Nov. 26
COLORADO:
Judge rebuffs move for more secrecy in Holmes case
The judge in the Colorado theater shootings has rebuffed a request by the
defense to further limit public access to documents in the case.
The ruling on Friday denied a defense request for the court to stop posting
documents online and to deny public access to transcripts and to a weekly
summary of court actions.
It marked a rare victory for public access in the case against James Holmes. A
gag order prevents attorneys from discussing the issues publicly outside of
court.
In his ruling, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. also noted
that he has repeatedly limited public access to documents at the request of
attorneys or on his own.
Holmes' lawyers argued that publicity surrounding the case threatens to make it
impossible to find an unbiased jury. But Samour disagreed, saying the defense
had not made a persuasive argument to suppress the transcripts and docket.
He also said the public and the media have an interest in monitoring the case
and that posting documents online was the most efficient way to make records
available.
Holmes, 25, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 2012
attack at a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora. He pleaded not guilty
by reason of insanity to multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Samour also pointed out the results of Holmes' sanity evaluation done last
summer at the state mental hospital remain secret, as does a notebook that
Holmes mailed before the shootings to a psychiatrist who had been treating him.
The secrecy prompted the defense to aggressively pursue the identities of
confidential sources that Fox News reporter Jana Winter cited in reporting that
the notebook contained violent drawings. Defense lawyers say Winter's sources
violated the gag order, and they want her to reveal their names.
Winter, who is based in New York, argues state shield laws there and in
Colorado protect her from having to identify her sources. She has said she
won???t identify them in any event, even though she could be jailed for
contempt of court.
Media groups including The Associated Press objected to the defense request to
limit public access. So did some victims who want court documents for lawsuits.
A trial date is on hold while Samour considers a prosecution request for
further psychiatric evaluation of Holmes.
(source: Associated Press)
ARIZONA:
Jodi Arias Trial News Update: Arias Tweets About Arizona Prison While Awaiting
Retrial, Facing Death Penalty
Although Jodi Arias is currently awaiting a retrial in which she might be
sentenced with the death penalty, the convicted killer seemed more concerned
about how much water the prison she's locked in wasted last week.
Arias, who is being held in a women's prison in Maricopa County, Arizona,
revealed in a series of tweets that one of the toilets in the prison got stuck
on flush mode for over 24 hours.
"Yesterday around 4:30 p.m. a toilet upstairs got stuck on "flush"...26 hours
later, it's still flushing," she tweeted Friday night.
"I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of gallons of water wasted that
makes," she added.
And finally on Saturday afternoon she wrote, "The toilet finally stopped
flushing. Is the Colorado River now down to a trickle?"
The California native was convicted of 1st-degree murder on May 8 in the
ghastly 2008 death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban
Phoenix, Ariz. home. However, the same jury that found her guilty failed to
reach a unanimous decision on her sentencing. As a result, a retrial will be
held later this year to determine whether she should be sentenced to death,
life in prison or life with a chance of release after serving 25 years.
She remains behind bars and is forbidden from accessing cell phones or
computers. However, her Twitter account has remained active.
Last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens denied several
requests motioned by her lawyers in her upcoming retrial.
In her ruling, Judge Stephens denied the defense's request for sequestration
since she granted the defense's motion to ban live TV coverage of the retrial.
However, she is permitting reporters to attend the proceedings in addition to
one still camera photographer inside the courtroom.
"The Court finds the interests of justice do not require sequestration of the
jury of the sentencing phase retrial in this case," wrote Stephens according to
HLN-TV.
In the same ruling, Stephens said Arias' lawyers had failed to prove the media
glare required a change of venue. Therefore, the retrial will take place at
Maricopa County Courthouse in Arizona like Arias' 1st trial.
Stephens also denied the defense's request to individually question potential
jurors during jury selection. Instead, candidates will be questioned in groups
of 10 for approximately 45 minutes. She will, however, allow individual
questioning only if a dispute regarding a potential juror cannot be resolved.
(source: Latino Post)
CALIFORNIA:
Visalia Man accused of killing girlfriend's child could face death penalty
Testimony continued Monday in the trial of a Visalia man accused of killing his
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. Natalynn Miller's father Troy Miller finished
up his testimony on the 6th day of Ryann Jones murder trial. Jones, the
boyfriend of Natalynn's mother at the time, is accused of beating the
3-year-old to death in March of 2009.
