[ applause ]. John our legal system is a mess. Every single lawyers due takes forever, and the guilty get away with it. But at the same time lots of people are locked up for things they didnt do. We know that now because dna evidence is more available. These innocent people were jailed. I was wrongfully convicted of a murder and rape of my friend, and i spent almost 20 years in prison nar crime. I spent 11 years and 3 months in prison. 20 years 9 months and 5 days in prison for a crime i didnt commit. John how does that happen . Tim lynch runs the project on criminal justice for the cato institute. The system is not as accurate as people think it is . Its not. Our system is badly flawed. More flawed than many people want to admit john. As you said since dna evidence came on the scene, we discovered weve got hundreds and hundreds of people who had their lives shattered because theyve been thrown in prison for crimes they didnt commit. John Chris Christie said without question america has the fairest criminal Justice System in the world. Well mr. Christie i think is wrong. John hes a former prosecutor. He wants to tell people what they want to hear. If the government is getting it right 95 of the time you know what that means . It means 100,000 people are in prison who dont belong there. So mr. Christie maybe 95 is good enough for him but not good enough for a lot of us. John people say i bet that 5 they did something else. They wouldnt have been in there if it hadnt been something . Finding out so many cases one after the other where there are scandals. Police have manufactured evidence against people. We also know that prosecutors are very ambitious. They are evaluated by their conviction rate. So they want to win all of their cases. So its not necessarily they want to lock up and end this in person. Sometimes theyve moved onto other office. John and theyre punished for for, what was . Sorry a crazy person took some of my papers, but i still have what i need here. What were you saying . Sometimes we find the prosecutors have violated their disclosure obligations but move onto other offices. The governors, the senate. John they dont get punished for breaking their own rules. They dont. When the rules arent enforced we get more violations. John the police are objective in their investigations on the tv shows they are mostly. Right again most Police Officers are fair but there are a number of Police Officers out there. They coerce confessions. Weve had instances where they go into interrogate somebody and come out and say they confessed to me. They didnt record it but willing to go into court to say john stossel confessed this crime to me and willing to testify to that, and juries more likely than not believe the police. John we dont realize their pressured to close cases they get promoted if they close the case. Exactly if you want to head the homicide division, you better be cracking and solving homicide cases. That leads career pressure to take shortcuts and break the rules. John heres an example of that. Chicago Police Commander was thought to be a great cop. Great cop. He got lots of bad guys jailed. In and then it was discovered that he tortured innocent people into admitting to crimes that they didnt commit. This man was one of them. He shot me, i was suffocating. He thought i was dead. John after being tortured he confessed to murder and served for 30 years. Finally one of his victims sued him and another few people said yeah i got tortured. This evidence was mounting so high that the authorities couldnt ignore it anymore and that first they ignored it because they believe the Police Officers over the people that have been arrested and accused of crimes. And the city of chicago paid about 100 million litigating all of these cases. Saying that he tortured me tortured my brother, she would put bags over peoples heads so they couldnt breathe electrocute people until finally they couldnt say anymore and they would say whatever it was that he wanted to hear. John this guy tortured people and he served how long you maxie mackey was sentenced to four years and he was out in two years. John now he is collecting 4000 a month police pension. I dont know what they are thinking in chicago. What does somebody have to do to lose his pension . John if you confess it means that you did it . Yes innocent people would never confess to a crime they didnt commit. But dna evidence proves that we have lots of innocent people that have confess to crimes they didnt commit. John birds was not the only one that extracted false confessions. One chicago mother served eight years before it was discovered that the evidence did not support the confession that she gave. She told the police that she had strangled her or your old son. Why would a mother confessed to that if she didnt do it . Welcome here is why. Heiress was interrogated for 27 hours after her 4yearold son accidentally strangled himself with a fitted bedsheet. How do you say that you did something they did not do . You know . I never understood that until it happened to me. John it is hard to believe. Twentyseven hours of interrogation is pretty awful. But i would still think i wouldnt say that i killed my child. What happens if they put you in a small room you have detectives yelling at you. Saying that they