Prosecutors have been well described in the media as “dogged’ and “relentless” by exerting punishment and retribution for crimes large and small against our citizenry. But there is a factual line drawn where cases of legitimate doubts are brought forward in post-conviction proceedings which do overturn convictions.  For example, doubts about forensic mishandling and inept methods and new exclusionary DNA evidence paid for by the State of California should carry alot of weight to overturn a conviction. The US record number of 1831 exonerations also indicates that innocence proceedings have been successful, in part, due to prosecutors eventually admitting that some prior convictions have been faulty. Here’s a reality check: It took the Detroit DA over eight years to finally relent to the facts of an exoneration published in a recent case report.  All this exoneration business varies from state to state and prosecutor to prosecutor.

Similar “actual or legal innocence” arguments have had…