During cross examination, defense attorneys questioned Miller on whether
daughter spun herself around a lot.
"She would kind of play around but she wouldn't spin herself around until she
was completely dizzy I've never seen her do that before," Miller said.
After Natalynn's father took the stand, jurors heard from family friend and
Natalynn's caretaker, Jessica. She testified about bruises she would see on the
3-year-old.
Rosales became emotional at times when asked about Natalynn and also when
prosecutors showed her a picture Natalynn drew for her the day that she died.
Rosales testified that the 3-year-old's behavior started to change after Ryann
Jones and Natalynn's mother, Nicole Lee, had been dating for a few months.
"To me she seemed scared to go over there," Rosales said. "She didn't want to
go to the monster's house."
Rosales said she accidentally documented some of Madalynn's injuries because
she liked to take pictures of the girl sleeping while she was babysitting her.
Jurors were shown photos of injuries to the girl's head, cheek and lip and what
looked like burns to her shoulder and ears. Rosales testified that one time
Natalynn blamed one of her injuries on Jones the other times she'd refuse to
tell her how why she was bruised.
"She was quiet she had her head down like this," Rosales said.
Rosales testified she told Natalynn's mother about the injuries. During cross
examination Rosales admitted to defense attorneys that Natalynn ingested
marijuana from a bag while she was watching her. Defense attorneys also showed
jurors a happy picture of Ryann Jones, Nicole Lee and Natalynn Miller.
Before Jessica Rosales' testimony her brother Ernesto took the stand and talked
about a statement Jones made to him about Natalynn.
"That she was a little girl and that he had no use for her around him," witness
Ernesto Rosales said.
Jones' trial is expected to last 6 weeks. If convicted on all charges he faces
the death penalty.
(source: KFSN news)
***************
Death penalty debate swirls
I favor the death penalty, as it would save resources at overcrowded prisons.
However, others believe government shouldn't have the power to take anyone
else's life, and worry that the death penalty might be given to someone who is
innocent. It is still needed in our society.
First, it takes a lot to provide for inmates, who need food, water, clothing,
health care, security, rehabilitation programs, and take up room prisons don't
have.
A recent news story states there have been huge increases in prison spending.
Due to financial crises, states have been forced to cut their budgets and
reconsider the offenders who should return to prison. In California alone, just
to incarcerate one inmate a year costs $47,102.
The death penalty is a highly debatable topic, argued by many, but is needed in
society.
(source: Letter to the Editor; Miguel Navarro----Santa Maria Times)
********************
Lawyers plan dismissal motion in Fairfield murder case
A Solano County judge set a February 2014 court date for a hearing on whether
charges against a Fairfield man accused in the death of a 13-year-old Suisun
City girl should be dismissed.
Attorneys for murder defendant Anthony Lemar Jones, 32, were in Solano County
Superior Court on Monday where they asked Judge E. Bradley Nelson to set a
hearing date in which they will argue that the charge be dismissed. Jones'
attorneys, who recently withdrew a pair of motions seeking to ban press
coverage and to seal all court records of the case said they intended to file a
new motion related to an allegation that the prosecution withheld evidence.
Nelson set 10 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2014 for the hearing on a motion to dismiss.
Jones was arrested a week after the Feb. 1 discovery of Genelle Conway-Allen,
whose body was found in a Fairfield park in the early morning hours.
He has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and special circumstances that
could make him eligible for the death penalty.
The special circumstances include allegations accusing him of committing a
murder in the course of a kidnapping, rape and during the commission of a lewd
or lascivious act upon a child under the age of 14.
In asking for a hearing, Jones' attorneys alleged that the prosecutor who
previously handled the case withheld "exculpatory" evidence, or evidence that
could go toward proving their client's innocence.
A probable cause hearing has yet to bet set in the case.
Jones remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail.
(source: The Reporter)
USA:
Counties That Send The Most People To Death Row Show A Questionable Commitment
To Justice
Last week, I looked at a recent study by the Death Penalty Information Center
(DPIC) which finds that the vast majority of executions and death row inmates
come from a very small percentage of counties across the country.
My prior post looked specifically at the counties responsible for the most
executions. (These would be the counties where prosecutors won death sentences,
not where the executions themselves took place.) Contrary to the assertion from
death penalty advocates that prosecutors in these counties should be commended
for "doing their job," I noted these counties also tend to have troubling
records of misconduct and exonerations.
