According to this experienced corrections system chaplain, it will take a reformation of hearts to bring true reform to any justice system. The case in question is still under appeal. For the chaplain's own safety, the city and state where the trial was held are not disclosed.

I sat in the courtroom for eight days. I watched the impassive faces of 12 jurors, who were asked to discern truth from falsehood as one witness after another testified in a capital murder trial. Their verdict would rest solely on which argument the jurors believed, because no physical evidence was presented to prove the killer's identity.

The defendant insisted he had been nowhere near the crime scene. His main accuser dubbed himself a reluctant accomplice in a robbery-turned-murder. Another witness, a jailhouse informant, claimed the defendant had bragged to him about doing the killing. After more than eight hours of deliberation, the jury gave its verdict: guilty of first degree murder. The judge imposed a sentence of life in prison. Case closed and justice served.

Or was it justice? Those who know the accused man, myself included, contend there is no way he is capable of shooting anyone, much less a close friend. Those who know the accuser regard him as a vicious thug, a clever manipulator, and a heavy drug user. To these insiders, the case is a no-brainer—the accuser did the crime, then pinned the murder rap on someone who had been in the victim's car earlier that day. To save his own skin, the accuser concocted elaborate lies, which he persuaded his scared family members to buttress and conviction-hungry police and prosecutors to buy.

When I walked out of the courthouse into pouring rain, I was numb with fear and anguish. Here was a young man about to spend 40 years behind bars for a crime that, in my view, he didn't commit. It felt like a nightmare that would end when I woke up.

Over the past year, I've awakened, but not from sleep. Rather, I've been gently awakened by the strong spiritual messages in the Bible about God's justice, which is never out of reach. One of the most heartening promises is "He shall deliver the island of the innocent" (Job 22:30).

Equally inspiring has been my study of the writings of Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy, whose ideas on truth and justice ring with the authority of someone who was herself subjected to and surmounted false charges and fraudulent lawsuits.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she wrote: "Though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error." Farther down the page she counseled, "Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's own way, and let human justice pattern the divine" (p. 542). Those sentences use Truth as the Bible does—as a synonym for God.

I feel that my friend's case, currently under appeal, has the marks of error hiding behind a lie—sloppy detective work and complicit witnesses. Also, the prosecution had no hard evidence, a weak alibi for the accuser, and a coldhearted "informant" whose reward for lying was a greatly reduced prison term. The accuser also has a record of violent crime, which would have guaranteed him a death sentence had the finger of blame pointed in his direction.

Unfortunately, questionable convictions are not rare these days. According to Dr. Edmund Higgins, a South Carolina-based forensic psychiatrist who has created the largest database of the wrongfully convicted in North America, at least 316 convictions have been overturned in the past four years. Nearly half had been sentenced to death or to life in prison. Dr. Higgins admits his compilation of names is "just the wrongful convictions we know about." He wonders, "How many more are there?"

Increased scrutiny of the criminal justice system in the United States—by journalists, human rights activists, and concerned citizens—is turning up the heat on cases where the identity of the suspect was never proven "beyond a reasonable doubt," the standard for conviction in the US system. Some of the most problematic cases, having exhausted their appeals, are being accepted by "innocence projects," which investigate, litigate, and overturn wrongful convictions.

As important as it is to reverse wrongful convictions, preventing false charges from being believed in the first place is the only way to avoid the compounded tragedy of innocent people locked up and, in some cases, executed.

Prevention is the aim of investigative reporter Steve Weinberg and a team of lawyers, journalists, and researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity. They meticulously comb through court records in jurisdictions where they believe prosecutorial misconduct might have led to an abnormally high rate of wrongful convictions. Although the vast majority of prosecutors are honorable public servants, Weinberg believes there are some who are so determined to get convictions that they will do anything to secure a guilty verdict. Weinberg intends to publish the names of the worst offending prosecutors.

Why focus on the prosecutor? "He's the linchpin," Weinberg explained in a telephone interview. "He decides whether or not to bring a case. He determines how fair a trial is going to be—by the way he presents the evidence and makes his arguments to the jury, and by whether he brings to light or suppresses exculpatory [vindicating] evidence."

The bottom line in reforming a judicial system, though, is the reformation of hearts. Motives—the basis for actions—need to be elevated from fear of "the bad guys" to love for all. Rather than automatically assuming guilt and recklessly accusing suspects, the presumption of innocence needs to be considered sacred.

Innocence. Honesty. Selflessness. Love. Justice. These qualities can seem absent or at least compromised in a criminal courtroom when a defendant is facing an overzealous detective, a conviction-at-all-costs prosecutor, a politically motivated judge, or a credulous jury. But they're actually present in every courtroom, because God is their source and He's present and active at all times, in all places. Let me explain how I've been praying about these five essential qualities.

Innocence is the true nature of every person in a courtroom. "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). Good, like Him, and therefore innocent. Acknowledging this as fact gives one the spiritual intuition needed to separate truth from falsehood before, during, or after a trial—to discern those who are true to their God-given innocence and those who may have temporarily betrayed it.

Honesty is more than a moral choice. It is part of our inmost constitution. The spiritual quality of honesty enables police and prosecutors to check their motives to see if they're trying to close a case too hastily, instead of pursuing all leads in a rigorous, open-minded way. God-impelled honesty allows jurors, and anyone, to examine their thinking to ensure they are not being swayed by emotionalism or illogical arguments. And, if an innocent defendant is convicted but new evidence surfaces later, the cleansing trait of honesty impels those who can remedy the injustice to act.

Selflessness had an illuminating model in Jesus. He didn't seek adulation or job security. Nor was he power-hungry. Rather he showed that as God's children, we all have access to the limitless power of good. Selflessness means doing the right (and maybe hard) thing, despite pressure to do the expedient (and perhaps easier) thing. Selflessness can be seen in the humility of an eyewitness who refuses to mistakenly identify a suspect, in the courage of an accomplice who owns up to his or her role in a crime, or in the freedom of a prosecutor to share exculpatory information with the defense.

Love is a Biblical name for God that describes His essence. As His image, we reflect this divine Love by loving one another. When the various parties in a trial obey the two great commands of the Judeo-Christian law—to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself—they are also impelled to adhere to the legal and ethical codes designed to protect everyone equally under the law.

Justice is nothing less than the effect of love in action. As love grows in the hearts of plaintiff and prosecutors, judge and jurors, justice must invariably rule in the courtroom. Even when love doesn't appear to occupy every heart, divine justice is still on the scene. No matter how many appeals it takes, God's love, which impels just decisions, will have the final say as we "let human justice pattern the divine."