know that youre guilty. People can withstand it for a few hours. But when the detectives get to take breaks and you dont and they send in another guy that scratch continue the interrogation for hours people began to break down and they will give an admission or confessed to the crime. That is such powerful evidence in court because the average person says why would anybody say that if they didnt do it . John we do not have video of Nicole Harriss confession. But we do have video confession of frank stirling, he served 17 years after confessing to killing a woman. And then someone else confessed to the crime. Here he is admitting that he did. Something happened with that gun. [inaudible] one more question. I need you to be honest with this question. [inaudible] you didnt dream up this idea. You did this. Is that right . [inaudible] john the cops didnt put the idea into his head he says. He did it. He served 17 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. Its hard to believe but it happens repeatedly. One of our audience members served 16 years. Jeffrey, can you come up here . To join us up here . When he was a teenager he was convicted of eating and raping and then strangling a classmate to death. Did you do it . Absolutely not. Why did you confess to it . Because i was interrogated for seven hours and i was in fear of my life and overwhelmed emotionally and psychologically. I was six years old. I was threatened and they also claimed that if i said what they wanted then they would stop what they are doing and i can go home afterwards. Before your trial, dna results came back and did not match you. Thats exactly right. I was convicted anyway. John flight is that . Because they didnt want to admit that they had made a mistake. John you served 16 years, how did you get out . I was exonerated by further dna tests which not only reaffirmed my innocence but identify the actual perpetrator whose dna was only in the database because i was doing time for his crime and he struck again, killing a schoolteacher. John they found his dna and then you are free. Did they say that im really sorry that i did this to you . Sumac none of the people involved did. John new york state pg13 Million Dollars and you started the foundation . Yes its called the foundation for justice. We work to free people. We won a case a year and a half ago. We help people reintegrate back into society. And many people have resulted in immigrating back into society. [applause] john you all say that one that reform is that if all these interrogations were videotaped . Yes then juries would be able to understand as to why they might admit something. Another benefit is that it will prevent cops amusing details left out of their testimony. It makes for better evidence and it protects honest cops false allegations. John groups like the innocent project to get innocent people free. The innocent project made this video where several people spoke. Today i am a free man. [cheers] [applause] i want you to recognize that i am now a free man. This man was released after spending 11 years in jail for rape. Dna evidence proved that he was innocent. Now hes grateful that he can be with his grandchildren. I can hold them in my arms and take them to church. I can really relate to him. To put it in human terms i Miss High School prom, birth, death, holidays. The rites of passage. There is no amount of money that can make up for that. John thank you. Later in the show, our studio audience gets to award 1000 to the winner of the wacky warning label contest the contest that seeks out the stupidest lawyer drivel driven warning tags. William graham saw a blow dryer that warned users, do not use while sleeping. We will show you even dumber. But first, how reliable is eyewitness testimony two do you remember that woman who ran in here and stole papers on my desk louisiana could you identify that these in a lineup . We will test you in the studio audience when we come back next [cheers] [applause] john if i were a juror on a trial and i heard an eyewitness say yes, he is the one where i heard the police testified that the them had picked the defendant of a Police Lineup my instinct would be to believe them. But they saw pictures and they said that that 10. Here is a convincing example. This woman was raped. Later she picked her convict attacker out of the convicted lineup. If i lived i said i wanted to memorize everything about this person. There is a sense that one of these has to be the suspect. And its my job to find him. And i wanted to be very confident and sure, so i took the time. Thats when i held up the picture and said that this is the man who did this. And they said are you sure and i said that im positive and they looked at me and said we thought that was the guy. That was ronald cotton sitting next to her and he served 10 years. He was pretty goodnatured about it then. And eventually dna evidence suggested that another man had committed the crime and that man confessed that he was the rapist. So how can a rape victim be so sure and so wrong . She said that i memorized his face. Eyewitnesses normally do because of the stress involved during a violent confrontation the adrenaline rush him and they make mistakes. No matter how confident they could sound in court, dna shows us that they are sometimes