JOHN GRISHAM: It Is Too Easy To Convict An Innocent Person.

The rate of wrongful convictions in the United States is estimated to be somewhere between 2% to 10%. That may sound low, but when applied to a prison population of 2.3 million, the numbers become staggering. Can there really be 46,000 to 230,000 innocent people locked away? Those of us who are involved in exoneration work firmly believe so.

Millions of defendants are processed through our courts each year. It’s nearly impossible to determine how many of them are actually innocent once they’ve been convicted. There are few resources for examining the cases and backgrounds of those claiming to be wrongfully convicted.

Once an innocent person is convicted, it is next to impossible to get them out of prison. Over the past 25 years, the Innocence Project, where I serve on the board of directors, has secured through DNA testing the release of 349 innocent men and women, 20 of whom had been sent to death row. All told, there have been more than 2,000 exonerations, including 200 from death row, in the U.S. during that same period. But we’ve only scratched the surface.

And death penalty defendants get much more elaborate protections than ordinary criminals, most of whom are hustled into plea bargains without any sort of trial.

HERE’S WHY THE 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE WILL BE …Who else, but the ultimate victim, Hillary Clinton.

RIP: Floyd Carter Sr., one of the remaining Tuskegee Airmen, dies at 95.

Floyd Carter Sr., one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen, dedicated his remarkable life to serving his country and his city.

The decorated veteran of three wars and 27 years with the NYPD died Thursday at age 95, leaving a long legacy as a groundbreaking hero pilot and a city police detective.

Carter, who simultaneously rose through the ranks of the U.S. Air Force Reserves and the police, was honored in 2007 with the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush for breaking the color barrier in Tuskegee.

“We mourn the loss of a true American hero,” read a tweet from the 47th Precinct in his adopted home of the Bronx. “Our community & nation has lost a giant.”

Carter rose to the rank of Air Force lieutenant colonel years after joining the group of African-American pilots at Tuskegee University.

He met his wife Atherine there, where the Alabama native was working as part of an all-female repair crew.

Carter wooed his bride-to-be on several dates in his plane, and they were married at the air base in 1945.

What an amazing life.

ALL IS PROCEEDING AS SCOTT ADAMS HAS FORESEEN: “Whisper it, but maybe Trump isn’t that bad after all.”

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump School Safety Plan Revealed and Much, Much More. “Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night. I had no idea that show was still on, but it is. DeVos told Leslie Stahl the administration is reviewing Obama’s school discipline policy.”

That’s a start.

INCIRLIK BLUES: U.S. Pares Back Use of Turkish Base Amid Strains With Ankara.

The base was the centerpiece of the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State for several years, but conflicting aims in Syria have driven a wedge between the U.S. and Turkey. The drawdown is among the strongest consequences yet of those fraying ties.

A squadron of American A-10 ground attack jets was moved from Incirlik to Afghanistan in January, leaving only refueling aircraft currently at the Turkish base. At the time, the Pentagon said it was stepping up operations in Afghanistan.

At the same time, the U.S. military has gradually reduced the number of military family members living on the base, shrinking its footprint in Turkey.

U.S. officials maintain that the U.S. remains committed to Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, and that there are no immediate plans for a further drawdown of forces and aircraft. The A-10s, officials said, could return to the base at any time.

According to an older report, the US military began moving its nuclear weapons stockpile out of Incirlik two years ago, just weeks after Recep Erdoğan began his nationwide crackdown.

ROGER SIMON: Why the Democrats Made Such an Idiotic Tax Proposal. “The media can be relied upon to ignore or obfuscate as usual. So far they have barely reported this proposal, because they know it’s nonsense and might embarrass the Democrats.”

AND YOU THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Children who drink full-fat milk end up slimmer than those on skimmed.

21ST CENTURY WARFARE: Russia test-fires ‘ideal’ hypersonic missile.

The high-precision Kinzhal (Dagger) missile was launched from a MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet that took off from an airfield in the South Military District in Russia’s southwest, the defense ministry said.

“The launch went according to plan, the hypersonic missile hit its target,” the ministry added.

The ministry released video footage showing two pilots gearing up for a flight and then running towards a jet with a large missile slung beneath its underbelly.

Set to rousing, patriotic music, the video then shows a missile detaching from the airborne plane and gliding across the dark sky, leaving a fiery trail behind.

The video isn’t really proof of anything other than that the Kremlin’s propaganda filmmaking is far superior to Soviet efforts.

JUST LIKE ROTHERHAM: Report: Afraid of Racism Accusations, British Police Didn’t Address Child-Sex Ring.

An official investigation into the systemic abuse in Telford, U.K. wasn’t launched until roughly a decade after authorities first learned of it, according to the Sunday Mirror.

British authorities failed to meaningfully address an epidemic of child prostitution that claimed as many as 1,000 victims over the past three decades, according to a new report by the Sunday Mirror.

