“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver said on Sunday that TV shows have fed a big myth about justice in the United States, and that’s the notion that the appeals process can fix wrongful decisions.
The reality is quite different.
Or as Oliver put it, the system is “fundamentally fucked,” with wrongfully convicted people languishing in prison.
“It really feels like our system is essentially guilty until proven rich or lucky,” Oliver said after highlighting some of the most egregious cases. “And that has to change, because we cannot keep letting the most vulnerable be casualties of a system that cares more about quick and final decisions than actually correct ones.”
In one clip played by Oliver from “The Innocence Files” on Netflix, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner ― who has worked to free the wrongfully convicted, especially in cases involving police misconduct ― said justice means ensuring the guilty don’t walk free and that the innocent aren’t locked up instead.
“That ain’t right,” he said. “I mean, duh!”
Oliver agreed.
“Yeah, he’s right: Fuckin’ duh!” Oliver said. “You’ve probably already been screaming that at your TV for the last 15 minutes.”
And that was before he got to what may have been his most outrageous example: