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The Too-High Cost of Wrongful Convictions

Anna Fitzpatrick — June 12, 2013 @ 9:14 AM — Comments (3)

About once a year, Florida makes national headlines for righting a wrongful conviction. In recent years alone, more than a dozen men have been exonerated, most serving decades behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Florida also leads America in the number of people sentenced to death, only to later be exonerated – 24 people in the past three decades.

Florida may not be a leader in many things, but we are when it comes to stealing lives. We must do better; we must reform our systems.

There is a cost to reformation, but the cost of wrongful conviction is much, much higher. Millions of dollars are spent on holding and caring for innocent inmates, as well as the restitution paid once innocence is proved. There is the mental anguish the wrongfully incarcerated suffer, not to mention that their earnings and social interactions will forever be impaired – it almost like being thrown into a time warp. Scarier still is the fact that wrongful convictions mean the true criminal remains at large.

As Circuit Judge Belvin Perry says, “the consequence of inaction is injustice.” Perry chaired the Florida Innocence Commission, which spent two years studying the issue. The group of experts made concrete suggestions for improving justice:

  • Record suspect interviews so there is no question about technique used to solicit confessions.
  • Get neutral parties to conduct photographic lineups to avoid investigators encouraging witnesses to choose certain suspect, subconsciously or otherwise.
  • Implement stronger guidelines for relying on jailhouse snitches.

The reasons for fixing this are obvious and plentiful, yet politicians have dragged their feet. The wrongfully convicted, you see, are not a powerful lobby. They don’t cut campaign checks, and their stories rarely win votes. But this issue is important, both financially and morally. Encourage your legislator to follow the recommendations of the Innocence Commission.

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Free, But with a Cloud

Anne — April 01, 2013 @ 10:08 AM — Comments (0)

With a college degree in hand and a healthy outlook on the future, Nicole Harris envisioned in December 2004 that she was on the brink of something big. As the single mother of two young sons, her college graduation was fostered by a network of family members and supporters whose pride in her accomplishments seemed endless. With a degree in psychology she hoped to land a job in her chosen field, and a subsequent move back to her hometown of Chicago would allow her to rejoin her family as well as explore opportunities for employment in her discipline. A few months after graduating, however, her plans for the future went terribly awry. The attainment of a college degree suddenly became a secondary treasure as she found herself charged in the strangulation death of her youngest son, Jaquari, age 4.

Harris steadily maintained her innocence regarding any involvement in her son’s death, but her protestations fell on deaf ears. Her son’s death, insisted prosecutors, resulted from her frustrations due to her son’s constant crying. According to authorities, Harris wrapped a fitted bedsheet cord around her son’s neck and strangled him.

Convicted of the crime by a Cook County jury, Harris spent seven years (of a 30-year sentence) in prison before the 7th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated her conviction in October 2012. On February 25, 2013, she exited the Dwight Correctional Center a “free” woman.  ”This isn’t just a legal victory,” said Alison Flaum, an attorney with Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Conviction, which joined forces with the law firm Jenner & Block to defend Harris.  “They saw this case for the miscarriage of justice that it was.” Harris has always maintained that her son died accidentally and that she had nothing to do with his death.

Harris’ case  is troublesome, however, on so many levels and in so many ways:

  • Even though she knew she was innocent, she confessed to the crime following a 27-hour interrogation which, she said, included threats and manipulation by police investigating the case.
  • Police initially confronted Harris in a hospital chapel, where she had gone following her collapse after being told that her son had not survived. In such an emotional state, it is no stretch of the imagination to presume that authorial figures often engage powers of persuasion and similar techniques in an effort to elicit false information from vulnerable suspects. 
  • Harris’ oldest son, Diante, then 5, told investigators that he was alone in the home with his brother when he witnessed Jaquari wrap the cord around his neck while he (Daquari) was playing. Authorities, however, dismissed the brother’s claim.
  • The trial judge barred Diante from testifying, deeming him incompetent, presumably, because Diante believed that “Santa Claus, Spider-Man and the tooth fairy” were real figures and not imaginary figures.
  • According to reports in the case, prosecutors noted that Diante told investigators that he was asleep when his brother died.
  • Various reports indicate that Nicole Harris was at a nearby laundromat when the incident occurred, having instructed both young boys to remain in the home during her absence.

In overturning Harris’ guilty verdict, the judges wrote that if Diante had been allowed to testify, his testimony “would have changed the entire tenor of the case [and supported her oldest son's claims that his brother's death was accidental].”