The report reveals that authorities in the town of Telford became aware of the scale of the problem in the 1990s, but failed to prevent the continued drugging, beating, and rape of hundreds of girls, some of whom were as young as eleven, until an official investigation was launched roughly a decade later.

How many more like this are still out there, operating under a PC shield?

SCOTT KILLS FREE SPEECH ZONES IN FLORIDA: Well, isn’t that a refreshing idea – the First Amendment applies everywhere, so college administrators are no longer permitted to limit free speech to designated areas of Florida campuses, thanks to legislation signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott. The measure faced some significant legislative hurdles but LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst explains how they were overcome.

HAVE YOU SEEN THESE VOTERS? The Missing Obama Millions.

Our analysis shows that while 9 percent of Obama 2012 voters went for Mr. Trump in 2016, 7 percent — that’s more than four million missing voters — stayed home. Three percent voted for a third-party candidate.

We would hardly urge Democratic strategists to abandon Obama-to-Trump voters. However, Obama-to-nonvoters are a relatively liberal segment of the country who have largely been ignored. They are mostly young and nonwhite, and they represent an important part of the Democratic Party’s demographic future. Given the likelihood that many Obama-to-Trump voters will remain in Republican ranks, it is hard to imagine how Democrats can win elections if this group remains on the sidelines.

This is why every serious (and not-so-serious) Democratic contender for 2020 has already doubled down on the identity politics.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Rex Murphy: The contemptible concept of ‘white privilege’ is just ugly, angry racism.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is Trump turning the U.S. into Putin’s Russia?

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Steyer Works to End Bail Payments for Criminal Defendants in California.

“Join NextGen America, Tom Steyer and a panel of criminal justice reform experts to discuss how we can fix California’s broken bail system, and for a special screening of ’13th,’ the documentary by Ava DuVernay on racism in the criminal justice system,” the California Playbook message reads.

NextGen America did not respond to an inquiry about whether the organization or Steyer personally funded the documentary.

A bill to overhaul the bail system in California has stalled in the Assembly after being approved in the Senate. It faces stiff opposition from industry lobbyists and lawmakers who are worried that it will impose high costs on counties.

The measure is aimed at trying to ensure that accused criminals awaiting trial do not remain in jail solely because they cannot afford to pay bail.

The proposals would end the practice of requiring criminal defendants from having to pose money as a condition of release from jail and would instead require counties to set up pre-trial services agencies to consider whether defendants pose a harm to the community or are okay to release.

Sounds like more make-work for government officials and less safety for California residents — so pretty much business as usual, should this Steyer get his way.

LIFE IN DEBLASIO’S New York: Parents up in arms after NYPD removes cops from schools.

MEET THE RESISTANCE: Far-left organizer found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor. “Rhodes was on supervision by the Oregon Youth Authority for sexual abuse and sodomy at the time he was charged for alleged abuse in both counties, authorities say. Juvenile records aren’t public, so details of the earlier case aren’t available.”

THESE INNOCENT MISTAKES ALWAYS SEEM TO GO IN THE SAME DIRECTION: Cybersecurity Firm Apologizes After Parental Controls Block Conservative Sites for ‘Hate’ and ‘Violence.’

IGNOBLE LIE: How The New Aristocracy Masks Its Privilege. “The ruling class denies that they really are a self-perpetuating elite that has not only inherited certain advantages but also seeks to pass them on. To mask this fact, they describe themselves as the vanguard of equality, in effect denying the very fact of their elevated status and the deleterious consequences of their perpetuation of a class divide that has left their less fortunate countrymen in a dire and perilous condition. Indeed, one is tempted to conclude that their insistent defense of equality is a way of freeing themselves from any real duties to the lower classes that are increasingly out of geographical sight and mind. . . . Our ruling class is more blinkered than that of the ancien régime. Unlike the aristocrats of old, they insist that there are only egalitarians at their exclusive institutions. They loudly proclaim their virtue and redouble their commitment to diversity and inclusion. They cast bigoted rednecks as the great impediment to perfect equality—not the elite institutions from which they benefit. The institutions responsible for winnowing the social and economic winners from the losers are largely immune from questioning, and busy themselves with extensive public displays of their unceasing commitment to equality. . . . That the ruling class today is more prone to denounce inequality from its manicured campuses than promote among its own denizens belief in a common civic life is not a sign of its greater enlightenment and progress, but a sign of a new aristocracy that is unconscious of its own position and its concomitant responsibilities.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The 5 Worst Things About College in America.

WOMEN ARE HUMAN, NOT ANGELS:  ‘Believe All Women’ at Your Peril.

WORLD TO END. WOMEN AND MINORITIES MOST AFFECTED:  Canadian Government: “consider the gendered impacts of climate change.”

ONLY IF WE LET THEM:  Tomorrow’s grim global Green dictatorship.