Texas men's innocence puts a county on trial

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-exonerate9apr09,0,3969347.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

DNA is expected to clear a convicted rapist, as it has 3 of his friends.

DALLAS — Many men claim innocence when staring at iron bars. But James Giles knew he was no rapist — and he believed three fellow Texas prisoners who told him they too were wrongly convicted of rape.

They shared their despair over games of chess and dominoes, worked on longshot appeals together in the law library, and dreamed of the day they would win exoneration from a justice system that failed them.

It has taken nearly 25 years, but with the assistance of DNA testing, the men — all African American — are proving they are indeed innocent. Two were freed from prison. A third was cleared last month, years after serving his sentence. Today, Giles is expected to clear his name and become the 13th man from Dallas County to prove with genetic testing that he was wrongly imprisoned.

Giles, who spent 10 years in prison and was paroled in 1993, is seeking to vacate his 1983 conviction. New evidence suggests that another man — also named James Giles — committed the rape. Dallas County prosecutors more than two decades ago knew about the other James Giles, who lived across the street from the victim, but never told Giles' defense.

[Horse with no Name]

1. If cases like these do NOT convince people

that the death penalty is WRONG, then nothing will.
We have always had unequal justice in this country, and the African-American community has suffered greatly because of this.
Too many times, we have prosecutors who need convictions to boost their chances at re-election, and serving up defendants who do not have the means to adequately defend themselves is the easiest way to boost that conviction rate.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. The Innocence Project are my fucking heroes.

I just made a donation. At the very least everyone should check out their website. They're doing incredible, very valuable work.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

[mainegreen]

12. Isn't that the truth. n/t

[PDJane]

3. I am convinced, and have been for a long time.

I am Canadian, however, so we don't have the death penalty.

The three men who put the finishing touches to my convictions were the men sometimes called the three M's; Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin, and David Milgaard. All of these men spent time behind bars for crimes they did not commit. Donald Marshall because he was First Nations, David Milgaard because he was a young "hippie" travelling across the praries, and Guy Paul Morin because he was a loner and different.

The death penalty is an archaic barbarism. Having being married to a cop, I can also say that most people who want the job aren't the ones who should have it.

[Jonathan50]

4. This shows that there is something seriously wrong with the judicial system

"Today, Giles is expected to clear his name and become the 13th man from Dallas County to prove with genetic testing that he was wrongly imprisoned."


Thirteen men from a single county have been wrongly convicted?

If that isn't a wake up call to the citizens of the USA then nothing can be.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. Read the whole article if you haven't done so already.

The prosecutor in question seems to have been one of the worst offenders for this sort of bullshit. And he was in office for decades.

[Jonathan50]

9. I seriously doubt that prosecutor is the only one doing that sort of thing.

Prosecutors are generally elected and have a personal stake in making sure that the conviction rates for crimes are as high as possible.

The more crimes a prosecutor takes off the books with a conviction, the better chance he has of being reelected.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. I know. It's infuriating.

This guy is a perfect example of why the system should be reformed.

[NewJeffCT]

7. It's not a wake-up call until it gets out beyond DU

and similar places.

[MasonJar]

6. That is so sick! He lived across the street and was not questioned!

[BlooInBloo]

15. Of course it is. It's par for the course.

[Jonathan50]

23. I hope that no one thinks this only happens in cases of serious crimes.

Because it doesn't just happen in those cases.

This sort of behavior on the part of police and prosecutors is rampant.

[NewJeffCT]

8. How many innocents have already paid the ultimate price?

How many? One is too many to me.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Many.

More than any of us would really like to think about.

[NNN0LHI]

19. I think Texas was executing convicted rapists 30 years ago or so?

That was before any DNA testing.

Using the law of averages that means many of them were innocent.

Don

[NewJeffCT]

20. I'm sure you're right

The death penalty has been rife with abuse for decades - I did a study of it in college back in the 1980s and even back then, it was pretty obvious that if you were black & killed somebody white you were WAY more likely to be tried with a capital crime than if you were black & killed another black person. I think it was like an 11-1 ratio. And, I think if a white killed a white person, they were also more likely to be tried for a capital crime than in a black-on-black case, meaning that the system put a very low value on the life of an African American.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. This thread deserves a kick. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

14. Hey! Be fair! Sharpton/Tawana absolutely MUST be discussed here!

:rofl:

[ContraBass Black]

16. ?

Come again?

[BlooInBloo]

17. What, are you new to the country?

Whenever white folks get caught being racist, some "fair and balanced" person immediately leaps to their rescue, and initiates an extended discussion of Sharpton/Tawana - since that's the ONE racial-anything that literally EVERY white American is familiar with.

Here is an example, typical in all respects:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=608169&mesg_id=608350

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. I fail to see how that is relevant here. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

18. It didn't require DNA evidence - this didn't pass the laugh test from the get-go...

... Bob Herbert (NYT) was huge on this story years ago.

10% of the black population arrested...

What counted as evidence for white folks was one detective writing notes on his hand...

And so on...

[Jonathan50]

21. An interesting statistic..

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0818/p02s01-usju.html

If current trends continue, it means that a black male in the United States would have about a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison during his lifetime. For a Hispanic male, it's 1 in 6; for a white male, 1 in 17.

The numbers come after many years of get-tough policies - and years when violent-crime rates have generally fallen. But to some observers, they point to broader failures in US society, particularly in regard to racial minorities and others who are economically disadvantaged.

"These new numbers are shocking enough, but what we don't see are the ripple effects of what they mean: For the generation of black children today, there's almost an inevitable aspect of going to prison," says Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. "We have the wealthiest society in human history, and we maintain the highest level of imprisonment. It's striking what that says about our approach to social problems and inequality."