Sunday 21 December 2008

Death Row inmate whose conviction was overturned maintains that he is innocent

Death Row inmate whose conviction was overturned maintains that he is innocent
Overturned conviction revives inmate’s claim of innocence, victims’ pain from 23 years ago

By ALEX BRANCH
abranch@star-telegram.com

Joe Blount, 44, and his daughter, Angela, 15, died. Michael Toney remains on Death Row in East Texas and would be transferred to Tarrant County if prosecutors decide to retry his case.   STAR-TELEGRAM/M.L. GRAY  A briefcase bomb containing gunpowder and gasoline destroyed the Blount family’s Lake Worth trailer home in 1985, killing three people.   STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES  An investigator searches the site of the trailer home bombing in 1985. The case didn’t go to trial until 1999.   STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES   Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis Michael Toney was given a death sentence in 1999 after being convicted of killing three people with a bomb in 1985. His conviction was overturned last week.   S-T/M.L. Gray


Michael Roy Toney's last appeal



LIVINGSTON — Since he arrived on Texas’ Death Row in 1999, Michael Roy Toney has proclaimed his innocence to anyone he thought might listen.

His relentless campaign of correspondence has targeted reporters, prosecutors, jurors and relatives of the three people he was convicted of killing in the 1985 Thanksgiving Day bombing of a Lake Worth trailer.

He tried to sell tickets to his execution on eBay, a ploy, he said, to draw attention to his case.

"I’ve been screaming that I’m innocent this entire time," he said Dec. 3 from inside a small, sealed compartment where Death Row inmates meet with visitors.

Nine and a half years later, he has everyone’s attention.

Last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Toney’s capital murder conviction because Tarrant County prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to his defense. Among the 14 documents were records that cast doubt on the testimony of two key witnesses against him.

The Tarrant County district attorney’s office is weighing whether to retry the 23-year-old case. An official said last week that the office intends to but that it has not made a final decision.

Toney’s defense team alleges that his conviction was the product of the manipulation and intimidation of witnesses during the investigation and prosecutorial misconduct in the courtroom. At the time of Toney’s arrest, they say, the case was the longest-running unsolved bombing investigation in the U.S.

"I think a task force was formed to solve this and was clearly motivated to get someone," said Rebecca Bauer Kahan, one of Toney’s attorneys.

Mike Parrish, the lead prosecutor in the first trial, left the district attorney’s office this year. He recently declined a request for an interview, saying he could not comment on a pending case.

Officials with the district attorney’s office have denied that they knowingly sponsored false or misleading testimony and say their opinion on Toney’s guilt has not changed.

"We still think he is the man that committed the offense," said Chuck Mallin, chief of the appellate division.

Relatives of the victims are equally unswayed by the new evidence.

"I know that Michael Toney is as guilty as he can be," said Susan Blount, whose husband and 15-year-old daughter died. "He is squirming and trying to get out of it because he never wants to admit it. He never will."

Blount’s sister, Lynne Wright, whose son died, said: "He is guilty 100 percent. He did it no matter what is coming out or what his attorneys say was lacking in evidence or wasn’t turned over."

No physical evidence connects Toney to the bombing. Toney, who was 19 when it occurred, was convicted on the testimony of his ex-wife and a former best friend. His lawyers say one need only look at the recent string of exonerations in Dallas County for proof that eyewitness testimony can lead to false convictions.

"Most people think if you’re convicted, you must have done it," said Toney, now 42. "But the system relies on people. People are fallible. People have a tendency not to tell the truth."

'An angry, violent bomb’

Nov. 28, 1985, was Thanksgiving Day — the last day Blount’s family was whole.

"Every year, you kind of go through it again in your mind," she said. "You miss the people who are missing from your family every time you sit down to dinner or play a game."

It was a cold day; the temperature topped out at 42. The Dallas Cowboys, behind Danny White’s four touchdown passes, beat the St. Louis Cardinals 35-17.

In their rented trailer in the Hilltop Mobile Home Park, Susan Blount shared an afternoon holiday feast with her husband, Joe Blount, 44; daughter, Angela, 15; son, Robert, 14; and her nephew Michael Columbus, 18, who was visiting from Oklahoma.

That evening, Susan took a nap. Around 9 p.m., Joe and the kids went to a nearby convenience store for snacks. While they were gone, Susan heard a knock at the front door. She did not get up to answer it.

When Joe, a mechanic, and the children returned about 20 minutes later, they saw a briefcase on the front porch. Angela, imagining it full of treasures, brought it inside and opened it, her brother later testified.

Robert heard a click — the sound of a Victor mousetrap triggering a bomb consisting of two galvanized metal pipes filled with smokeless gunpowder, gasoline in a glass container, a model-rocket motor and a 9-volt battery. The FBI later characterized it as an "angry, violent bomb" intended to kill whoever opened the briefcase.

Angela, Joe and Michael died almost instantly. Robert was blown through a doorway.

"The heat melted his shoes into his feet," Susan said.

Robert survived, but with scars on his face, back, stomach and legs. Susan escaped unharmed.

Later, after Toney was convicted, Susan and Robert moved to the West Coast.

"If someone from church left something on our doorstep for us, I would be terrified," she said. "If a car was behind us, we would turn down a different street to get home.

"We didn’t know why somebody did that to us."

A cold case for 12 years

Authorities didn’t know why either. There seemed to be no sensible reason why the Blount family would be targeted. A man who lived in a trailer across from the Blounts was involved in drugs and weapons sales. He later told investigators that he believed that the bomb was meant to be left outside his home.

Authorities investigated an Azle businessman who had been arrested for selling a briefcase bomb to undercover agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. They investigated a 15-year-old named Michael Huff, who some people said had bragged about the bombing.

Both suspects passed lie-detector tests.

Years passed.

In 1996, what became known as the Blount Task Force, a multijurisdictional team of investigators led by the ATF, was formed.

But the case remained cold — until summer 1997, when a prisoner in the Parker County Jail brought Michael Toney to the task force’s attention. It was the first time anyone working the case had heard his name.

A tip and a retraction

Charles Ferris, now 55, still lives in Parker County. He says he has a clear memory of the day he told authorities that Michael Toney had bombed the Blounts’ trailer.

He also says it was a lie.

In August 1997, Ferris was in the Parker County Jail on charges of driving without a valid license. Locked up with him was Toney, a 31-year-old career criminal with nine felony convictions for crimes that included burglary, assault, injury to a child and drunken driving.

Toney grew up in California. His mother would later say her son was a good child but found trouble in his teens after moving to Texas to live with his father. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade.

Toney often came up with scams to help prisoners gain privileges, Ferris said. He suggested that Ferris, who also had a past theft conviction, tell authorities that he knew who blew up the Blounts’ trailer. It would help Ferris gain early release, Toney told him.

Another inmate later confirmed that he heard Ferris and Toney concoct the plan.

At his trial, Toney would testify that he knew about the bombing only because he had once been locked up with Bennie Joe Toole, a former roommate of Michael Huff, the 15-year-old investigated in the bombing. Toney said Toole told him about the case.

Ferris says Toney gave him permission to name Toney as the bomber.Toney tells it slightly differently.

"I just said, 'I don’t care who you say,’ " Toney said from Death Row. "Ferris knew more about this crime than I did. I didn’t know who was killed, where exactly it happened or when it happened.  . . .  It was stupid."

But it worked. Ferris soon was released.

Ferris says he recanted shortly afterward and authorities "made my life hell" for it. Neither the prosecution nor the defense called him to testify at Toney’s trial.