Although Harris has been released from the Dwight Correctional Center and can begin the journey to rebuild the life she left behind in 2005, her legal battles are far from over. The State has appealed the October 2012 ruling and has asked the U. S. Supreme Court to review the case. Additionally, Cook County prosecutors could still move to retry the case. On February 25, 2013, the date of Harris’ release, a representative from the State Attorney’s Office said that a decision to retry the defendant had not yet been made.

In the meantime, Nicole Harris has maintained a positive outlook, insisting that she knew that prison wasn’t her “final destination,” that “eventually we’ll have full victory, and it’ll be all over.”

Through all that she has endured, she is certainly due the future she envisioned when she earned her college degree and stepped forward into a life of promise.

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Solitary Confinement: Re-assessing, Re-evaluating, Re-thinking

Anne — July 27, 2012 @ 4:27 PM — Comments (1)

Note: This is the first of a three-part series on solitary confinement.

Dr. Craig Haney, the nation’s leading expert on inmate mental health, and a professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, recently testified before a U. S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights on the effects of solitary confinement upon prisoners. Inmates in long-term confinement, according to Haney, suffer mental breakdowns from the lack of human contact that can lead to a multitude of mental, physical and emotional conditions, including psychosis, mutilations and suicide. Solitary confinement for most inmates, Haney testified, “precipitates a descent into madness” and can cause “profound, psychological damage.”

The increase in solitary confinement in the United States (since the late 1970s), according to statistics provided by Haney, is the result of the “confluence of three unfortunate trends”: mass imprisonment, the shift in responsibility for housing the mentally ill to the nation’s prison systems, and the abandonment of the notion of rehabilitation. Haney, who is also chair of UCSC’s Legal Studies program, estimated that 80,000 of the nation’s 2.3 million inmates in prisons and jails are in long-term solitary confinement. A great number of inmates have spent the majority of their prison sentences in solitary confinement, a legal and administrative practice that separates designated inmates from the prison’s general population.

Professor Haney was invited to testify by Subcommittee chairman Senator Richard “Dick” Durbin, D-Ill, at the first-ever hearing on the constitutional, fiscal, and public safety consequences of solitary confinement. Since 1971, Haney has conducted groundbreaking research into the effects of solitary confinement upon prisoners. His work has been cited in numerous scholarly journals and publications. Since 1971, he has been a leading proponent of mental health issues affecting prison inmates.  As a graduate student, he was one of the principal investigators in an academic undertaking that became known as the “Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE).” He and fellow researchers placed a group of psychologically healthy college students in a prison-like environment, randomly assigning half to the position of prison guards; the other participants were designated as prisoners.

The researchers in the SPE carefully monitored participants’ behavior during the designated period, eventually ending the experiment, however, upon their observation that the otherwise “psychologically healthy volunteers in the simulated prison [setting] rapidly deteriorated into mistreatment and emotional breakdowns.” Thus began Haney’s prolific research into the effects of solitary confinement upon prisoners who have been incarcerated for extended periods of time. Since the SPE, Haney’s work has extended into the effects of capital punishment as well. In 2011, his research was cited numerous times in the majority opinion when the United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling ordering California to release 46,000 prisoners in an effort to relieve the state’s overcrowded prisons.

While a great portion of Haney’s testimony before the Subcommittee centered upon the effects of solitary confinement, he also addressed the state of  prisons’ mental health workers, individuals who are assigned the task of treating inmates who have mental health issues.  Oftentimes the workers are (themselves) stressed and too overburdened to render effective care with respect to noticeable improvements in inmates’ mental health issues. Such inadequate  healthcare not only harms prisoners, Haney testified, it also “endangers the public once those prisoners are released” from prison. Without adequate mental healthcare as well as available, external counseling, prisoners, once released from the confines of a structured environment, are oftentimes present and “untreated” in the public domain.

Many times, according to statistics  provided during the hearing, non-treated inmates (or inadequately treated inmates) commit crimes which cause their return to the familiar, institutional environment of incarceration. A vicious cycle of re-institutionalization becomes, in many cases, the norm. An overburdened healthcare system speaks not only to an inadequate system of governance–as it relates to prison reformation–it also articulates a much broader statement in terms of the responsibilities of government in being fiscally accountable to those who work in conditions as presented in California’s (and other states’) prison facilities.

