&gt; What I&#x27;m saying is that fabrication of testimony and planting of evidence aren&#x27;t the same thing.<p>Correct. Planting of evidence is <i>more</i> difficult and <i>more</i> unlikely than fabrication of testimony.<p>Fabrication of testimony is lying about the facts of a matter.<p>Planting of evidence is lying about the facts of a matter <i>in addition to</i> leaving physical traces that corroborate your lies.<p>&gt; But in order to have this assembly line of false convictions, you absolutely need a victimless crime.<p>Negatory.<p>This crime has been ongoing since at least 1996.<p>The article mentions &quot;hundreds&quot; of cases. Let&#x27;s say that that&#x27;s 500 cases, which works out to ~2.1 cases per month. I wouldn&#x27;t call that an &quot;assembly line&quot; of cases.<p>Dothan has -roughly- 60k people in it. Over ~<i>twenty</i> years, this conspiracy touched less than 1% of the area&#x27;s population... and -to be frank- it&#x27;s a segment of the population that is not well-liked by a <i>lot</i> of the folks in the area. Few locals would bat an eye if &quot;Them $RACIAL_SLURs done hit Jim-Joe&#x27;s Gun Shop again.&quot;. [0]<p>The article <i>states</i> that the police department called the DA&#x27;s office in order to get the DA&#x27;s office to <i>actively</i> block the IA investigation. I see no reason why the office wouldn&#x27;t also fail to question periodic rashes of burglary against a few <i>suspiciously</i> unlucky business owners.<p>As has been demonstrated, all you need to run this scheme is a few corruptable (or corrupted) people in key positions and a pool of people who are too poor to raise a competent defense.<p>Alabama has <i>both</i>... in <i>quantity</i>.<p>[0] Citation: I grew up in the sticks in Alabama. There are lots of good people, but there are <i>lots</i> of terrible people, too. And, yes, there are many folks with names (or nyms) like Billy-Bob and Jim-Joe. :)