GUEST COLUMNIST: Innocent until proven guilty

Suppose we learn a lesson every day. What could we say of the lesson Calvin Johnson learned 16 years ago, when he was 25 years old? What could we say of the fact that for 5800-odd days, that same lesson was repeatedly ingrained upon Johnson's mind? An all-white Clayton County, GA jury convicted Johnson, an African American man, of raping a white woman. While punishing rapists and deterring future incidents of sexual assault is necessary, there was nevertheless a small glitch in the sentencing of this particular verdict. You see, Johnson was innocent. I guess at some point we, like Johnson, learned the lesson that life is not fair. While a civil suit may likely matriculate from the whole legal mess, Johnson holds no grudges. "I don't see any reason to harbor any bitterness," he told reporters when he was released from jail earlier this month. Toting his small Bible and heaping thanks upon District Attorney Bob Keller --who is dropping the original charges against Johnson rather than spearheading the prosecution in a new trial -- the released prisoner's attitude could break your heart. But should men and women like Johnson -- innocents who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time -- sit idly as society tears justice out of their deserving hands? Unfortunately, wrongful convicts like Johnson and others have little choice. While proponents of lengthy prison sentences and capital punishment argue that the corrections system sustains itself on its built-in systems of checks and balances, mistakes are too frequent to allow us to offer our blind faith. Furthermore, with prison costs rising to new levels, legal resources available to long-term prison and death row inmates are shrinking constantly, knocking at least one balance out of line. Thankfully some people are working to win back the freedom of the wrongfully accused and convicted. Most recently, Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School Professor Barry Scheck, his partner Peter Neufeld and the 16 law students currently on board to help out with Project Innocence -- a group to aid convicted men and women who maintain that they are innocent -- allowed for DNA testing so that Johnson's innocence could be ascertained. A simple test and a man won back his life. So why not perform DNA testing more frequently? As matters stand currently, according to Neufeld, Project Innocence is forced to pick and choose convicts with whom they can work, ultimately denying help for around 70 percent of the people seeking the pro-bono organization's assistance. At the Wrongful Convictions and Death Penalty Conference held at Northwestern University last fall, Scheck appealed to professors, students and administrators for help. The results of DNA testing are indeed tangible: biological testing has helped free 74 individuals who had received death penalties. Unfortunately, opponents of DNA testing say it is just too costly and time consuming to make a large-scale application practical and effective. However, a closer look at recent estimates paints the picture in some different hues. Prisons are filling quickly, and running out of money perhaps even more quickly. According to the Criminal Justice Crisis Index, almost all 50 states are experiencing difficulties stemming from over-incarceration, corrections costs and mishandling of crime. However, as prison costs rise, DNA testing costs are decreasing. Increasingly affordable new systems are emerging to analyze DNA for medical research purposes. If methods may be developed to rid society of physical ills like cancer, they may just as easily be developed to analyze DNA for the purpose of remedying judicial ills, determining guilt or innocence and helping to relieve just a little unhealthy injustice. Members of Project Innocence and all others who have helped to free wrongfully convicted men and women from long jail terms, or even execution, are all admirable for their dedication to true justice. Nevertheless, if justice is to be anything more than a theoretical nicety, the legal system itself will have to pull some of its own weight. Developing methods to promote and increase widespread DNA testing availability to determine criminality offers a cost-efficient, prompt piece of armor. Efforts must be made to achieve a truly just and impartial judicial system. If we don't try, the number of casualties -- like Johnson -- will only grow. Think of all you've experienced in the past 16 years. When Calvin Johnson looks back, all he can see is a jail cell.