Less Smart than we Think

We are often overconfident. Sometimes that wrecks lives.

1. The case of a serial rapist.

A man was raping elderly women in Long Beach. This man would find apartments of elderly women, strip off his clothes, enter the apartment (usually through an open window), and sodomize his elderly victims. The Long Beach Police were frantic to end the lengthening chain of violated elderly women.

They brought in tracking dogs. The tracking dogs followed a scent, allegedly, to an apartment building. The scent, allegedly, led to a particular floor. On that floor, there was an apartment with the lights on. The police knocked on the door, but nobody answered. The police concluded that the perpetrator was in that apartment, and that he did not answer the door to impede the investigation.

The police learned who lived in that apartment. It was a man named Jeffrey G. They put together a photo lineup with his picture in it. The lineup had five Hispanics and one White guy. The White guy was Jeffrey G. An expert, a former detective who was also the former chief of an urban police department, later said that that was the most suggestive photo lineup he had ever seen used. Most of the victims identified the photo of Jeffrey G. as the perpetrator from the suggestive photo lineup.

The police arrested Jeffrey G. for the serial rapes. He worked for the City of Long Beach, and, when the police came to arrest him, he thought that his fellow city-employees were pranking him. His mother hired my firm to to defend him.

We started to accumulate evidence of innocence. We found that on the night of one Long Beach rape, our client had been visiting his mother in Grand Terrace. He drove back to Long Beach in the morning. On his way back, he got a traffic ticket. Also, within twenty minutes of another rape, Jeffrey G. was 15 miles away in a grocery story, cashing a check. The check had a time-stamp.

The police were accumulating evidence, too. But we learned that the police were shading their recollections to tilt the evidence toward proving the guilt of Jeffrey G. In fact, the real perpetrator committed one of his signature rapes while Jeffrey G. was in custody. The police suppressed news of that. They did not tell us that the Long Beach serial rapist had struck again while Jeffrey G. was in jail for  being the Long Beach serial rapist.

But Jeffrey G. caught a break. In one of the rapes, the perpetrator had ejaculated on his victim. The perpetrator tried to lick off the semen, but he missed a little. This semen was collected as evidence. In another case, after he sodomize his victim, the perpetrator exited through a window. As he exited the window, a little fecal matter, with a little semen on it, fell from the tip of his penis onto the window sill. This evidence also was collected. These two incidents, one at the beginning of the chain of rapes, and one toward the end, gave DNA to compare to the DNA of Jeffrey G. It did not match.

We were not surprised. But everybody in law enforcement was stunned, from the detectives to the prosecutors. They were so certain that Jeffrey G. was guilty that they concluded that somehow the wrong DNA had been tested. So they sent a detective by airplane to hand-carry the DNA samples to the Justice Department laboratory in Sacramento, to make sure that the right samples were analyzed. The results were the same: Jeffrey G. was innocent.

The case was soon dismissed. But the Long Beach police continued to be certain that a guilty man had somehow been freed.

Years later, the actual perpetrator was caught. He was not even the same race as Jeffrey G. He and Jeffrey G. did not look alike. Jeffrey G. also was much taller. But the perpetrator’s DNA matched.

This tale should make us humble and cautious. The Long Beach detectives did not think they were sending an innocent man to prison for the rest of his life. They were sure that Jeffrey G. was guilty. Their certainty grew from the moment nobody answered the door of Jeffrey G’s apartment. Jeffrey G. wasn’t home. He had left the lights on to fool potential burglars.

The Long Beach detectives drew a conclusion that they should not have drawn from so little evidence. Being certain, they then started sculpting the evidence to create the appearance that Jeffrey G. was guilty. For example, a detective told us about certain evidence that she had observed; when we pointed out that that evidence actually helped our client, she gave different testimony under oath.

This points out a human trait: we tend to form conclusions before the evidence supports them. We are sure about things that we should not be sure about. This can lead to terrible consequences. It almost sent an innocent man to prison for the rest of his life.

2. The case of the self-made man or woman.

Sometimes, we enjoy a measure of material success in life. Our business thrives. Our investments prosper. Like the Long Beach detectives, we infer from that what is not warranted. We might conclude that we have prospered because of our own virtue, talent, and effort.

And, in our pride, we might condemn those who have not prospered. We might consider them less worthy than ourselves.

In the eyes of the world, this is right. The idea of a self-made man or woman is prominent in our culture.

3. The Bible’s point of view: Hannah.

But it defies the Biblical point of view. The Biblical point of view is that we are all subject to God, time, and chance.

A woman named Hannah who lived in ancient Israel was childless. She was devastated because of that. She prayed to God to open her womb. A priest saw her praying in the temple. He thought she was drunk because her lips moved, but he heard no words. (Apparently, that was not customary in that era.) She mad a vow to God, if only he would give her a son.

And God did. That boy became the prophet Samuel.

That woman’s prayer of gratitude will live forever (1 Samuel 2:1-10 (KJV)):

1And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. 2There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. 3Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 4The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. 5They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

6The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. 7The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. 8He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them. 9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 10The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Hannah's prayer gives glory to God for raising up and for putting down

4. The Bible’s point of view: David.

David, a man after God’s own heart, fought Goliath. When David approached Goliath, Goliath told David that he would kill David and give David’s flesh to the birds of the air. David answered. And he did not speak of his own prowess as a fighter. He spoke of the power of God. He said (1 Samuel 17:45-47 (KJV)):

45Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 46This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands.

5. The Bible’s point of view: Job.

The book of Job is the story of a good and prosperous man who had everything taken from him, and then he was restored by God to his former prosperity. In his suffering, his friends came and, for a time, sat in silence. But then, in the certainty of their knowledge of God, they spoke out. And they said that Job must have offended God to be brought so low. In fact, the point of the book of Job is that it was Job’s very righteousness that made him a target of a bet between Satan and God.

6. The Bible’s point of view: Ecclesiastes.

And one of the Bible’s more famous passages occurs at Ecclesiastes 9:11 (KJV):

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

7. Defiance.

So, for all this Biblical witness, why do we insist that there are self-made men and women? A believer cannot.

We cannot believe that we are completely in charge of our own prosperity or poverty; intellect or ignorance; faith or un-belief; salvation or damnation.

Certainly, we have to cooperate with God to bring about good things. There would be no point to the urging in Proverbs to do right and be diligent if we had no responsibility to choose to do right or to be diligent. We do. The point is only that there are forces unseen that have a great deal to do with the rise and fall of persons, companies, churches, nations, and peoples. To say otherwise is to defy the Bible.

So if we know something, let us be humble about our knowledge.

If we have something, let us be humble about what he have.

If we keep from evil, let us be humble about our righteousness.