The Economist (December 5)
Many aspects of Japan’s criminal justice system are admirable, “yet time and again innocent people have been shown to confess to crimes in the hope of a more lenient sentence—or simply to make the interrogation stop.” In fact, some estimate more than a tenth of convictions rests on false confessions. Changes need to be made, for example, “all interrogations should be filmed from start to finish.” Reforms like these “would give the innocent a better chance of keeping their liberty.”
Tags: Admirable, Crimes, Criminal justice, False confessions, Film, Innocent, Interrogations, Japan
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
The senseless killing of an Australian exchange student by 3 Oklahoma teenagers should leave Americans wondering just how to fix “a culture that produces teenagers for whom the prospect of shooting an innocent man in the back on a Friday evening apparently raised not a scintilla of conscience.”
Tags: Australia, Conscience, Culture, Exchange student, Innocent, Killing, Oklahoma, Senseless, Shooting, Teenagers