Haney’s testimony before the Subcommittee concluded on multiple points of note. According to Haney, we put “far too many people in prison, we pay far too little attention to what happens to them while they’re there, we keep them there for far too long, then we disregard what happens to them when they try to make the difficult transition to come out into the free world.” In April 2012,the National Academy of Sciences appointed Haney to a panel to study the causes and consequences of high rates of incarceration in the United States.

Others testifying on issues related to solitary confinement included the Honorable Charles Samuels, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; Christopher Epps, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections; and former inmate Anthony Graves, who was released from Texas death row in 2010, after spending 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Ten of the 18 years Graves spent on death row were in solitary confinement. He is the founder of “Anthony Believes,” an organization dedicated to the health and well-being of individuals consigned to death row and solitary confinement. His front-line advocacy has garnered national attention on issues related to solitary confinement and prison reformation.

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Cook County, Illinois Leads the Nation in Wrongful Convictions

Jackie — June 18, 2012 @ 9:12 AM — Comments (0)

Data from a new National Registry of Exonerations has placed Cook County as the number one place for wrongful convictions of violent crimes. Since 1989, 101 cases have been overturned in Illinois, 78 were from Cook County.

Many of the convictions on the list, in Cook County, include cases overseen by disgraced Chicago police commander, Joe Burge, who was convicted of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury. Burge was accused of torturing more than 200 criminal suspects, between 1972 and 1991, into false confessions.

The top 10 states include:

1.Illinois                 101
2.New York            88
3.Texas                   84
4.California             79
5.Michigan              35
6.Louisiana             34
7.Florida                  32
8.Ohio                     28
9.Massachusetts     27
10.Pennsylvania     27

One could assume the high number of wrongful convictions can be attributed to heavily populated areas, however the National Registry of Exonerations reports that these areas have strong presence of wrongful convictions centers and innocence projects.

Meaning that these states probably don’t have the highest number of wrongful convictions, they are just better at overturning them. It is estimated that Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions is responsible for a third of Illinois exonerations.

The report also states that because exonerations are not centralized, many exonerations remain unknown. Some of the unknown exonerations include low profile cases and those concealed from the public attention.

While the number of wrongful convictions in Illinois is alarming and even disturbing, it is reassuring to know that where there is a willing and active group of people fighting to overturn wrongful convictions, innocent people will have a higher chance of gaining the justice they deserve.

Read more

Read the full report from the National Registry of Exonerations.

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Mike Farrell: Human Rights Activist

Anne — February 03, 2012 @ 10:29 AM — Comments (2)

NOTE: This is the second (and final) installment of an interview with Mike Farrell,  a life-long opponent of the death penalty. Part I appeared on February 1, 2012.

Anne:  How has your public work affected your view of the criminal justice system in the United States in terms of death penalty cases involving questionable sentencing?

Mike Farrell: It has taught me that the criminal justice system in general is not just. It is anti-human, degrading and shows no interest in helping those who get caught up in it learn how to comport themselves appropriately and become productive citizens. It is, in my view, a destructive system that makes huge profits for some people and companies at great costs, not only to those who are incarcerated, but to our entire society.

Anne:  The execution of Donald Beardslee (California, 2005) attracted  a number of  anti-death penalty advocates. Can you speak of a specific capital punishment case in which you were involved that addresses state-sanctioned killings involving persons with limited capacity to understand their actions and/or subsequent fates?

MF:  There are too many: Robert Alton Harris in California, Johny Paul Penry in Texas (has not yet been executed, but they keep trying), Ricky Ray Rector in Arkansas, Barry Fairchild in Arkansas, Wanda Jean Allen in Oklahoma.  The Supreme Court’s 2002 decision regarding Daryl Atkins, in Virginia, stopped the execution of mentally challenged individuals, though they left the determination of who was or was not mentally challenged up to the states. Human Rights Watch released a study (around 2005) stating that we have more than 250,000 demonstrably mentally ill people in our prison system, more than in our mental institutions.

Anne:  Do you believe that it is an individual state’s right to impose a moratorium on capital punishment, or do you feel that the issue should be addressed in a broader forum (by higher court’s outside one’s state)?

MF:  I think, especially given the current makeup of the United States Supreme Court, it will be a state-by-state process that will create (as did the Simmons Case about the death penalty for juveniles) a clear sense that the people of the United States recognize that there is no longer any value to maintaining the death system.

And yes, of course, each state has the right to declare a moratorium on state killings. It happened here in California six years ago, though it was imposed by a judge. We’re still waiting for the final determination. In Illinois, then-governor Ryan declared a moratorium and ordered a study of the death penalty. That eventually led to his clearing the state’s Death Row by commuting almost all death row inmates to life without parole. He pardoned some outright.