"I was pretty much the reason Michael got into all that trouble," Ferris said. "I didn’t figure they could convict him. I look back at everything that has happened with my mouth hanging open."

Trial testimony

Ferris’ tip led investigators to the two key witnesses against Toney: his former best friend, Chris Meeks, and his ex-wife, Kimberly Toney.

Michael and Kim Toney married in 1986 and divorced in 1989. She said he abused her. But in 1985, they were dating, and Toney spent most nights at her apartment. His best friend was Meeks, with whom he drank, chased women, and stole heavy equipment and car batteries.

Michael Toney and Meeks ran a construction business together, although they had no office.

When first visited by investigators on Oct. 7, 1997, Kim Toney said she knew nothing about a bombing on Thanksgiving Day 1985. After they left, she went to the library and looked up newspaper articles about the crime."I realized I was at that spot the night the explosion took place," she later testified.

Meeks and Kim Toney told this story at Michael Toney’s May 1999 trial:

In fall 1985, Michael Toney was acquainted with some "Samoans or Hawaiians" who spoke Tongan. They hung out at an old movie theater in Euless. A week before Thanksgiving, Meeks overheard a conversation between Toney and the Samoans — one of whom went by the name Larry — in which the words contract and bombing were mentioned.

A few days later, Toney showed Meeks a bomb in a briefcase and said he needed to "blow something up."

On Thanksgiving night, Meeks, Toney and Kim left her apartment in Michael Toney’s Chevrolet Silverado. He parked near a propane business that was close to the Blounts’ trailer. Toney removed a briefcase from the back of the pickup and disappeared in the direction of the Blounts’ trailer.

He returned a few minutes later — empty-handed.

Toney was "kind of giggling" and saying "he had fulfilled the contract," Meeks testified.

Toney testified that he was at home the night of the bombing. He said that Meeks was lying and that Kim Toney was mistaken.

Under cross-examination, he admitted lying many times in his life.

It took only four hours for jurors to convict Toney of capital murder. Five days later, after the punishment phase, they sentenced him to death.

The defense’s perspective

The defense’s theory is that the trip that the three took actually occurred about a month after Thanksgiving and had nothing to do with a bombing.

Mallin, of the district attorney’s office, declined to comment on Toney’s lawyers’ specific arguments. Kim Toney testified that after Toney delivered the briefcase, they drove to the nearby Fort Worth Nature Center, where Toney shot a beaver with a .22-caliber rifle. But records show that the rifle wasn’t purchased until December.

And Toney, his lawyers say, did not buy the pickup until December. In November, he drove a blue Monza, a former girlfriend recently said.

In 2006, Toney’s lawyers used an open-records request to obtain the evidence withheld from the defense during the trial. They say it shows that investigators "shaped" and "cajoled" Meeks’ and Kim Toney’s memories.

Among the withheld documents was a report detailing the first statement that Kim Toney gave to investigators. In it, she did not mention seeing Toney with a briefcase the night of the bombing. Only after investigators brought in a "cognitive interview specialist" three days later did she recall it.

Also, in a published report after the trial, Kim Toney acknowledged that her memory was affected in the early 1990s by exposure to toxic chemicals while she served in the Persian Gulf War. The reports raise doubts about her account, Michael Toney’s lawyers say.

Kim Toney, now living in Wisconsin, said she stands by her memory of the briefcase.

"That idea wasn’t planted," she said. "It goes through my head every night. It is what happened.

"I don’t want to say anything that will jeopardize the case. My story is the same. It is not going to be recanted."

Another withheld document recounts investigators’ first interview with Meeks, who was then living in New Mexico and on probation for his fourth DWI. Meeks first responded, "I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Honest to God, sir, I do not remember anything about any bombing."

Toney’s lawyers contend that once Meeks realized investigators would not accept his honest answers — and, worse, believed he was with Toney when the bombing was committed — he allowed them to craft his story to fit their theory. When his answers deviated, they say, investigators pressed him until he changed them.

"Not only does the DPS report show that Meeks’ initial account to the Blount Task Force was drastically different than what his story would become . . . the records also show how Meeks’ first account was manipulated and transformed into his final, incriminating account," defense lawyers stated in court filings.

Later, after the trial, Meeks signed an affidavit for an investigator for the defense acknowledging that the events might not have happened the way he testified. Reached by phone recently at his home in New Mexico, Meeks drew a long sigh upon learning the caller was a reporter.

"Man," he said, "I don’t have anything to say."

Also unearthed by the defense was a record of a task-force interview with a Tongan named Tisileli Lupeheke, who lived in North Texas in 1985. He told investigators that he hung out at the movie theater in Euless and was the only Tongan there who went by Larry — the same name as the "Samoan or Hawaiian" whom Meeks testified he had heard discuss a contract and a bomb with Toney.

Jurors never learned that "Larry" passed a polygraph and was cleared of involvement in the bombing. Or that he was a 17-year-old student at Trinity High School when it occurred and thus, Toney’s lawyers reason, an unlikely candidate to be ordering bombings.

Prosecutors argued later in court papers that the interview was irrelevant because there was no proof that Lupeheke was the same "Larry" Meeks referred to.

Finally, there is Finis Blankenship.

While Toney was awaiting trial, Blankenship was in jail with him. Blankenship testified during the punishment phase of the trial that Toney had told him that he was offered $5,000 to make and plant the bomb but that he left it at the wrong trailer.

Today, like Ferris, Blankenship has recanted. He said he told the story because he needed medical care and he believed testifying would help him get out of jail.

"I had just had a stroke and heart attack, and I was scared I was going to die," said Blankenship, now 76. "So that is the whole reason that happened."

Looking ahead

At the Polunsky Unit outside Livingston on Dec. 3, tattoos on both biceps peeked out from under the sleeves of Toney’s white prison shirt. His hair was short and combed.

Toney said he was initially hesitant about granting an interview because, at the time, he was still awaiting a ruling from the appeals court.

He said he is scared of "the system." "It’s not about truth or justice," he said. "It’s about closing the books on a crime they obviously hadn’t been able to solve. They had blinders on. Once they thought they could convict someone, innocence didn’t matter."

In court papers filed last year, Tarrant County prosecutors scoffed at Toney’s innocence claims.

"Mr. Toney was asking [the court] to believe that he randomly and jokingly implicated himself in a bombing and that, when questioned, two people who had not seen or talked to each other in 12 years told stories that matched in amazing details," they wrote.

"It would take a complete suspension of disbelief to think they would both mistakenly place Toney at a scene where they had no reason to be on the very night of the bombing."

The thought of a new trial sends shivers through relatives of the victims. Susan Blount said she wants Toney to be convicted again, but sitting through another trial is "just beyond my imagination." However, she said she and Robert would return to Texas for it.

If prosecutors do not retry Toney, he could walk free.

"I was scared to death when I heard that there was a possibility that he would walk the streets again," she said. "He could just walk to the front door."

But, she said, she decided not to allow herself to live that way.

"I am not going to be afraid of this man," she said.

Told this, Toney said the Blount family has nothing to fear from him.

"I don’t know the Blount family," he said. "I have no hard feelings toward the Blount family; as a matter of fact, I am very sympathetic to their situation. Their family members were killed in this crime; they need closure."

He shook his head. After 23 years, he said, he doesn’t think closure exists for anyone.

"I don’t see how the truth could ever enter the picture now," he said.

"It’s too distorted."


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Q&A
What happens next?
The Tarrant County district attorney’s office must decide whether to retry the 23-year-old case. Right now, officials intend to retry Michael Toney, although the case will be reviewed before a final decision is made, said Chuck Mallin, chief of the appellate division.

What happens to Toney while they decide?

