Two MSM Wrongful Convictions in the News

The first from the LA Times:

Attorneys for a death row inmate found guilty of killing three 8-year-old boys in Arkansas in 1993 filed a motion in federal court to overturn his conviction based on new evidence, including DNA test results that found no genetic material on the victims' bodies from his client or two others convicted with him.

The conviction parallels how the Richard LaPointe case was closed: a mentally impaired person was bullied into a false confession. They had to go through several versions to get the story right since his initial confessions would have exonerated the other two. Despite the lack of credibility from the witness, the case was rammed through.

Misskelley was tried first. His attorneys maintained that he was borderline mentally retarded, and that he had only made a statement to prosecutors in the hope of being rewarded.

He was convicted, but it was established in court that he had changed key aspects of his story more than once. He initially told police that he saw the crimes occur at a time at which it was established that the three victims and Baldwin were in school, Echols was at the doctor's and Misskelley was at work on a roofing job.

The WSJ profiles the troubled readjustment to society of a man who was wrongfully convicted and released after 24 years in jail. Michael Anthony Williams is one of the 200+ victims the Innocence Project has cleared through DNA testing.

Even after release these victims has difficulty getting their lives back in order.

He didn't know how to drive. He had never used a cellphone, or left a message on an answering machine, or typed on a computer. He says that what surprised him most was the automatic flush toilets at Wal-Mart.

Neither article mentions the people – detectives, prosecutors, judges – that are responsible for these awful errors. In particular, the prosecutors have a lot of discretion and no accountability. A better system would have part of a prosecutor's pension held in escrow and released over time. If anyone they prosecuted or managed someone who prosecuted anyone who was later cleared, the prosecutor then compensates the victim with his retirement funds. After all, they seem to have no problems capitalizing on their victories, its only fair that they are responsible for their mistakes as well.

As it stands, the victims of wrongful prosecution receive little compensation for having their lives destroyed. It costs an average of $22,000 a year to house an inmate, yet Williams only got a little over $6k for each year he was in prison.

Nock and Genarlow

Genarlow’s sentence today was ruled cruel and unusual and he is expected to be released on Friday. Most people think the prosecution went too far – we agree – but they are not the only culpable party. This passage from Albert Nock’s, On Doing The Right Thing, was originally published in 1927 but is still relevant today.

Once, I remember, I ran across the case of a boy who had been sentenced to prison, a poor, scared little brat, who had intended something no worse than mischief, and it turned out to be a crime. The judge said he disliked to sentence the lad; it seemed the wrong thing to do; but the law left him no option. I was struck by this. The judge, then, was doing something as an official that he would not dream of doing as a man; and he could do it without any sense of responsibility, or discomfort, simply because he was acting as an official and not as a man. On this principle of action, it seemed to me that one could commit almost any kind of crime without getting into trouble with one's conscience.



Clearly, a great crime had been committed against this boy; yet nobody who had had a hand in it — the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, the complaining witness, the policemen and jailers — felt any responsibility about it, because they were not acting as men, but as officials. Clearly, too, the public did not regard them as criminals, but rather as upright and conscientious men.

Jury Rights in Canada

Much the same as in the US; the juries are sovereign but are barred from fully knowing their rights.

Can a trial lawyer inform the jury of its power to nullify? Our law grants jurors the power to nullify, but prohibits counsel from telling them about it.

The law is clear that the defence cannot raise the issue before the jury. Morgentaler dealt with a section of the Criminal Code that restricts the availability of abortions. The defence advised jurors that, if they did not like the law, they need not enforce it. The court said that addressing the jury in this manner would disturb and undermine the jury system.

New York Not Doing Enough to Prevent Wrongful Convictions

From the NY Times:

Although more convicts have been exonerated by DNA evidence in New York than in most other states, New York is one of only a few states across the nation that have not enacted comprehensive legislative reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, according to a report by a high-profile legal clinic scheduled to be released today.
...
The report sheds a harsh light on what it calls the state’s lackluster record of instituting rules intended to prevent wrongful convictions. For example, it says that although false confessions are the leading cause of wrongful convictions in New York, the state does not require law enforcement agencies to record interrogations, a requirement in nine other states.

Now Gestures Are Crimes

Just asking if someone is a police officer is considered a crime as well. These bureaucrats are beyond satire:

Simple body language can now send known prostitutes and their johns to jail in West Virginia's second largest city.

Under the new law, suspects can be arrested for beckoning passers-by with conversation, attempting to stop traffic by waving their arms, circling an area in a vehicle or trying to stop pedestrians. An arrest can also be made if a suspect asks if a potential prostitute or patron is a police officer.

What is the root of such idiocy? The "drug war" of course:

"It's not going to eradicate prostitution, because it has been with us since the existence of time,'' said Huntington Mayor David Felinton. "But where prostitution and the drug trade are so closely tied together, I think it will be another tool for us to use.''

Shocking Judicial Conduct

Judge Keller ordered her office closed early to prevent a death penalty appeal from being filed. The inmate was executed soon after:

Twenty Texas lawyers have joined in a complaint to be filed with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for closing the CCA clerk's office at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, preventing an inmate's attorneys from filing an emergency request to stay his execution.

Within hours after the CCA closed its doors, the state executed Michael Richard for a 1986 murder.

"The law is an ass.." and in some cases a waste of tax dollars and a mockery of civil liberties

Man arrested for feeding the homeless. The good news is it's a jury trial:

A man is facing a judge and jury for violating Orlando's ban on feeding the homeless. Eric Montanez, 22, was caught feeding a group in Lake Eola Park earlier this year. The prosecution told Eyewitness News their case rests on video taken of Montanez feeding the homeless, breaking Orlando's feeding ban.

Man arrested for swearing:

A man who police say shouted obscenities in front of two dozen children at the Payne Park grand opening on Saturday has been charged with violating a city ordinance that forbids using foul language in the presence of minors.

Marion Jones, Another 1001 Case

The accusation is that Jones lied to the feds about using “the clear,” an undetectable designed steroid. If the drug is not detectable through any tests and there is no proof she ingested it, how can the feds know for sure what she was given? Did she actually receive any performance enhancing drug from Graham? Even she doesn’t know that.

But, they 1001ed her anyway.

Mr. Garcia stated, "Deceiving federal agents in the course of their investigations disrupts and impedes the proper administration of justice and is a serious matter. Even if the truth is eventually uncovered, the lies throw investigators off track, waste time and resources, and create a real risk of a miscarriage of justice."

Mr. Schools stated, "The federal government will vigorously prosecute individuals who provide false statements to its agents. Individuals who lie to federal agents interfere with the government's ability to investigate criminal conduct and undermine the efficiency of government investigations."

New York Times on DNA Exoneration

Inmates are now being given greater access to DNA evidence after 200+ have been found to be wrongfully convicted. Some highlights from the article:

Nationwide, misidentification by witnesses led to wrongful convictions in 75 percent of the 207 instances in which prisoners have been exonerated over the last decade, according to the Innocence Project, a group in New York that investigates wrongful convictions.

Other changes under consideration:

Two states, Vermont and Maryland, passed laws this year to improve crime lab oversight to eliminate errors and omissions. Maryland recently passed a law that will hold its crime labs to the same standards as clinical labs, a much more rigorous requirement. Other legislative changes to crime lab oversight are pending in 21 states, including New York.

More than 500 local and state jurisdictions, including Alaska, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia have adopted polices that require the recording of interrogations to help prevent false confessions, according to the Innocence Project.

The California Legislature also passed a bill this year that requires informant testimony to be corroborated before it can be heard by a jury.