New Jersey did such a study and decided to end the death penalty. Pennsylvania has just ordered a study and I hope it has the same result.

Anne:  A number of individuals who have been sentenced to Death Row in specific cases across the United States have also been exonerated due to DNA evidence. How does such testing (and its results) help bolster your argument that the courts oftentimes “get it wrong” in terms of sentencing a person to death for crimes for which they have been found guilty?

MF:  I think the exoneration of 139 people (so far in the modern era) from our death rows, after being charged, tried by a “jury of their peers” and sentenced to death, proves the fallibility of the system and demonstrates the wrong-headedness of giving the state the right to take a life.

I would quickly add, though, that most of those exonerated have not been freed because of DNA [evidence], but because of the dogged pursuit of justice by caring lawyers, relatives, students and people of faith. DNA evidence, while it can be an enormously powerful tool, is not available in most murder cases.

Anne:  If you witnessed (or read reports of) the Republican presidential debate in September 2011, where Texas governor Rick Perry was cheered regarding his stance on capital punishment (which he supports as a “state’s right” issue), what message  do you believe the audience’s rancorous behavior sent in terms of the national reception to (and acceptance of) capital punishment?

MF:  I don’t think the frightening (and, to me, disgusting) behavior of the audience at that debate is representative of the vast majority of the poeple in this country. While some polls show a majority of Americans still support capital punishment, those numbers are falling, and, in fact, when people are offered the option of life without parole (LWOP), more indicate support for LWOP.

Anne: Your anti-capital punishment advocacy through the year has led you to write, speak and organize nationally and internationally on various aspects relating to death penalty and human right issues. Can you  discuss some of your current projects and how they might serve to initiate a broader political discourse in the area of anti-death penalty matters?

MF:  I chair Death Penalty Focus, an ablition organization based in San Francisco, California. We have been working to help people better understand the truth about the death system and how it is failing us–in fact harming us–as a society. With the rise in public awareness of the failings inherent in capital punishment, we are now at a point where a coalition has been put together to put the question of replacing the death penalty with life without parole here in our state. It will save the state millions of dollars, provide more funding for police to solve the huge number of unsolved rapes and murders, and ensure that we no longer run the risk of killing an innocent person.

A case with which I’ve been involved for many years is that of Joe Giarrantano, in Virginia. Joe was sentenced to death in 1979, and was spared at the last minute from execution in 1991 by then-governor Douglas Wilder. We made a strong showing that Giarrantano deserved a new trial, but, again, Governor Wilder went halfway. He spared Joe’s life but tuned the question of a new trial over to the state’s Attorney General, who was not inclined to take the risk of Joe’s being found innocent (which I believe him to be). For that reason, Joe remains in prison to this day, a fact that sickens me.

Anne:  You have been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for your decades-long efforts in raising awarness of various human rights issues. Undoubtedly your work has resonated with various “anti-groups” across the globe. Is there an exclusive award or accolade that has specific affection for you becuase you can clearly see the evidence and impact of your work?

MF:  One doesn’t do this work to win awards. The progress that the abolition movement is making inspires me. The fact that New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Illinois have chosen to end the use of state killings makes me know we will prevail. But perhaps the “award” that means the most to me is that, despite the fact that he remains behind bars, Joe Giarrantano is alive and able to do good work helping fellow inmates in Virginia.

Anne:  I believe that advocacy of a cause begins as a grassroots effort with a capacity to grow into a much larger movement. What can the average citizen do to involve him/herself in issues related to capital punishment and other human rights  issues?

MF:  If they care, people can read a bit, study it [human rights issues and death penalty cases] if they choose, and learn the facts about how the system is doing harm to all of us. When we spend more money on prisons than on colleges, there is something terribly wrong with our society. People need to be less quick to judge “wrong-doers” and more willing to look at the circumstances of the lives of too many people in our society who have been left behind and deemed invisible. If kids grow up thinking they have no value, they think no one else has any value either. If kids grow up surrounded by violence, how do we expect hem to undersand that violence is wrong?

We have work to do to make this society live up to its promise–for everyone.

 

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News This Week: Exoneration is Only Half of the Battle & DNA Reform

Chelsea — January 31, 2012 @ 4:43 PM — Comments (1)

Exonoree Scott Fappiano Struggles After His Name Is Cleared

In 1985 Scott Fappiano was wrongfully convicted of the rape of a police officer’s wife in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. He was 23 when he was incarcerated, and remained in prison until he was proved innocent by DNA evidence and exonerated at the age of 45.