Toney remains on Death Row in Livingston in East Texas. Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said his understanding is that a bench warrant will eventually be issued to transfer Toney to Tarrant County, where he will await trial. Toney’s defense team has not decided whether he will seek release on bail, said Rebecca Bauer Kahan, one of his attorneys.

What happens if prosecutors decide not to try the case?

Toney’s lawyers believe that he has served enough prison time to satisfy his past convictions. So, they say, he would most likely walk free.


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Timeline Nov. 28, 1985: Angela Blount, 15; her father, Joe Blount, 44; and her cousin Michael Columbus, 18, are killed when a briefcase with a bomb in it blows up on the porch of their home at the Hilltop Mobile Home Park in Lake Worth.
December 1997: Michael Roy Toney, 31, is indicted on capital murder charges while he is in the Wise County Jail serving time for burglary. Toney has a long arrest record in several Tarrant County cities, is a repeated parole violator and has been in prison at least four times since 1989.

March 31, 1999: Jury selection begins in state district court with Judge Everett Young presiding. Toney’s defense attorneys are Jim Shaw and Bruce Ashworth. Prosecutors are Mike Parrish, Sheila Wynn and Mick Meyer.

May 10, 1999: Trial begins.

May 20, 1999: Jurors find Toney guilty.

May 25, 1999: Toney is sentenced to death.

May 2000: Toney tries to sell five seats to his execution on eBay. The auction listing is removed four hours later, with no bids.

2006: Attorneys for the Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center accuse Tarrant County prosecutors of withholding reports that attack the credibility of the state’s key witnesses.

2006: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that the newly discovered evidence is sufficient to warrant further review, which begins proceedings that can lead to a new trial.

April 2007: Young orders further review of the case. The defense and the prosecution are to interview individuals involved and submit their depositions.

October 2008: Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree in court papers that Toney is entitled to a new trial because the prosecution improperly withheld evidence. Young signs an order recommending that Toney be granted a new trial.

December 2008: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturns Toney’s capital murder conviction.

Source: S-T archives

I was pretty much the reason Michael got into all that trouble. I didn’t figure they could convict him. I look back at everything that has happened with my mouth hanging open."

Charles Ferris,
who recanted after telling authorities that Toney bombed the trailer
ALEX BRANCH, 817-390-7689

http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/1106350.html

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Freed in 2008

Freed in 2008

Exonerees 2008

So far this year, 13 people around the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing after serving more than 200 combined years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. At least 10 more people have been cleared by DNA but are waiting for their exonerations to become official.

Here are the stories of those exonerated so far in 2008:

Michael Blair was convicted and sentenced to death in Texas based on improper forensic testimony and several eyewitness misidentifications. He served nearly 14 years on Texas death row for a murder he didn’t commit.

Kennedy Brewer was sentenced to death in 1995 for a child murder he didn’t commit. He was freed when DNA testing secured by the Innocence Project led to the identity of the real perpetrator. His exoneration also led to critical reforms on handling evidence and state oversight for autopsies.

Dean Cage was exonerated by DNA testing in Chicago after spending 12 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit.

Charles Chatman served 27 years in Texas prison for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing secured by the Innocence Project of Texas set him free.

Nathaniel Hatchett was 17 years old when he was arrested for a carjacking and rape he didn’t commit. He served 10 years in Michigan before he was cleared.

Arthur Johnson spent 16 years in Mississippi prison for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing won by the Innocence Project New Orleans led to his release.

Rickey Johnson served 25 years in Louisiana prison for a rape he didn’t commit before the Innocence Project secured DNA testing that proved his innocence. The test results pointed to the identity of a Louisiana inmate who was convicted of committing another rape in the same neighborhood after Johnson was convicted.

Robert McClendon was exonerated by DNA in August in a joint project between the Ohio Innocence Project and the Columbus Dispatch. He spent 17 years in Ohio prison for a crime he didn’t commit before he was cleared.

Thomas McGowan served 23 years in Texas prison for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project proved his innocence. He was convicted based on a faulty identification procedure.

Steven Phillips was exonerated in October after serving more than two decades in Texas prison for a series of rapes he didn’t commit. DNA testing obtained on Phillips’ behalf by the Innocence Project pointed to the identity of the real perpetrator of the crime.

Ronnie Taylor was convicted in 1993 of a rape he didn’t commit based on faulty forensic tests at the troubled Houston crime lab. His exoneration became official in January, just days after he married his longtime fiancee Jeanette Brown. The couple now lives in Atlanta.

Patrick Waller served more than 15 years in Texas prison for a rape he didn’t commit. He is the 21st person cleared by DNA testing in Dallas County.

Joseph White, exonerated in November, was the first person cleared by DNA testing in Nebraska history. His five co-defendants are awaiting pardons from the governor in order to be fully exonerated.

Sunday 9 November 2008

Exonerated inmates ask Texas to halt executions




20 men ask state to formally study wrongful convictions

Twenty wrongly convicted men, freed from death rows across the country, stood in the state Capitol on Friday to ask Texas to acknowledge that innocent people have been — and will be — sentenced to death.

The exonerated men, members of Witness to Innocence, a Philadelphia-based organization that is holding its annual meeting in Austin, want Texas to create a commission to search for wrongful convictions. And while the commission works, they want a moratorium on executions in the busiest death penalty state — with 419 executions since 1982 and six more scheduled this month.

"It's not something to be ashamed of, not something to be embarrassed by," said Ray Krone , who spent three years on Arizona's death row. "It's something to grow from and be proud of, that you can and will take that step to acknowledge mistakes and make it better."

Sam Millsap, former Bexar County district attorney, said he slowly came to believe that the death penalty must be abolished because of the growing number of exonerated death row inmates — 130 since 1973, including nine in Texas, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. "I am no longer convinced that our courts will in fact guarantee the protection of the innocent," Millsap said.

Millsap said he has taken responsibility for the 1993 execution of Ruben Cantu , a San Antonio man who Millsap said might have been innocent of a 1984 murder. The conviction was based on one eyewitness who later recanted, and no physical evidence tied Cantu to the crime, he said. "My decision to seek the death penalty was a mistake."

The most recent Texas exoneration was in September , when a Collin County court dismissed the capital murder case against Michael Blair, sentenced to die for the 1993 murder of 7-year-old Ashley Estell.

"It's a national problem, but a problem that has a distinct Texas face," state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, told the members of Witness to Innocence. Naishtat said he will introduce a bill next session to give the governor the power to declare a temporary moratorium on executions. He also promised to work on behalf of a bill by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, to create a Texas innocence commission.

However, any bill to halt executions stands no chance of passing the Texas Legislature, Naishtat said. Capital punishment has substantial support in Texas. The 2007 Texas Crime Poll by Sam Houston State University found 74 percent of Texans support the death penalty. And 66 percent said they were confident that innocent people are protected from execution.

Source: The Statesman, Saturday, November 01, 2008

Picture: Former Florida death row inmate Juan Melendez, left, greets former Texas death row inmate Clarence Brandley at a news conference Friday.

Sunday 26 October 2008

Life after death row



In 1992 Ray Krone, a former sergeant in the US Air Force, was sentenced to
death row for the murder of Kimberly Ancona, a bar manager found stabbed
to death in a restaurant near his home in Arizona. 10 years later, after
running newly developed DNA tests on the victim's clothes, he was found
innocent and freed. Krone was the 100th prisoner in the US to be
exonerated from death row. Now a campaigner against the death penalty, he
describes the long fight to clear his name

Being arrested was quite a surprise. On the day they found the body, they
brought me in to the police station and questioned me for 3 hours. I told
them everything I knew and thought that would be the end of it.

