GUILTY PLEAS BY INNOCENT SUSPECTS

Re "Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty," Dec. 31: It is interesting
how those officers who are sworn to enforce the law decide to commit
perjury and how prosecutors and judges ignore blatant signs of perjury. It
is justice around the constitutional protections established to assure a
fair trial.

I have seen police officers perjure themselves in traffic offenses, but the
prison sentences that were gained for the prosecution frighten me and I
wonder if this is another cost of the "free hand" given the police and
prosecutors in the war on drugs.

Norwood Price, Burbank

In the article a former police chief, Joseph McNamara, indicated hundreds
of thousands of police officers commit perjury while testifying in court
and U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski described the
perjury as an open secret long shared by prosecutors, defense lawyers and
judges. Both of these men had and do hold positions of authority and trust
and should have been asked, "If you knew officers were committing perjury,
what did you do about it?"

If they acquiesced to this conspiracy, aren't they as guilty as those who
presented false information?

Dan Miller, Lakewood

Does anyone really believe the only law enforcement personnel who lie under
oath and commit other legal misconduct are in the Rampart Division of the
LAPD? It seems to me that district attorneys and judges are their
"unwitting" co-conspirators.

Perhaps it is time to rethink the conservative Republican "tough-on-crime
mentality" that we have allowed to consume the legal system in the last 15
years. If they can do this to one person, they can do it to anyone.

Timothy McKenna, Los Angeles