Thursday, March 1, 2007

If a tree falls in the forest...

A good friend of mine who is a skilled writer/blogger recently tackled the age old question; "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make any noise?" (http://rachelthomae.typepad.com/ There's No Record)

It brought to mind an experience I had nearly ten years ago. I was a religious volunteer at the Utah State Prison in Draper. During our training session, (a totally fascinating way to spend a Saturday) we learned of a study out of the Louisiana Penal System.

A Louisiana study concluded that well over 80% of their inmates believed even if they committed the crime, if they were either acquitted, acquitted due to a technicality or if their conviction was overturned on a technicality, they not only didn't commit the crime, the crime didn't even happen.

If a tree falls in the forest...

1 comment:

Kimberly Thomas said...

so does that mean that the person they killed is no longer dead, the stolen items returned, the raped child a virgin again?