A poster boy for justice gone awry

There was just a scattering of supporters but no television cameras outside a Toronto courthouse last month, when Joe Webber's armed robbery conviction collapsed.

A panel of judges found that the Aylmer, Ont., man had served 19 months for a crime he did not commit, yet they uttered just two sentences as they ended his ordeal: “The Crown acknowledges that fresh evidence overwhelmingly shows the appellant did not commit these crimes. The fresh evidence is admitted, the convictions are set aside, and acquittals are entered.”

Their words obscured a cautionary tale. Mr. Webber, 30, serves as a poster boy for how badly the justice system can go awry when a prosecution is based on little more than the say-so of an adamant eyewitness.

“It is the honest, but mistaken, eyewitness who creates the real challenge for the system,” said James Stribopoulos of York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-poster-boy-for-justice-gone-awry/article1470371/

I don't care. He is guilty. Our government is too soft on crime.

What political party is finally going to stand up to this crap. We have invested much in our justice and correctional system only to have it changed to a three strikes and bigger jails run by corporations. We need a new political voice or party.

I'm not going to worry about it.

And we don't have '3 strikes' or jails run by corporations.