Fired for Helping an Innocent Man Prove his Innocence

Consider the sick case of Sharon Snyder, a 70-year-old employee of the Jackson County Circuit Court who was fired nine months before she was scheduled to retire for helping an innocent man get the DNA test that proved his innocence:

Robert Nelson, 49, sought DNA testing to overturn his rape conviction in 2009 and again in 2011, but Judge David Byrn denied both requests because he hadn't crafted the motion properly. "After the second motion failed in late October 2011, Snyder gave Nelson's sister, Sea Dunnell, a copy of a motion filed in a different case in which the judge sustained a DNA request," AP reports. Using that public document as a guide, Nelson finally won the right to have the DNA evidence tested on February 22, 2012. Last month, that DNA test proved him innocent. And five days after he was released, Synder was fired for involving herself in a case before the court. 

Is this justice? Or is it an act of revenge from a "justice system" that can't stand to admit its mistakes? Why would we ever deny DNA testing to any prisoner, consider that the sentences of at least 310 Americans have been overturned that way? What social purpose is served by keeping innocent men in prison? The cost is trivial compared to the cost of keeping a man in prison for even one year, and those freed by the Innocence Project have served an average of 13.6. If DNA evidence is available, it should be tested, period.