whatever happened to due process and american justice?

the last week or so has pointed out once again how completely astray our country has gone...just how much liberty, justice and the american way have been tossed aside in favor of what is increasingly becoming a gestapo state.

the other day I was grabbing a coffee and noticed the top headline on USA Today. exonerations of convicted persons by DNA evidence have now hit the 200 mark. initially, given the number of criminal cases in this country (seeing as how we love crime more than just about anything but war), 200 does not seem like such a big number. but every one of those people represents the very thing that our criminal justice system was designed to stop...we all know the saying, "'tis better to let 10 guilty men go free than condemn 1 innocent man." well...god knows how many innocent men have been condemned by a process that no longer cares about such niceties as the bill of rights, due process, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and all the liberties we have taken for granted. 200 people sentenced for heinous crimes have been proven beyond any doubt not to be the perpetrators, just because they were lucky enough to still have access to the DNA evidence. how many haven't been that "lucky" (a tough word to use for someone that has lost their life to prison for no reason)? how many have been murdered by the government that were guilty only of catching the wrath of the police and the district attorney because someone needed to be blamed?

and amidst this news a murder trial was happening in albuquerque. a good man was charged with first degree murder in a classic self-defense case. that man turned himself in and told the police what happened within an hour of the shooting, he laid out for them how it happened, where it happened, and why it happened. they had the tools to prove their hairbrained theory that he did not act in self-defense but was an all-out-aggressor. they had the tools to show that the victim was seatbelted in (although the seatbelt had no bullet hole and the wound was directly under where the seatbelt would have been)...they had the tools to show he had cut off the victim so as to block him in according to their crazy theory (even though there was no evidence of an accident and the victim had a blood alcohol content of almost three times the legal limit...great reflexes for someone so hammered I guess)...they had the tools to prove this was murder. but what did they do? they took a day off and didn't even go to the scene until two days after the shooting. they did no testing on anything to show their theory was correct even though it made no sense. instead, they charged a man with murder based on nothing more than "he must be lying because he was the shooter...nevermind that if he did not tell us everything we would have absolutely no case whatsoever." and then they actually told the jury this (and I am not kidding, this is a quote) "so there wasn't any testing of the seatbelt...who cares? so the scene wasn't searched that day...who cares? so there wasn't any investigation...who cares?" so this is where our nation has gotten to...the state can charge a man with first degree murder, the worst crime we have...and then tell the jury "we didn't do the work to prove he was guilty...who cares?"

who cares? the american people care. liberty loving people everywhere care. the founders cared. thousands of dead soldiers cared. 200 people exonerated by DNA evidence care. countless other innocent people wasting away in prison or put to death care. welcome to the united states of america...the largest police state in the world.

and not only do we have the government charging murder and then declaring they don't have to prove it and that due process no longer matters...we have police forces outfitted with tanks and assault rifles, trained as soldiers, and conducting military raids to get to those most henious of criminals...folks working for less than the minimum wage. all of this in a nation which was never meant to have a standing army. now, not only do we have a standing army that is sent repeatedly overseas...we have mini-standing armies that are repeatedly sent to battle with the american people. we have cops with tanks...going after folks with the wrong papers. we have a police-state...and having let it happen, we should be ashamed.

there was a time when freedom, liberty and due process was more important to americans than anything...where did we go wrong?