The next day they brought me to the police station to take blood and hair
samples, as well as dental casts of my teeth, and they questioned me for
yet another three hours. But again, I told them the truth. I knew I had
nothing to hide. The next day was New Years Eve, December 31, 1991; I'd
just got home and was in my driveway, getting out of my car, when all of a
sudden a van screeched up behind me, the doors flew open and people were
shouting "Freeze! Don't move!" Armed officers in full riot gear spilled
out of the van and arrested me right there.

Without any real evidence or any scientific support for it, the lead
detective decided that I was guilty, and he acted on it quickly. I worked
at the post office and it wasn't as if I was going anywhere. But within 2
days the analysis had come back confirming that my fingerprints,
footprints and hair had been found on the victims body. That stuff
couldn't possibly have come back from the lab in 2 days.

I knew the fingerprints and strands of hair at the crime scene weren't
mine. The footprints were of size 9 shoes and I'm a size 11. DNA testing
wasn't as prevalent then as it is now and they simply said that whatever
prints didnt match mine had nothing to do with the murder. The size 9
footprints at the crime scene were not only found in the kitchen where the
murder weapon a butcher's knife was taken from, but they were also on
the floor tiles next to where the body was discovered. I found out later
that whoever made the initial police report had changed the killer's
footprints to a size 11 to make it fit my profile, and when they went to
my house they couldn't match them to any of my shoes. But then they found
a local medical examiner who would testify that the bite marks on her body
matched my teeth.

It didn't matter what I said after that. It was like the frustration you
feel when you're a kid and your parents blame you for something your
brother or sister did, only this time it was a sharper intensity of pain
and lasted for a lot longer.

I was in contact with my sister regularly. I would tell her: "Don't worry
about it, I'll be out of here any minute." 7 months went by and I was put
on trial for murder, but I was still telling her it would all work out.
Then I got convicted and sent to death row. That was when it became a heck
of a burden on my mom and my family. I was the oldest in the family, and
had always been the responsible one my folks knew to trust me if I said
everything would be all right. Death row changed that.

When you get sent to death row you're in a little cell the size of most
people's bathroom and youre kept separate from all the other inmates. You
can see them in the distance and yell out to them, but you don't have any
physical contact. I realised in a short time that if I was going to fight
the system Id better get to know it. I started going to the law library,
reading up on case law.

Eventually it became known that the prosecutor had been withholding
evidence and the Arizona Supreme Court granted me a new trial. The judge
convicted me again, but said that there was lingering doubt of my guilt
and sentenced me to life imprisonment instead of death row.

In 2001 a new law was passed making it easier for inmates to request DNA
testing. The police still had items of the victim's clothing so I asked
the judge if I could have them tested. The prosecutor objected, as did the
attorney generals office, but nevertheless the judge ordered that it go
ahead. The Phoenix police department put some of the DNA into the
nationwide data bank, which is where the DNA of convicted felons all over
the US is stored, and it came back with a match. It was a man who had a
history of sexual assaults on women and children and lived 500 feet from
the bar in which the murder took place.

I remember that day clearly from start to finish. It was April 8, 2002. A
Friday. It began as just another day in prison but at noon I was told my
attorney was on the phone. He asked me how I was doing and I said: "Oh you
know, fine, just another day in paradise." He laughed and said: "What are
you hungry for, Ray?" and I said that I guessed I'd eat whatever was in
the chow hall. But he kept on and said: "No really, you want steak,
seafood? How about a Margarita?" I asked him what the devil he was talking
about and thats when he said: "I just got off the phone with the
prosecutor's office. They're cutting the paperwork. You're going home
today." My heart stopped; I couldn't breathe. 2 hours later I walked out
of prison. I kept looking over my shoulder in case theyd made a mistake.

What that prosecutor did, hiding evidence while at the same time actively
pursuing the death penalty for me, could be seen as attempted murder. When
I found out that he had covered up so much evidence and was still alleging
that I got away with murder, even after I was released, I started talking
to attorneys. I figured that this monster was never going to let me live,
not as a free and innocent person anyway. I took out a lawsuit against him
and after 3 years he settled with me or rather the city and the county
settled. We couldn't sue him; we had to sue his supervisors for not
training and supervising him.

The day I got out of prison was the day I won justice for myself and my
family and for all those friends and people who had stood up and defended
me when the rest of the world was entitled to say "That guy's a murderer."
I didn't want to let any of those people down by coming out angry and
negative; what I wanted was for my family to feel safe again, and proud of
what they had stood for all those years. I wanted them to be proud of me.

My life started over again at the age of 45, and I walked out of prison to
the distinction of being the 100th person in this country to have been
exonerated from death row. There were a lot of anti-death penalty groups
out there waiting for that milestone, and there was a lot of press
coverage. One of the reporters asked me: "Mr Krone, given your faith in
God, how do you justify Him leaving you in prison for 10 years?" I wasn't
sure how to answer a deep, soul-searching question like that and my mind
went completely blank. Then suddenly it came to me and I said: "Well,
maybe it's not about those 10 years in prison. Maybe it's about what I
have to do in the next 10 years."

So later on, when I had more time to think about it, I thought that maybe
I was right, that maybe there was a reason why at the age of 35, when I
thought I was running my life, everything suddenly flew out of control. I
thought that this could be bigger than me, that there could be a reason
why I was arrested, and why I got out of prison on the day I did. So I've
been travelling around the country speaking to people about it and trying
to raise awareness, because if it can happen to me it can happen to
anybody.

It's part therapy being able to talk about it not keeping it inside where
it can blow up one day and it's also important to feel that something
good can come out of my experiences. People are beginning to realise that
the justice system can make terrible mistakes and condemn innocent people.
I didn't see this as a career, and I certainly didn't plan on being a
motivational speaker or an activist against the death penalty, but in the
same way that some people go to college for 10 years to become doctors or
lawyers, it does give my time on death row some sense of purpose.

Ray Krone is now a director of Witness to Innocence , an organisation
that campaigns against the death penalty. He was interviewed by Anna
Bruce-Lockhart.

(source: The Guardian Weekly)

Tuesday 14 October 2008

USA: Life after death row



In 1992 Ray Krone, a former sergeant in the US Air Force, was sentenced to
death row for the murder of Kimberly Ancona, a bar manager found stabbed
to death in a restaurant near his home in Arizona. 10 years later, after
running newly developed DNA tests on the victim's clothes, he was found
innocent and freed. Krone was the 100th prisoner in the US to be
exonerated from death row. Now a campaigner against the death penalty, he
describes the long fight to clear his name

Being arrested was quite a surprise. On the day they found the body, they
brought me in to the police station and questioned me for 3 hours. I told
them everything I knew and thought that would be the end of it.

The next day they brought me to the police station to take blood and hair
samples, as well as dental casts of my teeth, and they questioned me for
yet another three hours. But again, I told them the truth. I knew I had
nothing to hide. The next day was New Years Eve, December 31, 1991; I'd
just got home and was in my driveway, getting out of my car, when all of a
sudden a van screeched up behind me, the doors flew open and people were
shouting "Freeze! Don't move!" Armed officers in full riot gear spilled
out of the van and arrested me right there.

Without any real evidence or any scientific support for it, the lead
detective decided that I was guilty, and he acted on it quickly. I worked
at the post office and it wasn't as if I was going anywhere. But within 2
days the analysis had come back confirming that my fingerprints,
footprints and hair had been found on the victims body. That stuff
couldn't possibly have come back from the lab in 2 days.

