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ScottDLS wrote:

JALLEN wrote:

The problem with all the talk about exoneration rates is few people who bring it up want to talk specifically about how to change the system to prevent it. They just want to complain about getting rid of the death penalty or something.

I admit I am interested in getting rid of the death penalty, but only for innocent defendants.

I don't know how best to prevent it, but it is a very serious defect in our justice system.

I also remember a man who was exonerated after more than 20 years in prison, freed by conclusive proof that he had nothing to do with the murder he had been convicted of. He had been sentenced to death, but some paperwork foul up had delayed it. "Miscarriage of justice" hardly covers it. I wrote Governor Perry to recommend Perry appoint him to a job on his staff working on mistakes in the justice system.

You have to be very careful about the "exonerations" that take place in many of these cases that are brought by anti-death penalty groups. They aren't necessarily proving innocence, but introducing enough doubt that the person cannot be proven guilty. Of course, they should then be cleared if there is any doubt, but I'm not convinced given the rarity of the death penalty that any innocent person has ever been executed...since 1978 when SCOTUS allowed it again.

It will all be moot by next year when Hillary appoints her new justice(s) who will repeal the death penalty via judicial fiat.

I believe they are "very careful" in exoneration cases. I wish they were as careful in the trials and deliberations in the first instance.

In the case I alluded to, it was apparently determined that it was impossible for the person convicted to have been guilty. He spent a couple of decades, I don't recall how many, on death row before being exonerated and released.

The problem with all the talk about exoneration rates is few people who bring it up want to talk specifically about how to change the system to prevent it. They just want to complain about getting rid of the death penalty or something.

I admit I am interested in getting rid of the death penalty, but only for innocent defendants.

I don't know how best to prevent it, but it is a very serious defect in our justice system.

I also remember a man who was exonerated after more than 20 years in prison, freed by conclusive proof that he had nothing to do with the murder he had been convicted of. He had been sentenced to death, but some paperwork foul up had delayed it. "Miscarriage of justice" hardly covers it. I wrote Governor Perry to recommend Perry appoint him to a job on his staff working on mistakes in the justice system.

You guys are a laugh a minute.

"Not guilty" results when in the view of the jury, or trier of fact, the prosecution does not prove each and every element of the charge(s) "beyond a reasonable doubt."

There is another result, not necessarily formally recognized in the law, "innocent" after being convicted, and later exonerated. This is usually because improved forensics shows that the convicted person had nothing to do with it whatsoever.

I posted an article here a little while back about this. Texas leads the country in exonerations, by a wide margin. The thread devolved into statistical mumbo jumbo attempting to avoid the worrisome possibility that juries are not as careful as they need to be, or maybe that law enforcement isn't.

Innocent people are being convicted of very serious crimes wrongfully. Those guys ought to be paid from state funds.

It is hard to hold the prosecutor liable in the absence of evidence of malice, or other bad acts, suppression of exculpatory evidence, intimidation of witnesses, subirning perjury, etc. Those of you who have done more than one trial probably realize how trials don't always go as scripted. Witnesses blow their stories, exhibits don't get admitted, witnesses are effectively impeached. Ask the LA DAs who tried OJ how this happens!

It was better when an elected public official who was caught in a hideous lapse, like this drunk was, would resign in disgrace and the less said the better.

Governor Perry was caught trying to restore public integrity the only way he could, and instead of being ashamed and resigning, these communist hippies in Austin tried to get back at him with appallingly bogus charges that it took Criminal Appeals to put a stop to.

I wonder if abuse of process or malicious prosecution counts would be appropriate, or whether the Grand Jury indictment gives them an out.