Whenever I’ve interviewed anyone who feels as if they’ve been wrongfully arrested, accused, charged, or indicted, they usually want a single thing.
To be proclaimed innocent.
To be exonerated.
Being found not guilty isn’t the same.
While it’s the one thing the accused want, it’s the one thing they can’t have.
Innocent until proven guilty is not in the U.S. Constitution. Rather it derives from the thirteenth-century Magna Carta. While it’s a pithy phrase thrown around quite a bit, is it really true?
It has long been the policy of newspapers here in Ohio and nationally to publish mugshots for crimes major and petty. Alongside Saturday lists of men who solicit prostitutes are a popular feature. I, as I’m sure many of you, have scanned the lists to see if anyone I know is there. I’ve found names of husbands or public officials and tsked.
Yet, these people are presumed innocent. The moment that picture or list is published, though, the presumption of guilt weighs heavily. As I’m sure you have, I’ve said to myself, well, then why were they on Detroit Avenue on a late Saturday night? How did they get arrested if they weren’t doing something to get the attention of the police?
When they come into a courtroom with their arms and legs shackled in full orange jumpsuit and jail slippers, innocence isn’t the first thing on any of our minds.
This is The Murders Began with me, your host, Blake Hardin Tatum.
There is no doubt that former Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Lorraine Pope, has left a path of destruction in her wake.
Her mother and sister are dead. They were both addicts whose time was going to come sooner or later, but Pope has been accused of hastening their demise.
Libby Saldana may not have been convicted of murder, but she still pled guilty to a misdemeanor. Liberdad Saldaño lost her life. Her husband and children as well.
Jabari Roach and Wayne Cooley found themselves at the wrong end of a .357. Tyisha Cooley was luckier. She too pled to a lesser crime, tampering with evidence. Though she received probation, she lost her job in compliance. A career field where a criminal conviction is functionally equal to a firing.
Lorraine Pope’s fingerprints were found on the body of Taneka Parr. Whether she was the victim of traffickers or the prosecutor remains unknown. The OBI and attorney general are still investigating.
On April fifteenth of this year, Lorraine Pope was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. She escaped both the death penalty and life imprisonment. Her guilty verdict and three-year sentence feel more like exoneration than condemnation.