71 Profiling is also the name of the game as we know from other areas of law enforcement, and it can easily result in the scapegoating discussed above. "Driving while black" is too common an infraction to need much documentation here.72 It has emerged in an ugly new guise: "flying while Semitic-looking." It is thus not surprising to see agitation in the media and in government circles directed at examining why, for instance, Richard Reid was allowed to board an American Airlines, December 24th Paris to Miami flight while a Secret Service agent was banned from an American Airlines flight four days later.73 Of course the excess of caution on December 28th was the result of the permission Reid received to board a flight on December 24th, but deep thought is not characteristic of the "hot news" media coverage emerging since 9/11. [810] Prosecutors suggest that part of what the federal
government will need to demonstrate to obtain a conviction in the Zacarias
Moussaoui case is that Moussaoui's actions before his detention before
9/11 on immigration violations tracks those of the known hijackers so closely
that to presume he was also a part of the conspiracy is demonstrated beyond
a reasonable doubt. Whether true or not, it certainly sounds reasonable
to a jury to say that if a defendant does certain things in a certain way,
this constitutes enough evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence.
For most people in daily life, this is in fact the way to evaluate evidence.
As Thoreau noted, a trout in the milk is a powerful persuader, and one
need not to see paw prints near the bowl to be further convinced. Cats
fit the profile of those who like both trout and milk. Likewise, if Moussaoui
acted the same way as the other terrorists prior to 9/11, then potential
jurors may not need to see the "paw prints" to also see him fitting the
profile of a terrorist.74
[811] victims. She prefers to put her faith into her own personal truth commission.
But can she trust that what comes out of her prisoner's mouth is truth?
Perhaps all she really needed was to exert some kind of control over her
own life and over her prisoner's. The power of life and death is, after
all, the ultimate power--the power we give to our judicial system. Can
the South African government trust that what those brought before it confess
is true? The truth commissions had safeguards; they had ways to test the
veracity of those brought before them. But could their safeguards have
failed? Possibly. Does it matter?
Because a confession is universally treated as damning and compelling evidence of guilt, it is likely to dominate all other case evidence and lead a trier of fact to convict the defendant. A false confession is therefore an exceptionally dangerous piece of evidence to put before anyone adjudicating a case. In a criminal justice system whose formal rules are designed to minimize the frequency of unwarranted arrest, unjustified prosecution, and wrongful conviction, police-induced false confessions rank amongst the most fateful of all official errors.78Manipulation is an essential part of the system. For Turow, it explains how the innocent are acquitted. Acquittals are a matter of luck or of clever defense strategy. Luckily for Rusty--the scapegoat chosen because his boss wants to win reelection--has two powerful allies: defense attorney Alejandro (Sandy) Stern, previously his courtroom enemy, and Judge Larron Lyttle. Stern is the archetypal defense attorney, whom so many in the media like to excoriate, but like Brendan Sullivan, the bulldog legal counsel who represented Oliver North, he is "not a potted plant."79 His quietly aggressive solution to the problem of the "B" (bribery) file80 is evidence of that. As for Judge Lyttle, his pro-defense position is clear: "These charges here--These charges are the most serious crime--What else could you do to Mr. Sabich? A prosecutor his entire professional life, and you bring charges like this. We all know why Mr. Stern wants a quick trial. There're no secrets here."81 Later Rusty notes that "[Lyttle's] eyes hold the light of a warmth I have never seen from him in court. I am a defendant now, in his special custody. Like a chieftain or a Mafia don, he owes me some protection while I am in his domain."82 Note the comparison, not to a fair minded individual, but to someone who has complete control over his domain and can ignore the law with impunity if he so chooses. Further, Rusty may be suggesting that Lyttle might ignore the law in the interests of justice, just as he and Sandy Stern do eventually in order to keep Lyttle on the bench. Certainly Lyttle's pro-defense stance and his unspoken presumptions about the natural behavior of prosecutors play a large part in Rusty's salvation. Prosecutors are supposed to make evidence available. If they do not, Lyttle presumes that they have chosen not to, and not because they are unable to comply. For his part, Sandy Stern assumes, rightly, that Lyttle will react in a certain way when presented with Stern's knowledge of the "B" file. That is, Stern assumes that rather than admit that he is guilty of accepting bribes, Lyttle will rule in a way favorable to the defense. Finally, as Turow points out, an acquittal may resolve the question of one individual's legal guilt or innocence, but it does not satisfy the larger societal question. Even though Rusty is clearly not guilty, no one else will ever be prosecuted for Carolyn's murder. No one else will ever undergo the presumption [813] of guilt. "No one talks about pursuing it, surely not with me, and it's
a practical impossibility anyway to try two people for the same crime."83
Nico had a beautiful argument if I got up there and accused her. He would have said this was the perfect crime. An unhappy marriage. A prosecutor who knows the system inside out. A guy who's become a misogynist. He despises Carolyn. He hates his wife... Maybe he'd say I was using Barbara as a fail-safe, the person I'd like to see nabbed in case the whole house of cards fell in on me. There are plenty of juries that might buy that.Even though Rusty is in a way rehabilitated in the novel--he gets Horgan's old job temporarily--that flicker of doubt will always exist, and this is what Rusty the defendant finally understands that Rusty the prosecutor never could. Once accused, an individual can never regain the presumption of innocence in the eyes of society. Every future retelling of the story will include the fact that he was suspected and tried. Rusty understands this reality because he remains in the role of defendant when talking to Lipranzer. He is not the prosecutor bound by the rules of ethics to reveal pertinent information helpful to the defense, and bound not to accuse those whose guilt is unlikely. Thus, the prosecutor's role is tremendously important; [814] prosecutors must be above suspicion when they bring charges. They can
accuse so easily, but they can never wash away the accusation, because
they transfer their notions of the case so easily to us, the jury. O.J.
