NCJ Number
159969
Editor(s)
C L LaMay,
E E Dennis
Date Published
1995
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This essay, authored by an ex-offender, notes the media's propensity to cover criminal cases that involve notorious or well-known public figures, while overlooking many persons who have been unjustly convicted and could benefit from media coverage of the facts of their cases.
Abstract
The author acknowledges his guilt as an assistant to a marijuana smuggler. Although known as a civic leader in the suburban village where he lived, the press did not pick up on his case. He pled guilty and fulfilled his sentence without significant public notice. He notes that press coverage could only have exacerbated a very difficult situation for himself and his family. Leona Helmsley and Michael Milken, on the other hand, drew media attention that proved to affect their cases in a negative way. Although media coverage can aggravate and increase the harm done to defendants, the lack of media coverage can also be harmful. Estimates of wrongful convictions run as high as 10 percent and as low as one-half of 1 percent. Although one-half of 1 percent sounds insignificant, it involves approximately one million and a half people; this computes to approximately 7,500 innocent people being convicted every year. The media's attention to some of these convicted innocent people has served them well. Two who were released largely due to media coverage of their cases are Lenell Geter and Randall Dale Adams. Because economics drives the focus of their interest, the media prefer to highlight the rich and famous. Celebrities offer better headlines, more interesting copy, and higher profits. Meanwhile, jails and prisons continue to contain thousands of untold stories of injustice.