Again, a wrongfully convicted New Yorker has been exonerated and released from prison. It is an appalling story— one that produced the subsequent murder of a child—and an indictment of the way the state criminal justice system operates. Still, New York has done almost nothing to fix the problems that underlie this travesty.

On Wednesday, Frank Sterling became the 26th New Yorker freed from prison after DNA testing proved his innocence. Only Texas and Illinois have had more convictions overturned, yet New York does less than those states—and Mississippi and North Carolina and Ohio—to pass laws that can help prevent wrongful convictions.

It’s one thing not to know serious defects exist in the system, which was the case when this crime occurred. It’s another thing altogether when those defects are repeatedly and tragically documented and state leaders still do nothing about it. Our dysfunction continues.

Sterling was convicted in 1992 of a murder that Mark Christie actually committed in Hilton, a suburb of Rochester. Although Christie was immediately a suspect, police settled on Sterling because his brother was imprisoned for attempting to sexually assault the 74-year-old victim, Viola Manville, three years earlier.

Police detained Sterling after the trucker had finished a 36-hour shift, then questioned him for 12 hours—finally producing a false confession that Sterling quickly recanted. But police were satisfied they had their man and a jury convicted Sterling.

Even before he was sentenced, though, friends and associates of Christie came forward to testify under oath that Christie had confessed the crime to them. No matter. Sterling went to prison and Christie went free—soon to murder Kali Ann Poulton, who was 4.

That’s the thing about wrongful conviction. Not only does it put innocent people in prison, but it leaves the real criminals free to commit more crimes. That’s what happened in Buffalo, when Anthony Capozzi was wrongfully convicted as the “Delaware Park rapist.” That left the real criminal, Altemio Sanchez, free to begin his career as the Bike Path killer.

It’s possible to forgive police and prosecutors for getting it wrong with Sterling and Capozzi and others. DNA testing wasn’t available and the concept of the false confession was too preposterous to consider.

But forgiveness has its limits. Police and prosecutors should be at the forefront of those advocating for reforms. Inaction by the Legislature all but ensures there will be more Bike Path killers, more Kali Ann Poultons.

The problems with wrongful conviction aren’t secret. False confessions, such as Sterling’s, are more common than most people would think. Exhaustion, mental illness and addiction can play a role in producing them. Videotaped interrogations, supported by increasing numbers of police officers, would diminish that problem.

False identifications are shockingly common. That’s how Capozzi was ensnared in a crime he had nothing to do with. He looked a little like Sanchez at the time, but often enough, victims are persuaded to identify suspects that look nothing like the criminal they initially described. In states that care about protecting the innocent and convicting the guilty, procedures have been updated to diminish the chances of a false identification.

It is disturbing—criminal, really—that New York has not taken this problem seriously. It has to start now. Kali Ann Poulton’s blood may not be on the hands of state legislators, but some other innocent victim’s will be unless they act.