For Fappiano, like many other exonorees, exoneration was only the first step in the battle of getting his life back. Since his release, Fappiano has dealt with multiple substance abuse issues as a result of his anxiety and post traumatic stress that he developed as a result of  his wrongful incarceration. Fappiano now faces more jail time for crimes he admits to having committed as a member of the reputed Colombo crime family in New York. Fappiano’s attorney argues that his ordeal with the criminal justice system has already taken a huge toll and is asking the court for leniency. Read more here.

UPDATE: Fappiano received a light sentence for his use of extortion and violence in collecting a debt. On Wednesday he was sentend only with the month that he had already served  before making bail. He will also have to pay a $40,000 fine and serve 180 hours of community service.

Pennsylvania Legislature Considers Compensation Laws for Exonorees

Pennsylvania’s legislature is discussing wrongful convictions, their causes and potential remedies including compensation for exonerated victims. Currently, Pennsylvania is one of 28 states that does not compensate its exonorees once they are released from prison. According to an article from Pennsylvania’s Innocence Institute, exonorees receive less assistance reentering into society than do parolees. Parolees can receive help finding house, with job training, and then help with finding jobs.

Not so with victims of the justice system.

Exonoree Danny Tyus lost everything during his time behind the jailhouse door; his children no longer recognize him as their father, and he lost his house, his car, and all of his financial holdings. It seems incredibly backwards that if wrongfully convicted people serve their sentence and are eventually let out on parole then they would have access to a litany of resources to aid in their reentry to society, yet those proven innocent, those who have served time for crimes that they never committed, are sent out without any help or guidance. Are we to encourage criminal behavior? Or just to reward those who stay silent and suffer in spite of their innocence.

The proposed compensation legislation would provide $50,000 per year spent in prison to exonerated citizens. Hopefully Pennsylvania’s legislature will move forward on the road towards legal reform and pass the bill, soon.

Jackson, MS Exonoree Receives Settlement Result of Police Misconduct

Cedric Willis sued the city of Jackson, MS, as well as four police officers. His suit finally paid off with the city agreeing to a $195,000 settlement with Mr. Willis. Cedric has already been rewarded $500,000 in compensation for his wrongful incarceration to be paid by the state over 10 years.

Willis served 12 years in jail for a homicide and three counts of robbery, none of which he committed. His suit argued that Jackson police officers acted unprofessionally by lying about eyewitness testimony that led to Willis’s arrest and ultimately his conviction.

Willis’s attorney Rob McDuff was disappointed with the settlement, but cites a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding eyewitness identification as making this sort of case difficult to win.

Hopefully this settlement and Willis’s previous compensation will aid in his transition back into society. Read more here.

Law & Order Star Mariska Hargitay Endorses  DNA Database Expansion

Last week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his desire to make New York the first state to expands its DNA database to improve the justice system. Currently, DNA is collected from only about half of defendants convicted of a crime. Cuomo’s initiative would expand that collection to cover all crimes, which he says would aid in solving and preventing future crimes as well as exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals.

Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay released a video yesterday expressing her support for this initiative. Hargitay, who has played New York Detective Olivia Benson for over a decade, said that this role opened her eyes to the realities of sexual and physical abuse that occurs in this country every day. In her video she focuses on how the expansion of the DNA database would bring healing and justice to the survivors of sexual and physical assaults.

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YouTube DirektMariska Hargitay Support DNA Expansion

Chicago Exonoree Thaddeus Jiminez Wins $25 million for wrongful conviction

Thaddeus “TJ” Jiminiez, spent 16 years in a Chicago prison for a murder he did not commit. Now, three years after Jiminez was exonerated and received his certificate of innocence, he won a civil suit against the city of Chicago and was awarded $25 million. His attorneys believe this award to be the largest ever received from a wrongful conviction civil suit.

At 13-years-old Jiminez was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Eric Morro. The murder was believed to have been a gang-related shooting. Jiminez was freed after a witness recanted and police examined a recording of another man confessing to the shooting.

Unfortunately, this decision may not be the end of the ordeal for Jiminez. A spokesman for Chicago’s law department Roderick Drew said that the city is exceptionally displeased with the outcome and will be exploring all available options.

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Exoneration Is Not the End of the Story

Susan — November 03, 2011 @ 9:36 AM — Comments (2)

It’s happened 13 times in Florida alone. After years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, the exonerated man walks out into the light of day as a free man – off into the sunset to a beautiful life. Wait. Not so fast.

