And The Truth Shall Set You Free, Or Not!
by Joe Lyons
Deoxyribonucleic Acid.
You know it as DNA.
It is defined as a nucleic acid containing the genetic instructions that specify the biological development of all cellular forms of life. ItÕs also at the heart of just about every episode of CSI and Law & Order.
It is the little I.D. tag in our chromosomes that sets us apart from the guy next to us. Better than blood type or fingerprints, it is the human equivalent of snowflakes.
No two can be alike.
Thus it is that DNA has become the beginning and end for crime and body identification.
Where people begin to worry is when they hear of men convicted of serial murder or cop killings who walk after 20 years because new DNA evidence says they are innocent.
Can this be?
ÒTwelve good men and trueÓ found these criminals guilty. How can some group with their liberal agenda come forward to foster this new travesty?
Well, the reality is that things are not as bad as they may seem. The recent case of Roger Keith Coleman, found guilty of rape in 1982 in Virginia proved that even after his execution in 1992, he was as guilty as he was found to be in court. This was despite the fact that he had gone to meet his Maker proclaiming his innocence.
Such reports are made even more solid by the fact that todayÕs DNA tests are more accurate than they used to be. Science has moved forward.
Some time ago I put the question to then San Bernardino County DA, Dennis Stout. What good is a test that disproves our legal system? What good is the legal system if DNA testing will let these killers go?
Stout, you may remember was a Òlaw& orderÓ attorney. As far as he was concerned, if the occasional case was turned over based on solid proof that could not necessarily be a bad thing. But, he stressed to me, the number of convictions that DNA testing proved true way outnumbered the turnovers that the media tends to play up.
In fact, one Ontario police officer recently confided to me that the confirmation ratio ran to something like 100 to 1.
All of this becomes more important to us here in the Inland Empire because of the Kevin Cooper case. Cooper, you may recall, was convicted of killing the Ryan family in Chino Hills back in the early eighties. He too, declared his innocence. He has demanded appeals and even had DNA tests to prove his case.
He continues to appeal his case. Despite his protestations the tests that have been performed so far have continued to prove his guilt.
Security cameras help the law in cases that take place in busy urban areas. Even ATM machines can tell who was there, and when. But in a case like CooperÕs, where there were only three houses out on a lonely hilltop, with no security cameras around, that magical little DNA test has yet to fail us.
True, these tests do not come back with results in a day, like we see on TV. In most cases it takes more like two weeks, but it is a tool that takes the Òbleeding heartÓ element out of modern jurisprudence, and that is a very good thing, indeed.
You Just CanÕt Believe What You See on TV
by Joe Lyons
The Inland Empire never fairs well in popular fiction.
John D. MacDonald wrote, in a Travis Magee novel, about a guy who grew up in Riverside, Òat the edge of the desert.Ó
Robert B. Parker claimed that he had to drive through Bakersfield to get from L.A. to Palm Springs. (OK, he called it Poodle Springs.)
Yet another author claimed that the only thing he remembered about us was the railroad cars rolling parallel to Interstate 10.
It wasnÕt any better in January when the Ontario International Airport was featured on the FOX TV show Ò24.Ó People who work at ONT were excited because the old terminal has become a regular movie set, but it had never gotten to play itself before.
You have seen Terminal One as Miami International, Toronto, and even LAX. This was the first time Ontario got to be Ontario.
But those of us who live here and know the territory knew something was wrong when our hero, Jack Bauer, asked the lady he wanted to meet, where she was. Understand, she was coming down the 15 from the high desert. She responded that she was at the crossing of the 10 and the 210.
They donÕt cross!
Interstate 10 and 210 run parallel!
Then Bauer shows up at the airport 20 minutes after he left L.A. I canÕt make it to Ontario that fast at 3:00 a.m. in the diamond lane!
But the worst mistake was when the cameras took us into the airport itself. There, in terminal 1, people are milling around, dragging baggage and checking in at the ticket counters.
Forget about the missing security and metal detectors. You canÕt fly out of terminal 1! ItÕs been closed to travelers since 1998. The planes take off from terminals 2 and 4.
Now itÕs easy to say this is a small thing. It is only TV after all. Sure. But as we have pointed out in these pages before, many people do not seem to know about the new terminals.
Hardly a day goes by that someone doesnÕt show up at terminal 1 and wonder where all of the planes went. Some people were not even aware that Ontario has an airport.
WeÕre talking about an image thing here. Too many people see the Inland Empire as little more than the road to the desert or to Vegas. While many still call us the Ònext Orange County,Ó one wonders if Orange County went through this identity problem before Disneyland opened.
I will grant you that trying to film a terrorist attack in OntarioÕs new terminals is probably not going to happen in this post 9-11 era, and many other potential film sites in the Inland Empire are always going to be miss-identified in films and TV shows. It should be interesting, in May, to see what OntarioÕs airport becomes when ÒMission Impossible 3Ó comes out.
While Hollywood decries the problems of Òrunaway productions,Ó it is good to know that we have become their Ògo-toÓ back lot. Still, once in a while, when we get to play ourselves, weÕd like them to get us right.