wrong. And the police may say yes they may just lose the two of them . Yes, and they may not even tell the defense about the other two witnesses. John here is a more recent example as to how they are often untrustworthy. Police shot a man who they said had threatened them with a hammer. But the eyewitnesses told the New York Times that they didnt see hammer and it looked like the man was trying to get away from the officers when he was shot. One witness said that i saw a man who was handcuffed being shot. Then the Police Released this video. The suspect was seen attacking christine officer just before the cops partner fired four bullets. When he turned around, that officer is calling for help and shes backtracking and he swings. You can see that he swings at least three times the one in slow motion you do see that. That is right. And Researchers Show people and then they will ask them the next day, what did you see. If you have people saying that i remember the broken glass all over the place. It and you look at the video. There was no broken glass. The Research Shows us that people do make mistakes and they are not even aware. They sound confident about what they saw but the video tells us a different story. You remember that woman who ran through the studio and stole some of my papers . Asked her to do that. I wanted to see if the Police Showed a lineup with you in it would you be able to pick her out. Take a look at these women. Which woman stole my paper . So i will ask you one at a time. Who thinks that its number one . Nobody. Number two . Number three . Number four . Number five . Number six . And okay, it was actually number three half of you were right. Thank you for doing that. And so you would have let her off. Half of you and convicted this number 6 . We dont even know who she is. Thank you. I hope have you people are not in the jury box. [laughter] and coming up next, you could go to jail for feeding the homeless [cheers] [applause] john one reason that the legal system is such a mess is because politicians do not think that they are doing their job unless they pass more laws. No legislator ever brags about laws that he repeals. But there are exceptions. Some politicians are like this eager regulator. This man recently proposed to raise the state legal smoking age from 18 to 21 years old. You have have to be 21 or so to purchase alcohol in the state, 21 to purchase marijuana. Its time to make the age 21. John 21 a general can go to war but they cannot smoke or drink. They used to be able to drink at age 18 but politicians keep making laws stricter. Almost always more laws. Washington state hasnt yet raise the smoking age but hawaii did and recently new york city good. Lawmakers claim that raising the age will lives but Elizabeth Woolley says that laws like that dont save lives at all. They actually save some lives around the margins. But think how much you could save in terms of lives if you raised the minimum age of smoking or drinking to 35 years old or go to 100. Many times you prohibit people from doing anything and you are probably going to save lives because almost everything we do is risky. You will save lives among those who obey the law which is a certain portion and you also probably kill people with the black markets that you create and cheating that you encourage. Yes we have seen that with the war on drugs. And part of that we were pretty much free to consume whatever we wanted to consume. I think theres more people dying now let us experiment, we are adults. [cheers] [applause] john and other stupid laws. In some towns, limousines or cabs have to charge people more. Fifty dollars, houston, miami 70. Why is that . Is laws are classic anticompetitive laws. They are designed to protect the taxi monopoly. The taxi is going to be much cheaper and it also cuts out Companies Like uber and lyft. John in tampa the taxi attorney said that the minimums they are prevent cutthroat competition. Cutthroat competition is competition. I like it because it gives me more choices as a consumer and lowers the prices. [cheers] [applause] other stupid laws. Cohabitation is illegal in florida mississippi north carolina. It is considered lewd and lascivious conduct. It may be used as leverage some time. You bring someone in for another crime. You threaten them for the prosecution of cohabitation is to get leverage. John moving on from cohabitation, which i dont think requires you to do this thing, but adultery does and that is illegal in 20 states. And theres a lot of that going on. Im pretty sure that. Its not just the misdemeanor state like michigan massachusetts, wisconsin. It is a felony and this is a serious crime and there have been highly publicized incidents in recent years. There was a guy in virginia back in 2003 with the town attorney and he got prosecuted for adultery. John in a lucky, you need a license to go out of business and in georgia you cant live on about for more than 30 days without a permit. And so on. Theres always a reason for these. I know that a lot of those guys cheap. This will protect us from those people. That is the ultimate insult, to have to get the governments purse permission not to do something we could get rid of half a loss the lost tomorrow and we would be a happier country. [cheers] [applause] john thank