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From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom,rec.arts.sf.science,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: idiots walk among us
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2025 21:03:24 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: United Individualist
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D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> I had a wrongful felony conviction instead.  Complete with brutal
>> prison sentence followed by life-long collateral consequences,
>> despite a perfectly clean record for the past 48 years.  Would not
>> recommend.

> Is it possible to ever let go of such an injustice?

I don't know.  You'd have to ask the Commonwealth of Virginia.

People ask me why I keep going on about something that happened 48
years ago.  I respond that it's not something that happened 48 years
ago.  It's something that started 48 years ago and is continuing.
You'd think that after nearly half a century, the state would decide
that I was either innocent or had long since reformed.  Especially
since my record is otherwise perfectly clean before and since.  And
since the crime victim hired me, sight unseen, directly out of prison,
as he knew I was innocent.  And since the federal government issued
me a security clearance after I explained the circumstances of my
wrongful conviction on my SF-86 form.

Living well is the best revenge.

Today, most Americans realize that the government can't be trusted,
and that police can be trusted least of all.  A YouTube video titled
"Don't Talk to the Police," by a law professor here in Virginia, has
20 million hits.  The one thing that Biden and Trump agree on was
that the justice system has been weaponized and lots of people need
pardons.

DNA has proven that thousands of Americans were falsely convicted of
serious crimes.  And of course in the vast majority of case, including
mine, there never was any DNA evidence, and there's no reason to
think the error rates in those cases were any lower.  So for every
exonerated person there are probably hundreds of equally innocent
people who were never exonerated.

I have contributed to that atmosphere of healthy skepticism by
choosing to be "out of the closet" as a falsely convicted felon,
although I probably would have had an easier life had I kept it a
secret.  Lots of people have confided in me that similar or worse
things have happened to them, but they didn't dare mention it.
Much like gays before Stonewall.

I'm convinced that there are far more falsely convicted Americans than
there are LGBTQ+ Americans.  And that everyone deserves equal rights.

> I would personally seethe with hate until the day of my death unless
> I would be able to get some kind of compensation for that theft of life.

Compensation from whom?  Taxpayers?  Most of the are just as innocent
as I am.  Those who were responsible for my wrongful conviction?  Most
of them are long dead.

Of course major changes still need to be made.  The Reid Technique
needs to be abolished, as do plea bargains, qualified immunity, and
bogus forensic science.  Every accused person should get a fair
trial whether they want one or not, and as much should be spent on
their defense as on their prosecution.  Only under extraordinary
circumstances should an accused person be jailed before conviction.

If these reforms aren't done, then the whole system should be
abolished.  We'd be better off without it than with what we have now.

Unfortunately, skepticism has been taken to an unhealthy extreme.
Just because the government lies a lot doesn't mean the moon landings
were faked, Earth is flat, there have been alien autopsies, QAnon and
Pizzagate were real, or vaccines don't work.  Only in logic problems
is there anyone who *always* lies.
-- 
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.