Simpson was acquitted, but how many now sincerely believe he did not murder
two people?88 In fact,
perhaps the only person in recent memory who was accused (but never tried)
and who has regained his pre-accusation innocent status is Richard Jewell,
the security guard unfairly accused of having placed a bomb in Atlanta's
Olympic Park.89 But some
commentators fear that the Patriot Act,90
the Patriot Act II,91
and the FBI's surveillance activities in the Total Information Awareness
Program92 will create
"a lot of Richard Jewells,"93
people wrongly suspected who can clear their names with difficulty, if
at all.
[815] ENDNOTES * Associate Professor of Law, Louisiana State University Law Center, and Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, LSU A&M, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This article is based on a lecture given at the AALS Section on Law and the Humanities Program, January 5, 2002, New Orleans, Louisiana, and on a lecture given at the LSU English Graduate Students Mardi Gras Symposium, February 8, 2002, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1. For an analysis of the call for unanimous support see Loyal Opposition, THE NEW REPUBLIC, Oct. 8, 2001, available at http://www.thenewrepublic.com/100801/editorial100801.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). According to the Chicago Tribune: The American people have had their sense of security shattered. They want it back and the administration is determined to give it to them. "We are standing firm in our commitment to protect American lives," the attorney general said determinedly on Tuesday.
2. See generally SCOTT TUROW, PRESUMED INNOCENT (1987). 3. See 1 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 277-85 (1899). 4. For the history of the Enron debacle, see Robert Bryce, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, Jealousy and the Death of Enron (NY: Public Affairs, 2002). 5. Joint Hearing on the Enron Bankruptcy by the Senate Commerce, Sci. & Transp. Comm. and Subcomm. on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce & Tourism, 107th Cong. 23-24 (2002) (statement of Kenneth Lay, former CEO, Enron Corp.). 6. See, e.g., ROBERT TRAVER, ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1958). 7. Consider the speech in REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (Warner Brothers 1990), in which Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) assures a reluctant student that the only friend an accused has is her lawyer. "Even the mailman looks at you funny." 8. In Saul Levitt's The Andersonville Trial (SAUL LEVITT, THE ANDERSONVILLE TRIAL: A PLAY IN TWO ACTS (1960)), in Abby Mann's Judgment at Nuremberg (ABBY MANN, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)), in the dramatization of Alan Dershowitz's account of the Claus von Bulow trial Reversal of Fortune (ALAN DERSHOWITZ, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: INSIDE THE VON BULOW CASE (1986); REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (Warner Brothers 1990)), and most directly in Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, we are forced to consider that the accused may in fact be innocent, or at least not more guilty than others who are not on trial, and may have been convicted as much because she was accused as because there was any credible evidence against him or her. 10. See J.L. & J. Arndt Lieberman, Understanding the Limits of Limiting Instructions: Social Psychological Explanations for the Failures of Instructions to Disregard Pretrial Publicity and Other Inadmissible Evidence, 6 PSYCHOL. PUB. POL'Y & L. 677, 677-78 (2000). 11. PRESUMED INNOCENT (Mirage & Warner Brothers 1990). 12. Christine A. Corcos, Presuming Innocence: Alan Pakula and Scott Turow Take On the Great American Legal Fiction, 22 OKLA. CITY U. L. REV. 129, 131 (1997). For an excellent analysis of the application of irony in fiction, see WAYNE C. BOOTH, A RHETORIC OF IRONY (1974). 13. This rule is codified in different places in various state codes, but is equivalent to the MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 3.8 (2001). See, e.g., IND. CODE ANN. § 3.8 (West 2001); LA. ST. BAR, art. XVI, R. 3.8 (2001). 14. TUROW, supra note 2, at 3. 20. On the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, see generally Elizabeth F. Loftus & Hunter G. Hoffman, Misinformation and Memories: The Creation of New Memory, 118 J. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOL. GEN. 100 (1989); ELIZABETH F. LOFTUS, EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY (1996). 21. Associated Press, Fla. Death Row Inmate Freed (Jan. 3, 2002), available at http://www.courttv.com/news/death_penalty/010302_florida_ap.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 22. TUROW, supra note 2, at 100-01. 23. BULLITT (Solar Productions 1968). 24. JAGGED EDGE (Columbia Pictures 1985). 