Take the case of Joe Jones, the first man in Kansas to be exonerated through DNA testing. Jones served seven years for a 1985 rape committed by someone else. Jones was convicted in 1986 due mainly to false eyewitness testimony, but was released in 1992 after testing excluded him as the perpetrator. Thus began Jones’ “other battles”.

Since state payments to exonerees were unknown at the time, Jones lobbied the Kansas legislature for compensation and received $350,000 in 1993. Suffering from the after effects of prison life (which he still doesn’t talk about), he turned to cocaine to the tune of a $500 a day habit. His money quickly ran out leading him to commit nonviolent property crimes and drug offenses.

Most recently paroled in March, Jones says he has been clean for over two years. The rape victim still insists Jones is guilty; the perpetrator has yet to be identified. Jones is trying to get his life going in the right direction and attending regular counseling sessions. “Anything to make me feel like this didn’t happen.” Read more about it at LJWORLD.com.

The Daily Cougar.Com explains the “Witness to Innocence” program formed by freed death row inmates that seeks to educate audiences about the death penalty by facing those who have been sentenced and released. Some of their funds go to struggling exonerees.

Program Director Ron Keine notes, “This is the problem with a lot of people who are out on exoneration — there’s nothing for them there. If you went to prison for a crime that you did, you get out on parole. You have a parole officer to make sure you can get a job, housing, a way to feed yourself — we don’t have that. I couldn’t even get a job at McDonald’s.”

Then there’s the case of Eric Caine who falsely confessed to murdering an elderly Chicago couple after being tortured by Chicago police in 1986 when another suspect who was also tortured misidentified him. The police actions were later substantiated and led to Illinois Governor George Ryan first placing a moratorium, and then commuting death sentences in the state. Caine’s co-defendant (who received the death penalty) walked out. Caine (who did not) stayed in prison for eight more years even though the same evidence was used to prosecute and convict both men. He served a total of 25 years.

He was released this year and is not looking back – he has an apartment, a driver’s license, volunteers for the Chicago Innocence Project that helped gain his release, works part-time, and awaits compensation from the state. Oops. Hold on.

It seems Judge Michael McHale denied Caine’s request for a Certificate of Innocence that would allow him to collect compensation. However, the Huff Post Chicago article notes that Caine may likely prevail, as his legal team will soon file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the City and the police officers involved. What’s more, newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made it known he wants quick resolution to these matters.

Says Caine, “It’s not the first time I’ve been denied. I’ll have to keep going through the fight. But I’m ready for the next round.”

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Texas: The State of Juxtaposition

Anne — October 24, 2011 @ 2:31 PM — Comments (1)

What’s up with the State of Texas?

During a September 2011, Republican presidential debate featuring Texas governor Rick Perry (and other candidates vying for the party’s 2012 nomination), the audience cheered loudly (and perhaps even high-fived their seatmates during a few off-camera shots) in response to Perry’s position on capital punishment. Even though the governor’s stance is pretty much a “known,” it was quite astounding to hear such vociferous affirmations coming from the assembled crowd.  A casual observer just tuning in to the televised debate might have viewed the yelps, yahoos, and foot-stomping madness as the governor’s response to an inquiry regarding, say, his preference for apple pie as opposed to pineapple upside down cake.

But the crowd’s jubilance wasn’t in response to the governor’s culinary preferences.

The crowd’s unabashed, thumbs-up deportment was the verbal, behavioral, and unvarnished reaction to a much larger truth: their belief in the righteousness of the governor of the state of Texas.  Take it straight from the crowd: Apple pie and pineapple upside down cake can’t compare to the gratifying exhilaration of lethal injections. While the former might have the capability of satisfying one’s temporary need for a pleasurable sweet-fix, the latter has the unequivocal effect of putting its subject to sleep. Forever. End of Story.

Fast forward to the case of Michael Morton.

On October 3, 2011, Michael Morton walked out of a Williamson County (Texas) courtroom a free man after having spent the past 25 years behind bars for killing his wife. DNA evidence pointed to another man as the responsible party, but not before Morton had been severely victimized by the state’s judicial system. Abhorrent, unconscionable behavior by the State, including the dismissal of a judge’s order for a review of the case, greatly contributed to Morton’s quarter century incarceration. “Stunning” is the word a Senior Staff Attorney used to describe prosecutors’ conduct in the  case.