This week, I want to look at the other list in the DPIC study -- the counties
that have sent the most people to death row. This is a different list, as these
counties tend to be in states that aren't nearly as eager to execute as, say,
Texas or Florida. They tend to be conservative counties in more left-leaning
states, or counties overseen by appeals courts more skeptical of capital
punishment. So they're sending people to die, but those people aren't getting
executed. And just as we found with the counties that lead the country in
executions, the counties most responsible for populating death rows across
America also have unsettling records of misconduct and exonerations. Here's a
look at a few that top the list:
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
All the way back in 1993, a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge noted in
overturning a mob murder conviction that, 'Prosecutorial misconduct seems to
arise in Philadelphia County more so than any other county in the
commonwealth." It also happens to be the county most likely to send people to
death row -- and, as the DPIC report notes, the county that pays its capital
defense attorneys less than any other county in the state.
Back when that 1993 opinion came out, Philadelphia officials denied the county
had any problem with prosecutor misconduct. Fast forward 20 years. Last month,
after another series convictions were thrown out due to prosecutorial
misconduct, the Innocence Project publicly called for Philadelphia County to
once again go back and look at cases dating back 30 years. And once again,
Philadelphia County District Attorney Seth Williams insisted that there's
nothing to worry about. (Williams himself recently pressed charges against a
man for, essentially, proving that some Philadelphia police are ignorant of
their own state's gun laws.)
But Philadelphia County's ranking on the death row list is largely due to
former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who took over the position in 1991.
Abraham, the first woman to hold the position in the county's history, was so
aggressive in seeking death sentences that she earned the nickname "Queen of
Death." A 2007 study by the Center for Public Integrity found 67 cases in which
an appeals court overturned a Pennsylvania conviction due to prosecutorial
misconduct. Of those, 41 came out of Philadelphia County.
A few other highlights from Philadelphia:
-- The DA's office withheld exculpatory evidence for more than 20 years after
the conviction of Edward Ryder in 1974. Ryder's conviction was overturned in
1996. In 1999, Ryder accepted a plea bargain. In exchange for pleading guilty
third-degree murder, he would be re-sentenced to time served and released from
prison. Ryder and his attorneys maintained his innocence, and said his plea was
the result of a tired man who didn't want to risk going back to prison
-- Just last month, a 22-year assistant prosecutor resigned from the office
after she was accused of filling a false 911 report and pressuring a police
officer to perjure himself in order to protect her boyfriend. Oddly, the DA's
office sees no reason to go back and review her conduct in prior cases.
-- Kenneth Granger was released in 2010 after serving 28 years for a murder he
says he didn't commit. It took his attorneys 27 years to get a judge to order
the release of files from the district attorney's office and the Philadelphia
Police Department that contained exculpatory evidence never given to Granger's
attorneys.
-- More recently, last year a jury acquitted Amin Speakes of a 2009 murder.
Williams decided to try Speakes even though two time-stamped videos showed he
couldn't have committed the murder at the time it happened.
Duval County, Florida
Duval County leads the march to death row in Florida, a state where (a) there
have been more death row exonerations than any other state, (b) more people
have been sent to death row in the last 2 years than anywhere else in America,
and (c) inexplicably, given (a) and (b), Gov. Rick Scott recently signed a bill
to speed up executions by limiting death penalty appeals.
Given it's relatively small population, Duval County has the highest
citizens-per-death-row inmate rate in the country. The current state's attorney
for the judicial district that includes Duval County is Angela Corey, the
prosecutor now best known for prosecuting George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon
Martin. Corey's indictment of Zimmerman was widely criticized by defense
attorneys and legal scholars. One prominent critic was Harvard Law Professor
Alan Dershowitz. According to Dershowitz, Corey responded to his criticism by
threatening to sue him, to sue Harvard University, and attempting to have
Dershowitz disbarred. (She has threatened to sue other public critics as well.)
She has also been accused of withholding exculpatory evidence in the case, then
firing the IT worker in her office who exposed that evidence.
But Corey has a controversial history beyond the Zimmerman-Martin case. She's
the prosecutor who won a 20-year prison sentence for Marissa Alexander. The
31-year-old Alexander was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadline
weapon after she fired a warning shot from a gun at her abusive husband. A
state appeals court granted Alexander a new trial in September. Corey won a
similar conviction against Ronald Thompson, a 65-year-old man accused of firing
warning shots into the ground as some teenagers attempted to force their way
into a home belonging to his friend. She has also received criticism for
charging a 12-year-old with murder for beating his 2-year-old brother to death,
then attempting to try him as an adult.
