Roberts isn't alone here. Scalia once wrote in a dissenting opinion in a capital murder case that it doesn't really matter whether one committed a crime, only that one was fairly tried. From the dissent in this case:The primary law enforcer in the western world just implied that the law wouldn't allow him to make the right decision; he had to make the legal one.
This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable.
You're kidding right? Right? Because that's the most back-asswards thing I've heard today, and I just had a lifelong smoker try to reason his way into smoking more before a major surgery.it doesn't really matter whether one committed a crime, only that one was fairly tried.
The state cannot possibly make a distinction between "actually" innocent or guilty, and innocent or guilty as determined by a court. The courts are essentially the state's sensory input, if your senses produce wrong information, there's nothing you can do. So the state should seek to implement a court system that best finds the truth (but more likely will implement a court system that serves its own ends).
If I gave the matter enough thought, I imagine I would end up advocating for the abolition of cases being thrown out due to 'mistrial'. Why throw them out completely? Why not start over minus the mistake?^ Sometimes that's what happens but often a mistrial is what allows a criminal to walk away free. That's a good example of right and legal utterly failing to intersect. One of many. Since the genesis of the Age of Reason, laws have been what people chose to replace religion as the arbiter of morality. I submit that we're not doing as well as we think we are. Got a long way to go. ^occasionally there are rational reasons for this, but I don't really like any of them