I knew the fingerprints and strands of hair at the crime scene weren't
mine. The footprints were of size 9 shoes and I'm a size 11. DNA testing
wasn't as prevalent then as it is now and they simply said that whatever
prints didnt match mine had nothing to do with the murder. The size 9
footprints at the crime scene were not only found in the kitchen where the
murder weapon a butcher's knife was taken from, but they were also on
the floor tiles next to where the body was discovered. I found out later
that whoever made the initial police report had changed the killer's
footprints to a size 11 to make it fit my profile, and when they went to
my house they couldn't match them to any of my shoes. But then they found
a local medical examiner who would testify that the bite marks on her body
matched my teeth.

It didn't matter what I said after that. It was like the frustration you
feel when you're a kid and your parents blame you for something your
brother or sister did, only this time it was a sharper intensity of pain
and lasted for a lot longer.

I was in contact with my sister regularly. I would tell her: "Don't worry
about it, I'll be out of here any minute." 7 months went by and I was put
on trial for murder, but I was still telling her it would all work out.
Then I got convicted and sent to death row. That was when it became a heck
of a burden on my mom and my family. I was the oldest in the family, and
had always been the responsible one my folks knew to trust me if I said
everything would be all right. Death row changed that.

When you get sent to death row you're in a little cell the size of most
people's bathroom and youre kept separate from all the other inmates. You
can see them in the distance and yell out to them, but you don't have any
physical contact. I realised in a short time that if I was going to fight
the system Id better get to know it. I started going to the law library,
reading up on case law.

Eventually it became known that the prosecutor had been withholding
evidence and the Arizona Supreme Court granted me a new trial. The judge
convicted me again, but said that there was lingering doubt of my guilt
and sentenced me to life imprisonment instead of death row.

In 2001 a new law was passed making it easier for inmates to request DNA
testing. The police still had items of the victim's clothing so I asked
the judge if I could have them tested. The prosecutor objected, as did the
attorney generals office, but nevertheless the judge ordered that it go
ahead. The Phoenix police department put some of the DNA into the
nationwide data bank, which is where the DNA of convicted felons all over
the US is stored, and it came back with a match. It was a man who had a
history of sexual assaults on women and children and lived 500 feet from
the bar in which the murder took place.

I remember that day clearly from start to finish. It was April 8, 2002. A
Friday. It began as just another day in prison but at noon I was told my
attorney was on the phone. He asked me how I was doing and I said: "Oh you
know, fine, just another day in paradise." He laughed and said: "What are
you hungry for, Ray?" and I said that I guessed I'd eat whatever was in
the chow hall. But he kept on and said: "No really, you want steak,
seafood? How about a Margarita?" I asked him what the devil he was talking
about and thats when he said: "I just got off the phone with the
prosecutor's office. They're cutting the paperwork. You're going home
today." My heart stopped; I couldn't breathe. 2 hours later I walked out
of prison. I kept looking over my shoulder in case theyd made a mistake.

What that prosecutor did, hiding evidence while at the same time actively
pursuing the death penalty for me, could be seen as attempted murder. When
I found out that he had covered up so much evidence and was still alleging
that I got away with murder, even after I was released, I started talking
to attorneys. I figured that this monster was never going to let me live,
not as a free and innocent person anyway. I took out a lawsuit against him
and after 3 years he settled with me or rather the city and the county
settled. We couldn't sue him; we had to sue his supervisors for not
training and supervising him.

The day I got out of prison was the day I won justice for myself and my
family and for all those friends and people who had stood up and defended
me when the rest of the world was entitled to say "That guy's a murderer."
I didn't want to let any of those people down by coming out angry and
negative; what I wanted was for my family to feel safe again, and proud of
what they had stood for all those years. I wanted them to be proud of me.

My life started over again at the age of 45, and I walked out of prison to
the distinction of being the 100th person in this country to have been
exonerated from death row. There were a lot of anti-death penalty groups
out there waiting for that milestone, and there was a lot of press
coverage. One of the reporters asked me: "Mr Krone, given your faith in
God, how do you justify Him leaving you in prison for 10 years?" I wasn't
sure how to answer a deep, soul-searching question like that and my mind
went completely blank. Then suddenly it came to me and I said: "Well,
maybe it's not about those 10 years in prison. Maybe it's about what I
have to do in the next 10 years."

So later on, when I had more time to think about it, I thought that maybe
I was right, that maybe there was a reason why at the age of 35, when I
thought I was running my life, everything suddenly flew out of control. I
thought that this could be bigger than me, that there could be a reason
why I was arrested, and why I got out of prison on the day I did. So I've
been travelling around the country speaking to people about it and trying
to raise awareness, because if it can happen to me it can happen to
anybody.

It's part therapy being able to talk about it not keeping it inside where
it can blow up one day and it's also important to feel that something
good can come out of my experiences. People are beginning to realise that
the justice system can make terrible mistakes and condemn innocent people.
I didn't see this as a career, and I certainly didn't plan on being a
motivational speaker or an activist against the death penalty, but in the
same way that some people go to college for 10 years to become doctors or
lawyers, it does give my time on death row some sense of purpose.

Ray Krone is now a director of Witness to Innocence , an organisation
that campaigns against the death penalty. He was interviewed by Anna
Bruce-Lockhart.

(source: The Guardian Weekly)

Saturday 11 October 2008

Wrongly Convicted Men Share Their Stories

Alan Crotzer
Larry Bostic

Florida Innocence Project Presentation Thursday night


Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2008


Two innocent prisoners who had their lengthy sentences prior overturned through the use of DNA evidence will speak Thursday at UT.

The cases of Alan Crotzer, of Tampa, and Larry Bostic have been chronicled in local and national news media.

The Florida Innocence Project (http://www.floridainnocence.org) will hold the presentation at 7:30 p.m. in the Vaughn Center's Board Room (9th floor).

"In the United States, DNA testing has so far helped exonerate and release 220 wrongfully convicted individuals. Nine of those were imprisoned in Florida. We know there are more. Florida leads the nation in Death Row exonerations (26 since 1973), and with our rapidly growing prison population approaching 93,000, the third highest in the country, it is clear that our work is only beginning," according to their Web site.

Larry Bostic Freed

Larry Bostic was exonerated 18 years after pleading guilty to a Fort Lauderdale rape that DNA now proves he didn't commit. He pled guilty to the crime to avoid a possible life sentence if convicted at trial, and finally brought about his own exoneration by filing a handwritten motion for DNA testing from prison.

In 2005, Bostic filed a handwritten motion from prison, requesting DNA testing on the victim's underwear and a rape kit collected after the crime.

Because Bostic pled guilty to the rape, the court dismissed his motion citing the prohibition on granting post-conviction DNA testing to whose entered a plea which was in place at that time.

In 2006,after the Innocence Project of Florida was able to extend the right to post-conviction DNA testing to those who pled. Bostic again filed his handwritten motion.

In June 2007, prosecutors agreed to conduct testing and sent the evidence to the Broward County Crime Lab for analysis. They received the results in August 2007: there were sperm cells on the vaginal swab in the rape kit, and the DNA profile of these cells did not match Bostic. Investigators interviewed the victim to confirm that she did not have other sexual partners in the days before the assault. She said she hadn't, and prosecutors joined with Bostic's appellate attorney in asking a Florida judge to dismiss the charges and vacate the convictions relating to the 1988 rape.

By the time Bostic's name was finally cleared on September 21, 2007, he was 51 years old.

Crotzer Freed

On January 23, 2006, Alan Crotzer was freed from prison after postconviction DNA testing proved his innocence of a 1981 rape, kidnapping, and robbery.