Duval County was where 15-year-old Brenton Butler was wrongly charged, tried,
and ultimately acquitted in the beating deaths of two tourists. His story is
the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning. In
2007, Chad Heins was finally cleared of the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law
after serving 13 years in prison. Billy Joe Holton may well also be innocent of
the 1986 murder for which he was convicted. Last year a judge re-sentenced him
to time served plus probation, allowing him to go free. His attorneys are still
working to exonerate him completely, over objections from Corey's office.
Florida also has an odd tradition of electing its public defenders. The current
head public defender for the district that includes Duval County is Matt Shirk,
a guy who ran on a platform of cutting funding to the office, billing indigent
defendants who are acquitted for legal services, and was endorsed by the
Fraternal Order of Police (an odd endorsement for a public defender). One of
Shirk's first acts was to fire a large portion of the office staff, including
the attorneys who had worked to expose the innocence of Brenton Butler.
Maricopa County, Arizona
The home of Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" also
sends convicts to death row by the truckload. Former head prosecutor Andrew
Thomas was notoriously ruthless -- at one point he had 149 death penalty cases
pending. He also once sought a 90-year prison sentence against a 16-year-old
for downloading child pornography. When the boy's attorneys showed that the
images were likely the result of malware, Thomas' office pressured him to plead
guilty to three felony counts for showing a Playboy magazine to a few
classmates.
Thomas also rather infamously used the power of his office to target his
critics, at one point setting his sights on the owners of the Phoenix New
Times. Thomas was eventually stripped of his law license, notably for abuses of
power related to his targeting of political opponents, not for his conduct in
day-to-day criminal cases.
Last month, an investigative series by the Arizona Republic found that of the
42 cases in which an Arizona convict sentenced to death alleged prosecutorial
misconduct, 33 occurred in Maricopa County. The series include one installment
devoted solely to former Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez, who sent
eight people to death row, and in 1999 was named the state's "prosecutor of the
year." Martinez has since been cited for misconduct by Arizona court's three
times in the last year.
One of the more notorious exonerations from Maricopa County was that of Ray
Krone, convicted in 1991 of murdering a Phoenix bartender. The conviction was
based almost entirely on testimony from a "bite mark specialist" linking
Krone's teeth to tooth marks on the victim. Krone served 10 years in prison,
including four on death row, before he was exonerated by DNA testing. His
attorneys later found evidence that prosecutors had withheld evidence of his
innocence. In 2005, Krone won a $4.4 million settlement from Maricopa County.
The prosecutors who convicted him were never disciplined. His case was later
used to illustrate the junk science of bite mark testimony.
Current Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery refused to release any
prosecutor personnel files for the Arizona Republic investigation, even of
prosecutors no longer on the job. To do so, he said, wouldn't be in "the best
interests of justice.??? Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court released
new ethical guidelines stating that if prosecutors discover evidence of a
convict's innocence, they must turn it over to his attorneys. (Previously, they
were only obligated to do so before conviction.) Montgomery opposed the new
rule.
Among the other counties with prolific histories of sending people to death row
. . .
-- Riverside County, California, recently had to review more than 3,000 cases
after a defense attorney that prosecutors hadn't disclosed that a crime lab
technician had admitted to fraud, forgery, and perjury.
-- In Santa Clara, County, California, one prosecutor was rebuked by the state
bar, and the office itself had to review thousands of sex crime cases, again
due to the office's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. In 2009, defense
attorneys discovered that they hadn't been informed about hundreds of cases in
which crime lab technicians had disagreed over fingerprint patches. Santa Clara
County DA Dolores Carr responded to these scandals by attempting to boycott the
judges holding her office accountable, and then by attempting to strip the
state bar of its power to discipline prosecutors.
-- Kern County, California has seen more than two dozen exonerations resulting
from the ritual sex abuse panic of the 1980s and 1990s. Some were parent who
went to prison after they were falsely convicted of sexually abusing their own
children.