Recent developments in Morton’s case, however, indicate that the State is reviewing legal documents related to his conviction and has launched an investigation into actions engaged by trial lawyers in the case. And while it might be a bit too premature to pop the champagne cork and ready the long-stems in celebration of a positive outcome, it is a  post-commencement to a case which ended horribly. 

Whatever the outcome in the investigation, 25 years of Michael Morton’s life are gone. Like the wind. Never to return. Or be returned.

Now, too, comes the case of Anthony Melendez, the only living defendant in the 1982 case of three teenagers slain in Lake Waco, Texas. At the time of Melendez’s conviction, there was no DNA testing available. But now, in an effort to exonerate Melendez through DNA evidence, Attorney Walter M. Reaves has filed a motion asking for the testing, which involves DNA evidence present on shoelaces used to tie up one of the victims.

While Melendez has always maintained his innocence, he confessed to his involvement in the crime on the advice of his defense team who convinced him that if a jury found him guilty he would, in all likelihood, be sentenced to death. When you’re young, scared, and presented with few options in such a case–and are listening to authority figures who presumably have your best interests at heart– a life sentence might not sound like such a bad idea, given the alternative.

But Melendez’s case is in the Lone Star State, where guilt and innocence are oftentimes secondary to truth and justice.

The McLennan County (Waco) District Attorney’s Office is fighting tooth and nail in an oppositional effort regarding any such exertions related to post-conviction DNA. The jury has spoken, the DA’s Office has asserted, and any such testing, if permitted, will “override” the jury’s decision.

“Override the jury’s decision”?

Let me be clear on this: The District Attorney’s Office would rather maintain a guilty verdict–in light of compelling evidence which can prove a man’s innocence–in an effort to “maintain” a jury’s decision, no matter if the jury’s decision was reached in error? What this suggests to me is that the DA’s Office is more concerned with winning (and obviously at all costs) than it is with obtaining the truth and moving that truth forward. Justice, it seems to me the DA’s Office is saying, has no (or very little) place in this effort of review. And while the State Attorney’s Office might be in the “routine” business of prosecuting cases against individuals it deems guilty of having committed various crimes in Texas, I suggest that it is also a state where truth and justice might not be the most significant item on a random docket.

From a potential presidential nominee who favors state-sanctioned revenge killings, to acts of prosecutorial misconduct, to maintaining questionable jury decisions, Texas offers the nation’s citizens a grand perspective of its judicial viewpoints and operations that leave much to be desired. 

While the Lone Star State is certainly not a state alone in its stance on capital punishment, victims’ claims of innocence, and judicial reviews of former cases, I see it as a State of Juxtaposition, where apple pie and pineapple upside down cake are as welcomed as lethal injections, judicial misconduct, and questionable decisions from those whose jobs are to seek the truth.

judicial,justice,post-conviction,Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,


Dewey Bozella: Never Give Up the Fight

Anne — October 17, 2011 @ 12:34 PM — Comments (1)

Along with earning his GED, a bachelor’s and master’s degree during a 26-year stint in prison, Dewey Bozella, 52, must have surely read “A Dream Deferred,” Langston Hughes’ signature poem of holding fast to aspirations and goals.  Bozella didn’t let his dream of boxing  “dry up like a raisin in the sun,” nor did he allow himself to become bitter and “fester like a sore” during his more than a quarter century behind bars for a crime he did not commit.  What he did, upon his release from prison in October 2009, was train, non-stop, for, literally, the second fight of  his life.

No one who knows Bozella’s story will dispute the fact that he has been a fighter all his life. That he survived and moved past his troubled days on the streets of New York is testimony to his strength, endurance, and character.

Vestiges from the first fight of his life most likely arise from the memory of witnessing his father beating his pregnant mother to death when he was nine years old and the recollection of losing two brothers to violent crimes when he was a young boy. A life of petty crime was on the wane when, in 1977, he was charged with the murder of Emma Crapser, 92, of Poughkeepsie, New York. Although no  physical evidence or DNA evidence linked him to the crime, he was convicted primarily on the testimony of two convicts who eventually won release based on their testimonies.

Bozella’s case saw its share of legal wrangling throughout his imprisonment, and on four separate occasions he could have exited California’s notorious Sing Sing prison facility if he would only admit guilt. He maintained his position of innocence, however, throughout the multiple plea offers. After years of imprisonment his story made its way to the WilmerHale law firm which took up the case and helped secure his eventual release from prison.

But Dewey Bozella’s story does not end here.