Crotzer had spent 24 years in prison in Florida for this crime - more than half his life.

On July 8, 1981, three men forced their way into a Tampa home. One of the assailants was armed with a shotgun. The five people inside the home were threatened with the gun and robbed. Two of the victims, a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, were taken from the home and raped in a wooded area.

Crotzer and two co-defendants, Douglas James and Corlenzo James, were convicted of these crimes in 1981.

Crotzer continued to proclaim his innocence. It was not until 2003, however, that he was able to secure access to the evidence from his trial, which was being preserved at an FDLE laboratory. The spermatozoa found on the evidence, consisting of six slides, was subjected to three rounds of DNA testing at three different laboratories. Prosecutors agreed that the evidence should be tested.

The last round of testing confirmed what Crotzer had claimed since his arrest: he could not have been the man that raped the victims.

Specifically, the spermatozoa found on a slide recovered from the rape kit of the adult female rape victim came from an unknown male. It could not have come from Crotzer, either of the James brothers, or the victim's husband.

On January 23, 2006, Alan J. Crotzer's conviction was overturned and he was released. He had spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Miller

Seth Miller, the executive director of the Florida Innocence Project will moderate the presentation. He was a student intern with the project in 2003. He is a former project attorney with the American Bar Association Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project and a former staff attorney with the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

Miller will discuss the broader background of the criminal justice system in which the Florida Innocence Project operates. He joined the project in August 2006 and was a magna cum laude graduate of Florida State University's College of Law.

Donations

Persons wishing to attend this presentation are being asked to contribute a very modest charitable donation of $5 which will go directly to the Exoneree Emergency Fund of the Florida Innocence Project.

This charitable donation will not go toward any administrative costs of the organization, but will be used for direct client services for those whose cases are pending post-conviction review and remedy.

Donations greater than $5 will be most graciously accepted by the Florida Innocence Project.

This event is being sponsored, in part, by the Criminology Club and the PEACE Volunteer Center at the University of Tampa.

Innoncence Project

Date: Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Vaughn Center, Board Room (9th Floor)
Price: $5 donations are graciously accepted.


Contact: David Krahl (E-mail: dkrahl@ut.edu - Phone:(727) 656-4079)


Friday 10 October 2008

Juan Melendez, Innocent Survivor of 18 year Death Row Incarceration to Speak in Lacey


Submitted by Bert on Wed, 09/24/2008 - 10:40pm.

















Start: Sep 3 2008 - 4:00pm
End: Sep 3 2008 - 5:30pm



via email forwarded from local ai coordinator:



From: Juan Melendez


Subject: Please let ai members know that I will be sharing my story of supreme injustice as innocent man who spent nearly 18 years on Florida's death row in Seattle/Tacoma and Lacey, October 1-3:


Dear Amnesty International Coordinator:


Can you please help publicize the following events. I've included below a little bit about my story and some testimonials to give folks a sense of the powerfulness of my talk. I am also available to speak at a middle or high-school in Seattle on Wednesday, October 1, so if you know of any teachers or student ai groups which might be interested in bringing me to speak at their school, please let them know that I am available. A new book has just been published containing my story as well as the stories of 4 other death row exonerees. See Execution's Doorstep.


October 3: Talk at St. Martin's University, Lacey, Wa. at 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. location update: It seems that Juan Melendez will be at the Worthington Center. My name is Juan Roberto Melendez. I spent seventeen years, eight months and one day on Florida's death row for a crime I did not commit. (Voices United for Justice)



I was released on January 3, 2002 and at that time, I became the 99th death row inmate in the United States to be exonerated and released since 1973. At the moment, there are 127 of us. We can only wonder how many of those who have already been executed in this country did not have the pure luck that many of us had.


My story highlights many of the problems of the death penalty. In particular, its high risk and inevitability of being imposed on the innocent, its unfair and unequal application on the basis of race and ethnicity and its almost exclusive imposition on our most vulnerable members of society--the poor. Although my case was riddled with doubt, and there was not one single shred of physical evidence against me, I was convicted and sentenced to death within a week by a "death- qualified" jury composed of 11 whites and 1 African-American, folks who I believe presumed my guilt right from the start and who chose to reject my airtight alibi witness and other witnesses, in favor of the government's witnesses, including two key witnesses who stood to gain substantially by testifying against me.


Had it not been for the extremely fortunate discovery of a taped confession of the real killer, sixteen years after I had been sentenced to death, I almost certainly would have been executed. At the time the taped confession was discovered, the Supreme Court of Florida had already upheld my conviction and death sentence three times on appeal. Had I been on death row in Texas or Virginia, I would not be alive today.


Beyond the death penalty, my story is also one of survival, faith and hope which seems to reach people from all walks of life at many different levels. Since my release from death row, I have spoken to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States and abroad. I speak most often at high-schools, colleges, law schools, juvenile detention centers and faith communities. I hope the feedback I have included below will give you a sense of the impact of my story.


Feedback "Prior to hearing Mr. Melendez's speech, I was pro-death penalty. Now I will fight to abolish it!!" -Norma Francisco, Ph.D., member of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, San Francisco (August 13, 2006)


"He (Juan Melendez) is the best argument against the death penalty that anyone could ever hear." - Journalism student, University of New Mexico


"I have not attended a better speech in all my ten plus years in the clinics! Or has one affected me so much as his speech! One student who has always been for the death penalty changed his views that day . . . He was awesome." - Linda Herrera, Director of Legal Clinics at Southern Methodist University School of Law


"Your story is one that needs to be heard by everyone and your message of hope is truly an inspiration." -Dr. Judy Hendry, journalism professor, University of New Mexico


"Juan is a living testament to the injustice of capital punishment and his talk is infinitely more effective than anything I could teach my students." -Law professor Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law


"He is a brilliant speaker and a brilliant story teller . . . It is so important that he share his story with the public because [he] is a prime example of how one man's personal story can do more to inform people about the death penalty than all of the cases, newspapers and political rallies combined." -Morgan Anderson, law student University of San Francisco School of Law


"Phenomenal!" -Audience member, Catholic Religious Education Congress, Anaheim, California, March 2007


"One of the most powerful and moving events we have had here-not just the extraordinary story he had to tell, but the grace and skill with which he told it." -Simon Keyes, Director of St. Ethelburga's Ctr. for Peace and Reconciliation, London, England


To read more feedback (high school students) and learn more about my story, please visit Voices United for Justice.


I am also available on Tuesday, September 30 to speak in the evening. I arrive in Seattle/Tacoma at 4:15 p.m. October 1: Talk at University of Seattle School of Law at 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. October 2: Talk at University of Washington School of Law at 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. October 2: Talk at University of Pudget Sound at 7:00 p.m. -8:30 p.m.


Juan Melendez & The Case Against the Death Penalty


Death row exoneree Juan Roberto Melendez spoke tonight at the Seattle University School of Law, telling of his nearly 18 years on Florida’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit. Juan described a short trial, which the judge still complained was too long; with evidence including a confession from the real killer emerging years later.


Juan talked about his anger on death row, and other prisoners befriending him and teaching him to read and write English and more. He described the deaths of many of his friends on death row itself, through suicide and a friend who died of a heart attack or stroke on the exercise area. His friend collapsed while playing basketball. The guards called for the nurse, a white man who was chewing and spitting tobacco, just took his time getting there, then getting the oxygen, then saying that one was empty and he would need to go back for another one. Juan asked why couldn’t mouth to mouth resuscitation be done. The nurse responded with racial epithets why he wouldn’t help a black man. Juan finally convinced them to let him try, but it was too late and his friend died in his arms.