-- Between 1997 and 2009, prosecutors in Orange County, California, were cited
for misconduct 58 times. One deputy district attorney in particular -- Michael
Flory -- had been cited multiple times, and had his conduct deemed
"unacceptable" by appeals court judges. He was never disciplined. The Orange
County Register reported in January that despite 9 exonerations since 1995
based on faulty eyewitness testimony, "the Orange County district attorney has
not pushed for" simple reforms to eyewitness procedures that criminologists say
would radically improve their reliability. (But would of course also make it
more difficult to win convictions.)
Looking back at both lists, it's far from clear, then, that execution-friendly
prosecutors are "just doing their jobs." On the contrary, the counties most
eager to execute seem to also have produced conviction cultures in which
prosecutors have frequently been found to have bent the rules in pursuit of
convictions -- and convicted the wrong people in the process.
(soure: Radley Balko, Huffington Post)
*********************
9 True Crime Books That Will Absolutely Disturb You
Lately, I have had a horrible time getting to sleep. Last night, the anxiety
was so bad that I had to put on an Audrey Hepburn movie on Netflix to calm my
terrifying thoughts.
Why is this going on? Stress at work? Trouble with my family? Nope, it's
because I'm currently reading Truman Capote's classic, In Cold Blood, and it is
scaring the hell out of me.
I openly admit that I'm probably not the ideal reader of True Crime books; I
definitely think about getting murdered more than the average person does, and
my overactive imagination and extreme anxiety don't make matters any better.
What is it about the True Crime genre that keeps me coming back for more, even
though these stories petrify me?
The truth is, I can't help it; the suspense reels me in. Who are these people
who can take a life without thinking twice about it? Why are they the way they
are?
Whether or not you're as anxious and jumpy as me, I can guarantee that these
books will leave you keeping the hall light on all night and/or locking every
single lock on your door at night:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Capote's classic is about the murders of four
members of the Clutter family. In 1959, two men broke into the Clutter house,
tied them up and shot them, one by one. Not only was the method of the murders
brutal, but the criminals remained pretty much remorseless the whole time. The
murders also ended up being motiveless. Though the break-in began as a robbery,
there was very little money to be found (under 50 dollars), but they killed
everyone any way. There have been some discrepancies between fact and Capote's
outline of what happened, but the facts of the murders remain true. The 2 men
were executed for their crimes.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi: Helter Skelter was written by Charles
Manson's prosecutor, about both the case and the trial. That Manson managed to
convince a group of people to perform a series of murders for him is chilling
in and of itself. These murders were also extremely brutal - this book is not
for the faint of heart. Sharon Tate (one of the murder victims) was stabbed 16
times and was 2 weeks away from giving birth to her child. Manson received the
death penalty, but it was eventually outlawed in California. He is currently
serving life imprisonment.
Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss: In 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald was discovered
slightly injured, and his pregnant wife and 2 young daughters were found
murdered. MacDonald claimed that assailants had broken in, wounded him, and
knocked him unconscious while they murdered his family. However, since there
was no evidence of a break-in or any that anyone else had been inside the home,
MacDonald ended up being tried for the murders. Though MacDonald maintains his
innocence, the thought that a father could potentially murder his pregnant wife
and 2 small children is absolutely terrifying. (This is another book with
discrepancies. MacDonald had thought the book would prove his innocence, but
instead it makes it appear that he is definitely guilty. Both Janet Malcolm and
Errol Morris have written response books to McGinniss's bestseller. It still
makes a horrifying read, though).
Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano: Campania, a region of Naples, Italy, has one of
the highest murder rates in Europe. This is due to the Camorra, a Neapolitan
mafia-like organization. The book traces the decline of Naples under the
corruption of the organization, and also goes into the brutal details of how
Comorra is run, and the lengths it will go to. Since 1979, 3600 people have
been murdered at the hands of the Comorra, and the details of the deaths are
gruesome.
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule: When Ann Rule was assigned to write a book
about the as-of-yet unsolved murders of multiple women, she had no idea that
the culprit would end up being someone she knew. When Ted Bundy was arrested
and tried for the murders, Rule was so shocked that she hurried "to the ladies
room and [threw] up." It turns out that she knew Bundy when they worked
together at a suicide hotline; they were friends. It doesn't get much more
unnerving than that.
For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz: In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb,
two graduate students from wealthy families, kidnapped and murdered a
14-year-old boy. Psychiatrists testified that the 2 would actually have been
harmless on their own, but combined, they were a toxic pair. One of the
psychologists on the case noted, "There seems to have been so little normal
motivation, the matter was so long planned, so unfeelingly carried out, that it
represents nothing that I have ever seen or heard of before."
