Return to this issue's Table of Contents. The prospect that innocent people will be executed in America is horrifyingly likely, the author argues in this unsparing report on the criminal-justice system. Police officers and prosecutors have suppressed evidence.
Many public defenders are incompetent.
March 15, 1985. Another man later confessed to the crime, but the confession was ignored. Cruz was released after a third trial found him not guilty. The murder remains officially unsolved. The man kicked in the front door, carried Jeanine to an upstairs bedroom, wrapped her in a sheet, and taped a towel around her eyes.