Juan talked about considering suicide himself, and even bribing the guard for a plastic bag to tie up and hang himself with (as some of his friends had); but deciding to sleep on it and having a dream of his childhood in Puerto Rico involving swimming with dolphins and his mother smiling on the shore. His rediscovered faith and his mothers and aunts got him through.

Eighteen years is a long time, but at least Juan was exonerated in time. What if it was too late? Consider this - that he was the 99th death row prisoner exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, and there are now 127. That alone should be reason enough to reconsider and abolish it once more (as most civilized countries, including Canada, Mexico and the entire European Union have). Truth is, it’s just revenge; but what if it turns out you took revenge on the wrong man (or woman, as has happened as well)?

For more information on the death penalty see:

Amnesty International: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ncadp.org/

Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.abolishdeathpenalty.org/

Tags: Juan+Roberto+Melendez, Seattle+University, death+penalty

Juan Roberto Melendez talk at SU


October 2, 2008 @ 6:38 pm · Filed under Death Penalty, Events

Juan Melendez, the 99th death row inmate to be released and exonerated, spoke last night at the Seattle University School of Law to a spellbound audience.

Mr. Melendez was convicted based on a police informant’s testimony, in spite of no physical evidence against him. Nearly two decades later, he was exonerated after a taped confession was found in his trial defense lawyer’s office, with corroborating documents, and proof that that prosecutor had access to evidence about the real killer before Mr. Melendez’s trial.

He recounted 18 years in Florida State Prison, where he watched many of his friends, fellow death row inmates, commit suicide, be executed, or die due to lack of medical attention. He shared a message of the humanity, recounting how many of his fellow inmates helped him turn his life around by teaching him to read, write, and speak English. He also spoke of the importance of faith and family in surviving his ordeal.

Mr. Melendez closed his speech by calling for the crowd to become active in the movement to abolish the death penalty. Without the attention and action of all of us, he said, this change will never occur.

Also speaking at the event was Jeff Ellis, president of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. who stated that Mr. Melendez’s case was one of many that illustrate that our country’s “experiment” with the death penalty has grave consequences.

Speaker recalls death row


Melendez today at APSU


Juan Melendez lived more than 17 years behind the bars of a Florida prison on death row for a crime he did not commit.


Melendez is the featured speaker of two forums today at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Gentry Auditorium of the Kimbrough Building on Austin Peay State University campus.

Melendez was exonerated and released from death row in 1973.

He will share his story of how he spent his time incarcerated and how forensic evidence eventually prompted his release.

The forums are free and open to the public.

The event is hosted by Austin Peay's United Methodist Student Center - the Wesley Foundation and sponsored by the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing and the local Unitarian Universalist's Fellowship.

Ann Wallace covers education and religion. She can be reached at 245-0287 or by e-mail at annwallace@theleafchronicle.com

Sunday 5 October 2008

Montana Journey of Hope 2008

Shujaa Graham


Let's start with the exonerated. Shujaa Graham (California), Juan Melendez (Florida), Greg Wilhoit (Oklahoma, Ron Keine (New Mexico) and Journey newcomer Curtis McCarty (Oklahoma) are coming. Death row family members are represented by Terri Steinburg (son Justin on death row in VA), Delia Perez Meyer (brother Louis on death row in Texas), and CeCe McWee (who witnessed the execution of her son Jerry). David Kaczynski, brother of Unabomber Ted, who was captured in Montana and subject of the federal government seeking the death penalty.

We will be speaking with a group of 10 teams. Speaking for the murder victim families are Marietta Jaeger Lane (daughter Susie kidnapped and murdered in Montana when she was 7 years old), Bud Welch (daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing), Ron Carlson (Sister Debbie was killed by Karla Faye Tucker), Art Laffin (brother Paul was killed by a mentally ill man is 1999), George White (wife Charlene was shot twice and died in George's arms), Rev. Walt Everett (son Scott was murdered), Eve Malo (grandfather was killed by family member), Eddie Hicks (daughter was killed), Bess Klassen Landis (mother was killed), JA Ziegler Sr. and yours truly.

Joining us in various capacities are Charlie King and Karen Brandow. What a special treat it is for Charlie and Karen to join us again this year.

Barbara Allen, whose uncle was executed in Texas, will also be joining us from Canada to help out, Ron Carlson's wife, Debra, and Walt Everett's wife Nancy will come along to keep an eye on their husbands, and Bob Lane will be keeping his eye on Marietta. Kathy Harris will also join us for a few days. Jo Royston from England will cross water to also help us out.

We are hoping that it will work out for Abe Bonowitz, Beth Wood and Connie Nash to come.

MVFHR, MVFR, Witness to Innocence, NCADP and many other organizations will be represented on the Montana Journey. Thank for being part of this historic event.

Exonerated death row inmate to speak


A man who spent more than 17 years behind bars on Florida's death row for a crime he did not commit will be the featured speaker at two community forums next week.

By ANN WALLACE • The Leaf-Chronicle • October 3, 2008


Juan Melendez will speak at 2 and 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gentry Auditorium at Austin Peay State University.

Melendez was exonerated and released in 2002.

"He is very passionate about that not happening to someone else," said the Rev. Jodi McCullah, director of the Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Student Center adjacent to APSU. "We wanted to provide a thought-provoking educational program on campus, and this issue is something that I feel strongly about."

Melendez has a compelling story.

"He spent 17 years, eight months and one day on death row for a crime that he did not do," said McCullah, who advocates sentences of life without parole instead of capital punishment.

The number of people released from death row across the country after evidence of their innocence emerged now stands at 130, according to McCullah.

Stacy Rector, executive director of the educational advocacy organization Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, said 2007 data indicates Tennessee has 90 people on death row, including two women.

"Tennessee has the 10th largest death row population in the nation," Rector said.

The state Legislature is currently examining the fairness and accuracy of Tennessee's death penalty system.

The Tuesday forums are jointly sponsored by TCASK and the local Unitarian Universalists Fellowship.


Ann Wallace covers education and religion. She can be reached at 245-0287 or annwallace@theleafchronicle.com.

Saturday 4 October 2008

DNA and the Exit to Freedom


In 1983, Calvin C. Johnson, Jr. stood in a courtroom and was sentenced to life in prison for a rape and burglary he said he did not commit. "With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused," Johnson told the judge, "I'm an innocent man." After 16 years in prison, Johnson was exonerated with the help of the Innocence Project and state-of-the-art science. He was the 61st person in the US, and the first in Georgia, to be proved innocent by DNA testing. Hear firsthand about Johnson's wrongful conviction and imprisonment, and the events that led to his exoneration.


Unjustly Imprisoned – Innocent Dallas man spends 26 years in prison

Dallas, Texas (JusticeNewsFlash.com – News Report)

The 1994 American film, The Shawshank Redemption, recounts the story of Mr. Andy Dufresne convicted of the double murder of his wife and her lover. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in the Shawshank prison in northern Maine. Years later, another prisoner enters and reveals that his old cellmate actually committed the double homicide. When Andy approached the warden with the truth, he was sentenced to solitary confinement. After almost two decades, Andy uses a small rock hammer and escapes his unjust imprisonment and flees to a small place on the Pacific coast.

This tale is not uncommon. Currently, the Dallas County District Attorney, Mr. Craig Watkins, is investigating the innocent individuals he believes have been imprisoned by faulty prosecutions. His plans entail re-examining almost 40 inmates convicted and sentenced to death row. He is dedicated to “look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that those individuals that are on death row need to be there and need to be executed.” This interest sprang from 19 accounts, of exonerations, due to faulty eyewitness and DNA testing. One of these stories is very similar to the Shawshank story. Mr. Patrick Waller was recently exonerated of a 1992 robbery and rape when the real criminals admitted to the crimes; but it was too late, the statue of limitations to prosecute them had passed. What does this mean? It means that the true criminals that should have served time did not and are still free to roam the streets.

