Wrongful Imprisonment

I’ve just finished reading “No More Deferred Dreams” (editorial, March 27). I cannot believe what I am reading. According to the editorial, Chance was in jail at the time of the crime. Regardless of what kind of case the police fabricated, how can you put a man in jail for a crime that occurred while he was in jail? One would assume that that could easily be verified. Did the man have a lawyer? Even a disinterested court-appointed lawyer couldn’t be that bad.

No system is perfect and we will always have miscarriages of justice but anything this flagrant is scary. Then Gates and the lieutenant involved have both said that there is no doubt in their minds that the men are guilty. Gates has been semi-suspect in my mind for several years now, but this makes it obvious the man not only doesn’t know what is going on in his department, it looks like he doesn’t know what is going on in the world.

What is it with public servants? Are they all stupid or just morally corrupt? Is the system such that it only attracts these kind of people or does the system mold them once they are in it?

JOHN WAUGEN, Anaheim