Ever since his days of imprisonment he aspired to box in a single, professional fight. He had trained in prison and had become a champion, but he’d always wanted to take his skills beyond the prison’s walls to a larger audience.  On October 15, 2011, he got the chance by engaging in his first professional boxing match in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. He won the match, which he called his “first, last, and only”  professional fight. His opponent, Larry Hopkins, at age 30, was twenty-two years his junior. Bozella said that he used to “dream about this happening. It [a professional fight] was my dream come true.”  Winning the match, however, did not deter him from his one-fight declaration. “This is a young man’s game,” he says. “I did what I came to do.”

A bevy of well-wishers called Bozella prior to his professional debut, including President Barack Obama who called on October 13th to offer his congratulations and to wish him well in his debut fight. No doubt the President’s phone call helped buoy Bozella’s stamina in the ring.

While this commentary centers primarily around a man’s unjust conviction, incarceration, and eventual release from prison, it is also a statement about the power of believing in oneself and holding fast to dreams no matter the circumstances and obstacles put before you. If Langston were alive today, I’m  certain that he would be proud of Dewey Bozella and his refusal to succumb to the myriad experiences and incidents that helped shape his  life.  In the meantime, Bozella’s story of  faith and determination might be another poem just waiting to be penned.

exoneration,justice,prison, , , , , , ,


In Each Other’s Company

Anne — September 28, 2011 @ 5:40 PM — Comments (2)

While various states across the nation have their share of criminal cases reflecting severe miscarriages of justice, we all know that beyond the borders of the United States there, too, are instances wherein innocent people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Within a great majority of the legal quandaries associated with each case, however, are questions relating to compensation for the wrongfully convicted. In Florida, for example, some exonerated men are eligible to be compensated $50,000 for each year of time spent behind bars. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule.

To receive payment the exoneree must meet eligibility requirements outlined in the Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act, a bill established in 2008 by the Florida legislature. In addition, the exoneree must meet provisional requirements of the bill’s “clean hands” mandate. The conditions for receipt of funds are determined by the facts of a recipient’s criminal record prior to (and during) the wrongful incarceration.

Legislation supported by the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) has been presented to lawmakers in an effort to overturn the “Clean Hands” provision and to assist the exonerated in rebuilding their lives. IPF’s efforts have been met, however, with strong opposition from lawmakers who are unwilling to support compensation for the wrongfully convicted men. Such actions, it seems to me, shows an unwillingness to acknowledge that an egregious miscarriage of justice occurred in the first instance. The State of Florida, lawmakers seem to be saying to the exonerated men, did a wicked thing by convicting you for something you did not do, but hey, you’re free now, so go and make the best of it.

I am of the opinion that (perhaps) after decades of imprisonment, when an exonerated man might have lost family members and loved ones, that he might also be a bit guarded upon entering a new world alone and without support. While a monetary compensation certainly cannot make up for a life lost to imprisonment, it can most assuredly help ease the transition towards rebuilding a life fractured by the state’s negligence.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Kyle Unger, freed in 2009 after spending 14 years (of a 25-year sentence for a murder he did not commit), is seeking $14.5 million in compensation from provincial and federal justice officials for an array of “damages,” including, according to his lawsuit, “loss of freedom, loss of enjoyment of life, severe emotional trauma and distress.” He was, according to court documents, “deprived of his youth, his education, and a normal working life.” Unger’s lawsuit asserts that police and prosecutors used “faulty techniques,” including a breach of Unger’s constitutional rights, to help convict him. He arrived at the compensatory amount by appealing for one million dollars for every year spent in prison, plus related court costs.

In Texas, Anthony Graves, exonerated in 2010 for a 1994 conviction, is seeking compensation from the state for each of the 16 years he spent on death row for a crime he, too, did not commit. In court documents Graves maintains, among numerous legal and ethical breaches, that “prosecutors elicited false statements and withheld testimony [from witnesses] that could have influenced the jury.” His legal struggles survived numerous hearings and appeals to reach the point of exoneration. For each year of his wrongful incarceration, he is seeking compensation in the amount of $80K, the state of Texas’ compensatory threshold.

I offer this discussion in an effort to not only highlight the importance of the work of various Innocence Projects across the nation and beyond, but to ask that we engage ourselves in the business of staying informed. While a range of organizations might function under diverse names, their work is significant in aspects too numerous to declare.

Despite the fact that we might not recognize the vulnerabilities that we all face in this win-at-all-cost society in which we live, we are, I believe, in this thing together.

exoneration,Innocence Project of Florida,justice,litigation, , , , , , , ,

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