25. Thinking About Lawyers, NAT'L L.J., Aug. 18, 1986, at S3. 26. Gallup Poll (1997), at http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr971213.asp (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 27. See generally American Lawyers Public Image Association, at http://www.alpia.org/home.htm (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 28. David E. Rovella, Cop Scandals Take Toll, NAT'L L.J., May 22, 2000, at A1. 29. Richard Willing, 4 out of 10 Americans Don't Trust FBI, USA TODAY, June 20, 2001, available at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-05-22-mcveigh-pollstory.htm (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 30. See, e.g., MYTHOLOGIES OF VIOLENCE IN POSTMODERN MEDIA (Christopher Sharrett ed., 1999). 31. Cruel Doubt (television broadcast, 1992). Based on the book by Joe McGinniss. J. MCGUINNISS, CRUEL DOUBT (1991). Another TV movie, Honor Thy Mother (television broadcast, 1992) was based on the same incident and a book by Jerry Bledsoe. JERRY BLEDSOE, BLOOD GAMES (Dutton 1991). 32. Matthew Dolan, Love and Loss in a Navy Town: Seeking Justice, VIRGINIAN-PILOT, July 14, 2000, at A1, available at http://www.pilotonline.com/special/bosko/intro.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 33. I am not discussing here whether Turow is really misogynistic, as he has been accused of being. I am simply interested in whether his images track popular culture images. 34. T.K. Diggs, No Way to Treat a Lawyer; When Screen Lawyers Are Women, Hollywood Changes the Rules, CALIFORNIA LAWYER, Dec. 1992, at 48. 35. See, e.g., Christine A. Corcos, Women Lawyers, in PRIME TIME LAW 219-38 (R. Jarvis & P. Joseph eds., 1998); Carole Shapiro, Women Lawyers in Celluloid: Why Hollywood Skirts the Truth, 25 U. TOL. L. REV. 955 (1994). 36. For listings of female ADAs, DAs, and public defenders on TV and in film, see Christine A. Corcos, Portia and Her Partners in Popular Culture: Resources for Research, 22 LEGAL STUD. F. 269 (1998) and other lists, available at http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/lsf/corcos22.htm (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 37. TUROW, supra note 2, at 52. 41. Stern plays a much bigger role in the book than in the film in terms of his law practice, since he and Sabich tangle over a criminal case at one point, and he represents the woman in the child abuse case that is such a pivotal part of the film. In the novel he is also Chair of an important bar association committee that Raymond Horgan is supposed to address. 42. ALAN DERSHOWITZ, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: INSIDE THE VON BULOW CASE (1986); REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (Warner Brothers 1990). 43. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (Warner Brothers 1990). 44. Ashcroft: Critics of New Terror Measures Undermine Effort (Dec. 7, 2001), at http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/06/inv.ashcroft.hearing/ (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 45. Katherine Seelye, Pentagon Says Acquittals May Not Free Detainees, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 22, 2002, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/22/national/22TRIB.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 47. N.Z. Wolfson, The Trials of Henry Wirtz (1940) (unpublished dissertation, Louisiana State University) (on file with Lousiana State University Library). 48. ABBY MANN, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). 50. INGO MULLER, HITLER'S JUSTICE 208-09 (Deborah Schneider trans., Harvard Univ. Press 1991). 51. See Edward Epstein, Lindh Still Many Ways a Mystery, SAN FRANCISCO CHRON., Oct. 4, 2002, at A6. 52. U.S. CONST. art. III, § 3, cl. 1 ("Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."). 53. U.S. Taliban Fighter to Remain in Jail (2002), at http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/02/06/ret.indictment.walker/index.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 54. Thomas Bartlett, Attack on Indian Student at U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Leads to Brawl, 2 Arrests, CHRON. OF HIGHER EDUC., Sept. 24, 2001, available at http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/09/2001092401n.htm (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 55. LAURA Z. HOBSON, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1946); JOHN GRIFFIN, BLACK LIKE ME (1960). 56. ARTHUR MILLER, THE CRUCIBLE (1952). 57. See Joanne Mariner, A Fair Trial for Zacarias Moussaoui (Feb. 3, 2003), at http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/03/findlaw.analysis.mariner.moussaoui/index.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 59. See Beverly Lumpkin, Musings Re: Moussaoui, at http://.go.com/sections/us/HallsOfJustice/hallsofjustice105.