you. Coming up next the legal attack on the Economy Policy that politicians are going after. We are not properly regulated. [cheers] [applause] [cheers] [applause] john i live in new york city and so i spend a lot of time asking for taxis. Sometimes they come but oftentimes the car is filthy and the seat belt at work. I shouldnt be surprised because the taxi business is a government micromanagement oblate. Theres no price competition. Know it all lawyers and politician politicians set the pricing. Theres no competition when it comes to servicing either. But theyre a couple of years ago, entrepreneurs started a Ridesharing Company which is now huge uber. They created an application that allows people to drive their own cars and connecting with people that need a ride. I love these services. They are no more expensive but the uncertainty is gone. I know when the car is coming and thanks to their reputationbased rating system, i know the drivers names and their reputations. This encourages both of us to behave better. Because Ridesharing Services are better they are taking customers from a taxi monopoly. They are not properly regulated. And they want regulation. In france here are protesters dropping a rock on what they think is a uber car. Thankfully american politicians are not that bad, but they are not good either. Hillary clinton recently raised questions about workplace protections. As president i will work with every possible partner to turn the tide and to make these currents of change start working for us more than against us. To strengthen and not hollow out the american middle class. John that is so nice that she will turn the tide and rescue the middle class. She implies that every freelance drivers should have to be an employee and not an independent contractor. Of course that would mean more rules. Uber would have to provide health care sick pay and so on. Several states have ruled that they must and Ridesharing Companies should have to pay for that. And so why . The kind of company that you are talking about makes all kinds of promises. They tell the drivers how much theyre going to make they tell the drivers what percentage they are going to take. They tell the drivers where they have to go. They have protocols. So the question becomes how are they not employed mainemac yellow cab industries, they go where ever wherever they want, they pick up who they want. John you want the competition to be employees . In california they have promising. If you work for us we did guarantee it. John the driver volunteers to do that. Here is what happens. They came in a California Company took over the market in San Francisco and san diego. John that they are better. Its nicer. Bitter about the competition and then they started raising their rates. Taking more from their drivers, they went from 20 to 25 to 30 . John anybody with one of these can start one of these companies. I dont know how many people in the audience take uber. How many of you take it . That is the point. Because one Company Becomes dominant in that it puts everyone out of business. John the guys that purchased these taxis purchased them from the government for a Million Dollars apiece. John were members got ripped off by the government monopoly to that point. You know its not fair. John was it clear the company is that made bogeys and horses and carriages that they went out of business . Of course not. Technology is not bad and we dont pulpit. The part of the problem they have actually held us back. They told us when we could put this in our car. John now you are stuck. [cheers] [applause] you pay a Million Dollars for it. John on that note, maybe he will someday. Coming up the easter bunny toy carries the warning that this toy is not intended to represent living people. Any resemblance to this is not intended to harm anyone. Why is that necessary . Its not. So when we come back you get to award 8000 to this years wackiest warning label get all the money that you deserve for your injuries. Get at the money that you deserve for your injuries. John those are personal injury lawyers, bragging that they have bad doctors and companies that make us safer. And it seems logical and theres some truth to it. Some doctors and companies are more careful and there are a few bad products that pull from the market but for every person that the trial lawyers save they will kill two people because the lawsuits have horrible unintended consequences. First they discourage innovators from offering us products. Like new vaccines and companies gave up on an aids vaccine and a lyme disease vaccine because they said they were afraid of being sued and secondly the lawsuits waste so much of our time that we spent hours filling out paperwork, mostly useless paperwork and it doesnt make us safe is just a cover for possible lawsuits. Third, the lawyers make everything cost more. They add 500 to the price of a car. A pacemaker costs thousands mourn and even haircuts cost more and because of lawsuit insurance not keep. Finally the other injury and this brings us to the fun part of the segment and that includes putting all kinds of different ridiculous warning labels on the product. Bob jones who covers Lawsuit Abuse for the center for america runs a wacky warning label contest giving 1000 to the person who cements