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Analysis Of Susan Greene And Miles Moffeit's Trashing The Truth

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Over the past 3 decades, in the United States evidence vaults, an uncountable number of DNA evidence specimens have been destroyed, leaving 6 thousand cases virtually unsolvable. Additionally, this destruction led 141 prisoners to be unable to prove their innocence (Greene). All of this has been going on for years, but was only recently uncovered through a series of investigative journaling. Muckraking still does exist in 2016 in newspapers as demonstrated by Susan Greene and Miles Moffeit's Denver Post series titled, "Trashing the Truth."
In “Trashing the Truth,” Susan Greene and Miles Moffeit wanted to expose the current problem of evidence destruction, and did lots of work and research to accomplish this. The two authors, who both worked …show more content…

It showed that precious DNA evidence was being thrown away in a “sledge-o-matic” manner, without regard for the number of cases that could be solved had the evidence been saved (Greene). The poor conditions also play a role in evidence destruction. In 2003, Hurricane Katrina destroyed so much evidence in an unstable vault that they were forced to drop charges on 3,000 cases (Greene). Another issue exposed is how overfilled the vaults are. Even though taxpayers in Colorado paid 1.24 million in 2002 to expand storage spaces, within 3 years the stockpiles rose from floor to ceiling again (Greene). Evidence was even reported to being stored in places other than vaults, such as nearby bathrooms. Every piece of evidence tossed or lost leads to another case left unsolvable. This will just keep on happening, though, because The Denver Post revealed that there were no state or local laws surrounding this issue (Greene). The goal of the series was to expose this little-known issue to the public. More importantly, it was to bring justice to both victims with unsolvable cases and those who were wrongly imprisoned and are unable to prove their innocence (Greene). In “Trashing the Truth,” Susan Greene and Miles Moffeit revealed the horrors of evidence destruction, with a goal of bringing justice to victims of

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