Dr. Rose is wrong on those pleading guilty

Dec 25, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
While I agree with Dr. Euclid Asquith Rose that “the holidays should be a period for healing and atonement” (KN Dec 20), he also needs to atone for his own misdeeds and for misleading readers on various matters, including on Agricola and Linden, and wrongfully leveling accusations without evidence to substantiate them.
Rose stated some time ago that if someone pleads guilty to a charge, then he or she actually committed the crime accused of, or else he or she would not have accepted guilt for it. That is balderdash.
As a student of the social sciences, I can state without any contradiction that there are many who served time in jail for pleading guilty and without committing the crime accused of. In America, many, minorities (like Blacks and Hispanics) in particular, were and are wrongfully convicted on trumped up charges. Some (innocent) accused pled guilty of crimes in order to avoid trial or believing prosecutors who false assured them they would not serve time.
Last Dec 2 on the CBS news magazine, 60 Minutes, there was a segment on mostly Black American males who were wrongfully incarcerated in the US. These men pled guilty to charges even though they were innocent and years later they were freed from jail after in-depth investigative research by advocates to prove their innocence.
They were misled into pleading guilty for crimes they never committed and lost many years of their freedom. Some went to jail as youngsters and came out as old men.
Some were assisted in their freedom by “The Innocence Project”, a project undertaken by mostly White Americans who succeeded in clearing several wrongfully imprisoned men of bogus charges.
Prof. John Cassidy (a White American) of John Jay College (CUNY) discussed how slipshod work by police and prosecutors led to their conviction or they fooled the accused men into pleading guilty of crimes, telling them they would be sent home without any jail time.
Instead of spending countless hours attacking President Ramotar (KN Dec 20, Dec 18, Dec 14) who is trying to address the many challenges facing our country, Asquith Rose should try to educate himself about basic government institutions.
He shows serious deficiency in understanding governmental institutions, especially as they relate to social behaviour and law (although he teaches part time at John Jay, a law oriented college). Mr. Rose needs to visit Prof. Cassidy who can instruct him on basics about law, concepts such as guilt and innocence, healing, atonement, etc.
Vishnu Bisram

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Dr. Rose is wrong on those pleading guilty

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