the stupidest warning label. Labels like this. The common smoke alarm that says warning. Intended to temporarily silence but one. It will not extinguish a fire. [laughter] john wide . The purpose of the contest is and doesnt make fun of companies that have these warnings out on products but to help reveal what kind of a legal system they are operating in so that they they are constantly looking over their shoulders for lawsuits. He sued the net makers and 50000. So somebody sued saying that i thought that this was going to put out the fire and theyre supposed to to read the label not going to make a difference. As you know, warning labels are becoming so absurd that experts are telling us that fewer and fewer people read warning labels. John have you ever seen the warning label on a Birth Control pill . I havent. John both sides and if you did read this. Nobody reads these. We do this contest every year and we get reporters from japan and germany all the people that we were competing with for jobs they want to know why americans have these warning labels. Its just unbelievable to them the one i asked my twitter audience where theres justice for stupidest warning label and one person printed a label on a childs shirt that says remove child before watching. [laughter] and how about the one that says dont iron clothes while wearing them. And aaron gibson cemented the label on a bottle of sleeping pills that says warning, may cause drowsiness. He keeps running the contest. So what are your other finalists . We had this 1 inch tall toy kids love these, it expands to about 10 times the size, but the warning label says that this is in no way intended to represent living people. Any resemblance is coincidental and not intended to harm anyone. We have gotten to our societies. Another one is theirs. Catfish. This why would they say that . Theres one common denominator. You failed to warn us. So in order to avoid the failure to warn, they over one. And a warning Bowling Alley says risk of Bodily Injury is associated with this game. We all know how risky boeing is. When we return, the audience picks the thousand dollar winner. I see trees of green red roses too i see them bloom for me and you and i think to myself what a Wonderful World music the colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by i see friends shakin hands saying how do you do . Theyre really saying i love you i hear babies cry i watch them grow theyll learn much more than ill ever know and i think to myself what a Wonderful World music oh yeah [cheers] [applause] we are back with our guests to take audience questions. But first you get to pick the winner of the wackiest warning label contest. Raise your hand if the one you think is the stupidest and the first is this. A smoke alarm that temporarily silences while you identify and correct the problem. It will not extinguish a fire. John the 1 inch high toy says that this is not represent living people. Okay. The patio door warns that the door may swing open or closed in windy conditions or it could hit a person causing injury. And then there is the fish. And i think that we have a clear winner here. Risk of Bodily Injury is associated with this. John the winner is James Andrews in College Station texas. He wins 1000. In second place is the gro choi they get 500. And then questions from the audience here . This question is for the professor. Im wondering what you think is more of a problem. Not following the letter of the law or the spirit of the law. As someone who really cares about the letter of the law i think that that is the most important. Because if you dont follow that, that really Means Nothing and then who would define what the spirit of the law is. That is exceedingly difficult. Which do you think is more of a problem . The fact that there are not enough good laws or the fact that they are earning on the books are not being implemented in the way they should be . We talk about how america doesnt have a loser pays system. But we do for frivolous lawsuits and most of the states. And a judge can throw out a lawsuit and find the person but they rarely do it for a number of reasons. They want to get reelected they want everyone to be happy. Theres reasons but not good reasons. If theres taped confessions of the people that committed the crimes why isnt the full interrogation so that the defense can prove that it was forced . In most cases the confessions of interrogations are not videotaped. But where they are Defense Attorneys try to bring it into the court. Video technology is now cheap and widely available. Theres no excuse anymore for not recording interrogations from beginning to end. And all of your years of doing this what is your favorite . Thats a good question. It would have to be a warning label on with three folks dangling off the end and it says warning, harmful if swallowed. John make you. Bob elizabeth that is our show for the night. Stay away from lawyers if you can. See you next week. [cheers] [applause] of the day. Goodnight from new york. Kennedy welcome watching a musical genius tonight and has written a new song with a video is about Michael Brown and social justice. This song is beautiful land profound it is a very heavy phrase. But this one made me pause
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