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 60. Bennett L. Gershman, The Prosecutor's Duty to Truth, 14 GEO. J. OF LEGAL ETHICS 309-54 (2001). 61. Note that the military is in favor of treating the detainees as POWs, if only to protect the rights of American soldiers who might fall into opposition hands. The handling of such detainees, and the question of whether they are POWs or alleged common criminals, is an old one and is somewhat overlooked. Tim Padgett, Are They POWs or Terrorists? (Jan. 28, 2002), TIME (Online ed.), at http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,197785,00.html (on file with University of Toledo Law Review). 62. 60 Minutes: Legal Torture? (CBS television broadcast, Sept. 20, 2002), available at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/17/60minutes/main324751.shtml (last visited Nov. 12, 2002) ("After the events of September 11, with many al Qaeda members in custody, Dershowitz says he wants to bring the debate to the forefront. He gave the 'ticking bomb' scenario--a person refusing to tell when and where a bomb will go off--as an example of the type of case warranting torture."). 63. Edward Helmore, It's a Show Trial Without the Show, THE GUARDIAN, Nov. 28, 2001, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4308810,00.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 64. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994, c. 33 (Eng.). But see Clare Dyer, Law Lords Dash Hopes of Human Rights Appeals, THE GUARDIAN, July 6, 2001, available at http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,8150,517690,00.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002) (discussing a new decision by the Law Lords ruling that a statute putting the burden of proof on the defendant to prove he was unaware of the nature of the materials he was carrying). 65. Hicks Would Get Fair Trial in Australia: Hill, THE AGE (Melbourne, Australia) (Jan. 21, 2002), available at http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/01/21/FFXIKNQE5VC.html. 66. In ACLU v. United States (No. 2M69, ACLU et al v. the United States), the ACLU asked the Court for review of FISA issued warrants. Since only the U.S. government can request such a review, the Court ruled against the ACLU. See Michael Kirkland, Court Rejects FISA Intervenors, UPI, Mar. 24, 2003, LEXIS, Nexis Library, UPI File. 67. David A. Takami, Japanese American Incarceration--World War II (Oct. 29, 1998), The Online Encyclopedia of Seattle/King County (Wash.) History, available at http://www.historylink.org/ (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 69. OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL, HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY, FINAL REPORT: JAPANESE EVACUATION FROM THE WEST COAST 1942 app. to ch. III (U.S. Gov't Printing Office 1943), Museum of the City of San Francisco, available at http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/dewitt4.html (last visited Nov. 12, 2002). 70. Bill Briggs, Century Standout Gov. Ralph Carr Opposed Japanese Internment, DENVER POST, Dec. 27, 1999, at F1. 71. See Takami, supra note 67. 72. Abraham Abramovsky & Jonathan Edelstein, Pretext Stops and Racial Profiling After Whren v. United States: The New York and New Jersey Responses Compared, 63 ALB. L. REV. 725 (2000) for a recent overview. 73. Colbert King, American Airlines: Two Bloopers, WASH. POST, Dec. 29, 2001, at A23. Indeed we are also hearing a lot of ridiculous discussion about how Reid's shoes were checked before he boarded an El-Al plane for Israel prior to his Miami flight. 75. See generally Ronald Kassimir, Book Review, 116 POL. SCI. Q. 157 (2001) (reviewing MARTIN MEREDITH, COMING TO TERMS: SOUTH AFRICA'S SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH (2000)); Richard J. Goldstone, Exposing Atrocity, AM. PROSPECT, Mar. 12, 2001, at 60; Anthony Daniels, The Truth About Reconciliation, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (London), Mar. 11, 2001, at 12. 76. DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (Capitol Films 1994). 77. TUROW, supra note 2, at 97. 78. Richard Leo & Richard Ofshe, The Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation, 88 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 429, 429 (1998). 79. Ted Allen, In Informal Survey, White Collar Lawyers Pick the Best Counsel Around, LEGAL TIMES, Sept. 20, 1999, at S25. 80. TUROW, supra note 2, at 75-78. 88. Black-White Gap Over O.J.'s Guilt Narrows, USA TODAY, Jan. 23, 1997, available at http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/nns168.htm. 89. Eunice Moscoso & George Edmonson, Data-mining Project Raises Privacy Fears: Some Lawmakers Try to Limit Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Plan, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN (Texas), Jan. 26, 2003, at A19. 90. Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, Pub. L. No. 107-56 (2003). 91. S. 22, 108th Cong. (2003). |
