It’s a rare day when someone stands up and admits a mistake.
Rarer still is the admission when the consequences of the error are monumental.
Former prosecutor Thomas Breen stood up.
Breen had begun harboring doubts about a conviction he won 26 years ago that put two teenagers behind bars for 200 to 400 years. Working as an assistant state’s attorney, he won a double conviction in the sensational abduction, rape and murder of 9-year-old Lisa Cabassa.
For many prosecutors, that would be the end of it. No second thoughts. Eyes on tomorrow.
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But in an act of profound self-reflection and courage, Breen shared his misgivings with a colleague in 1994. Recent DNA tests conducted since then suggest it is unlikely either of those young men–Michael Evans or Paul Terry–raped or murdered the little girl.
Would that others follow Breen’s example. It was only when Breen, years later, delved into another problematic case–that of Rolando Cruz, whose release from Death Row Breen helped secure–that he began to understand how pocked the criminal justice system is with flaws.
But for Breen, who would be paying attention to Evans and Terry? That prompts this gut-wrenching question: Beyond the Death Row cases, those that have received so much attention, how many people are serving lengthy prison terms for crimes they didn’t commit?
Yet, Illinois’ most prominent prosecutors–Dick Devine in Cook County and Joe Birkett in DuPage County, among others–have been unwilling to acknowledge the depth of the problems in the justice system. They have made no systemic effort to ferret out wrongful convictions. It always seems to be up to others to do that. Defense attorneys. Journalism students. Private investigators. Newspaper reporters.
Rarely, if ever, is there a publicly shared examination of what might have gone wrong, a demonstration of lessons learned, evidence that structural reforms have been made.
Devine’s chief deputy, Robert Milan, put together a training seminar for prosecutors on the danger signs of unreliable confessions.
That’s helpful, so far as it goes. But compare that to the recent actions of the Manhattan district attorney, who, in admitting to four wrongful convictions in the notorious Central Park jogger case last month, filed an extraordinary 57-page document that intricately explains his office’s reinvestigation of the case and where prosecutors and police went wrong.
Then there is the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission, which was recently established to fully examine wrongful convictions in hope that the investigation of those cases will present learning opportunities for prosecutors and help to restore public trust in the system.
Breen stated that the Cook County state’s attorney’s office in his day made a point of encouraging the pursuit of justice, rather than the pursuit of convictions above all. All these years later, there is no glory in defending mistakes decades after they occur. Nor is there shame in encouraging prosecutors to search their memories for cases in which they may have lingering qualms. The state’s attorneys must set that tone.