(I actually have another sports story to blog, but let's change the subject just for a little while...)

Michael Kinsley writes in Slate about the dirty little secret of the US justice system: people are supposed to confess to crimes they didn't commit. It happens every day, and is called "plea bargaining." If a DA scares you into believing he can convict you of murder, then the only way to avoid the death penalty may be to stand in front of a judge and swear that you accidentally killed someone you did not kill at all.

Then, years later, when evidence shows up that someone else killed that person, you're SOL -- you confessed in court, so there's no need to investigate. Gotta love the conveniences of assembly-line justice. Well worth reading.