Not Guilty Isn’t the Same as Innocent
No one believes any longer that the innocent have nothing to fear from the death penalty. A contrary idea now seems like the audacious one–that some of the prisoners set free actually committed the crimes they were convicted of.
“Of the six people ‘exonerated,’” Marquis went on, “two–Sonia Jacobs, played by Susan Sarandon, and Kerry Cook, played by Aidan Quinn, are both factually and legally GUILTY. Both served more than 15 years and were released only after they pled GUILTY to murder . . .
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I was far from the only journalist Marquis contacted. Two others he had long conversations with–Adam Liptak of the New York Times and Richard Willing of USA Today–wrote articles before The Exonerated aired on January 27 that reflected his skepticism. Marquis also got a sympathetic hearing from James Curtis, a Court TV anchor who was assigned to interview the six freed prisoners for the show’s Web site. But Marquis struck out with TV critics. The friendliest response came from Peter Carlin of the Portland Oregonian, who blew off Marquis but told him, “If it’s any consolation, whatever shows up on Court TV will be dwarfed by the seven weekly hours of ‘Law & Order’ that show up on NBC. Because producer Dick Wolf makes no secret of his loathing for defense attorneys, nor of his enthusiasm for trashing them on his popular shows, which usually portray prosecutors in the most heroic terms.”
The night The Exonerated debuted on Court TV, which aired it three days in a row, Marquis took part in a panel discussion on MSNBC. Host Dan Abrams had also rounded up Sonia Jacobs’s attorney, former prisoner Kerry Cook (on the phone), and Barry Scheck, a founder of the Innocence Project, which has championed the use of DNA evidence to identify and release innocent prisoners. Abrams allowed that he wasn’t certain whether Cook or Jacobs was innocent, and Marquis insisted that they couldn’t be called “exonerated” because they hadn’t been. Each had gone free on an “Alford plea,” a legal device that allows a prisoner to plead no contest to charges without admitting guilt. The Alford plea lets prosecutors dispose of troublesome old cases without the bother of another trial and the risk of an acquittal. Critics like Scheck see it as a sadistic tool that offers freedom to innocent prisoners only if they stop fighting to clear their names. But if Marquis’ point is narrow, it’s correct. Their records haven’t been expunged. They aren’t, in a legal sense, exonerated.
Scheck: “You have no shame to take a man like–”
Abrams: “The bottom line–”
Marquis: “Thank you for having me.”