Columbine by Dave Cullen: Cullen's nonfiction work about the Columbine mass
shooting covers two topics: the killers' lives preceding the attack, and the
survivors' struggles with the aftermath of the tragedy. There are also graphic
depictions of the shooting. The book addresses many myths associated with
Columbine. According to the author, the massacre had nothing to do with
bullying, goth culture or Marilyn Manson. It is even more chilling when Cullen
discusses that the attack was not initially intended as a shooting, but rather
as a bombing. The shooters had wanted to create the worst terrorist attack in
American history.
A Mind for Murder by Alston Chase: Chase's book describes the life of Ted
Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who, from 1978 to 1995, sent 16 bombs to targets
including universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring 23.
Chase argues that Kaczynski wasn't the wild mountain man that the media assumed
him to be and that, though Kaczynski was a cold-blooded killer, his ideas were
actually pretty close to those of mainstream America.
The Last Victim by Jason Moss: This book deals with not one, but five serial
killers. Moss explores his fascination with the psychology of serial killers
and begins to correspond with several of America's most infamous ones as part
of his honors thesis in college: John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, Henry Lee
Lucas, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Charles Manson. He formed the strongest relationship
with Gacy (who sexually assaulted and killed at least 33 teen boys and young
men between 1972 and 1978). Gacy maintained his innocence to Moss. The book
gets its title in what is ultimately the most chilling aspect of the book: when
Moss goes to visit Gacy, Gacy tries to murder him.
(source: Zoe Triska, Huffington Post)
******************
The Register's Editorial: Miscarriages of justice are not just in
history----They still occur, as Council Bluffs murder case and a congressman's
cocaine case show
The state of Alabama last week posthumously pardoned three black men falsely
convicted of rape in 1931.
It was a long overdue effort by one state to come to terms with a shameful
piece of its history. Though one may wonder why it took 80 years, Alabama
certainly deserves credit for confronting this painful episode from its past.
There is a lesson here for criminal justice in every state, however, even
though we like to think everything in this country has changed for the better.
In the Scottsboro Boys case, 9 black teenagers were accused in connection with
the rape of two white women. Within a matter of weeks, 8 of them were tried,
convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death. The trial of the
youngest defendant ended with a hung jury, and prosecutors eventually dropped
rape charges against 5 of the men after appeals and subsequent trials. One
accuser later recanted.
4 of the original 9 were later paroled, and 1 was pardoned by Gov. George
Wallace in 1976. Last week's pardons finally cleared the names of the remaining
3.
"The Scottsboro Boys have finally received justice," Alabama Gov. Robert J.
Bentley said in a prepared statement. Alas, none of them is alive to appreciate
the sentiment.
Miscarriages of justice may not be as flagrant today, but they exist and to
pretend otherwise runs the risks of perpetuating mistakes.
Earlier this fall, the city of Council Bluffs paid a $6 million settlement with
2 black men wrongfully convicted in the fatal shooting of a retired city police
officer. The 2 spent 25 years in prison before they were released after new
evidence turned up revealing gross prosecutorial misconduct. Earlier,
Pottawattamie County paid a $12 million settlement in the case.
In Williamson County, Texas, a former prosecutor and state judge was recently
sentenced to 10 days in jail, paid a $500 fine and was disbarred for his role
in the conviction of an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison. He
apologized, but denied any misconduct, blaming failures in the system instead.
These are not isolated examples. According to the Death Penalty Information
Center, 143 convicts have been released from death row since 1971 based on new
evidence, new trials or pardons.
The problem is not just errors in the criminal justice system. Justice can go
off the tracks early in the process when police and prosecutors decide whom to
charge - or not to charge. Case in point: A member of Congress was recently
arrested by an undercover cop who sold him 3.5 grams of cocaine in a
Washington, D.C., sting operation.
U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, for
which he will serve 1 year of probation and undergo substance-abuse treatment.
Meanwhile, it is not hard to imagine a far different outcome for a young, black
male arrested for a drug crime in another part of the nation's capital, or any
other city for that matter.
This nation has come a long way in the 80 years since nine young black men were
pulled off a train in Alabama and railroaded by a judge and jury. It's easy to
work up rage about such clear injustice today, but the system is not perfect,
and likely never will be. The best we can expect is that mistakes will be
caught and rectified before it is too late.
(source: Editorial, The Register)
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