Another direct example is a case of Mr. Johnnie Earl Lindsey who was convicted of rape and given life imprisonment. Now, 26 years later, DNA tests reveal that he was not the one that sexually assaulted the woman. Over time, he has sent six letters requesting further DNA testing but was ignored until Watkins came on the scene in January 2007. And although it would have been easier for Mr. Lindsey to admit to the false allegations and receive parole, he never did because he knew he was innocent, he even has old time cards showing he was at work when the rape occurred.

Thankfully, DA Watkins is making some changes with the implementation of the Innocence Project of Texas. Watkins understands that the courts cannot fully rely on eyewitness accounts and should grant DNA tests for all convicted. These are people’s lives; they must be looked at with great care and not simply thrown into life imprisonment. This is not the way our Founding Fathers envisioned the justice system to work.

Written by: Jana Simard – Legal News Reporter

I Spent 16 Years in Jail for a Crime I Didn't Commit. Here's What Should Be Done.


I went to jail as a teenager for a rape and murder I didn't commit. Here are the reforms necessary to make sure it does not happen again.


I was wrongfully convicted in 1990 of a murder and rape in Peekskill, N.Y. DNA taken from semen found in the victim did not match my DNA. But misconduct at every stage of the criminal justice system led me to spend 16 years of my life in prison. That misconduct included a coerced, false confession when I was 16, extracted after many days of interrogation overseen by current Peekskill Police Chief Eugene Tumolo and others, as well as the falsification of other evidence.


Most people think that only a guilty person would confess to a crime. But I can tell you that scare tactics, threats of violence, food deprivation, being lied to regarding lie detector results and being told that you can go home if you cooperate have produced many false confessions. Of the 218 exonerations based on DNA testing, false confessions led to 25 percent of the original convictions.
"Maybe you are innocent," Judge Nicholas Colabella said just before giving me a 15-years-to-life sentence. Former District Attorney Jeanine Pirro successfully opposed all of my appeals and even blocked several attempts to get more DNA testing. My fortune turned in 2006, when The Innocence Project took my case. With the cooperation of District Attorney Janet DiFiore, further DNA testing proved who the real perpetrator was. On Nov. 2, 2006, all charges were dismissed and I was publicly acknowledged as innocent. I received some apologies, but none were from those who played a role in wrongfully convicting me.


Readjusting to being free, dealing with the effects of my ordeal, learning new technology, trying to rebuild relationships with my family and experiencing financial pressure have all been hard. I was released with nothing. The litigation I am pursuing will take two to seven years, with the state attempting to avoid giving me anything.


But I am not angry. Instead, I channel my energy into raising awareness about the problem of wrongful convictions, and the danger that the death penalty poses in executing innocent people. I give presentations about wrongful convictions at colleges, high schools, churches and organizations throughout New York and other states. This is my main means of income, but I never know when the next chance to give a presentation will be. I also publish an article each week in the Westchester Guardian. I give television, radio and newspaper interviews, willingly sacrificing privacy in exchange for raising awareness about the problem of wrongful convictions and the need to enact legislative reforms to prevent them. I have testified at several legislative hearings, and I lobby lawmakers to enact reforms to protect the innocent and make the system more reliable. As an additional tool for encouraging lawmakers to enact changes, I collect signatures for an online petition on my Web site, http://www.jeffreydeskovicspeaks.org/.


Nationwide, to date, there have been 218 wrongful convictions proven through DNA, and many additional exonerations achieved by other means, including the discovery of new evidence, materials purposely withheld from the defense, and the recantation of eyewitness identifications. During the time I spent wrongfully incarcerated -- 16 years -- I immersed myself in wrongful conviction literature. Now that I'm free, I continue to study the subject, so I'm aware of the causes of wrongful convictions, well beyond what happened in my case. Here are the reforms that are needed in order to produce a more accurate justice system. If you agree with these changes, please sign the petition on my Web site and encourage others to do so as well. Also, call your local representatives and ask them to institute them.


False Confessions
False confessions have accounted for 25 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations.
All interrogations should be videotaped, from beginning to end. This would prevent police from concealing abusive tactics they may have used from their testimony. It would allow a complete and accurate record of who said what, when, and in what context. It would also protect honest police officers from false allegations of coercion. The use of polygraph tests, lying to suspects by claiming to have evidence of their guilt, and prolonged interrogations over many hours should be outlawed.


All of these tactics have been linked to false confessions. Studies have revealed that such tactics convey to suspects that, no matter what, they will be arrested for something they did not do; it's just a matter of whether they will make it worse on themselves by maintaining their innocence. It is especially critical that interrogations of the mentally ill or the mentally retarded only take place with a lawyer present, because mentally ill and mentally retarded people often try to compensate for their mental deficiencies by being compliant in the face of authority.


Confession testimony is devastating to defendants, resulting in a conviction 80 percent of the time. Before evidence obtained through a confession is allowed at trial, a pretrial hearing on the confession itself should be conducted, akin to a Wade hearing in which the accuracy of an eyewitness identification is reviewed. Existing pretrial procedures, which are only aimed at determining whether a confession is given willingly by a suspect, are not enough.


Eyewitness Identification
Witness misidentification has been the cause of wrongful convictions in 75 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations.
Sequential lineups and sequential photo arrays should be used, in which a victim is shown one suspect at a time, rather than viewing everybody at once. Suspects included in a photo array or lineup should resemble each other so that no one sticks out.
The victim should be told that the perpetrator may not be present, to prevent victims from having undue confidence that the perpetrator is there, thus leading to a misidentification. Victims should be told that the investigation will continue if they don't make an identification so that they don't feel pressured into making an ID.


The officers conducting the lineup should themselves remain unaware of the identity of the suspect, to prevent them from giving inadvertent cues or clues.
Confidence statements, in which a victim states on a scale of 1 to 10 how confident they are about their identification, should be taken, to give courts and juries further insight.
The lineup or photo array should be recorded, to ensure its integrity.


Incentivized Witnessing
Incentivized witnessing -- in which a witness is rewarded for testifying, be it with a lesser prison sentence, dropped charges or financial compensation -- has been the cause of wrongful convictions in 15 percent of the 218 DNA exonerations. The practice of incentivized witnessing should be ended; those who have evidence should come forward on a moral basis, not because they stand to benefit. When desperate prisoners have been caught red-handed committing a crime and they have no truthful information to trade on, they falsely implicate others.


Reform Pertaining to Evidence
Currently, there is no standardized system for ensuring that evidence is preserved and available for inspection and testing. Often the first obstacle for a wrongfully convicted person is determining whether the evidence can be located and whether it has been destroyed. If it has, an innocent person can remain incarcerated with no way to prove his or her innocence.
It should be a crime when police and prosecutors purposely withhold evidence. History shows that with no personal penalty, morality alone is not enough to restrain some rogue police officers and prosecutors.


Public Defenders
Without quality attorneys, innocent defendants will continue to be wrongfully convicted, and cases will not have just and fair outcomes.
In every state, there should be one standardized system of defense for the poor, as advocated in "The State of Indigent Defense in New York," a report prepared by the Spangenberg Group for New York Court of Appeals Chief Justice Judith Kaye. A centralized system would impose more quality control, allowing for more internal oversight and accountability.


Public defenders who have shown a substandard performance defending indigent defendants should no longer be employed by the state to do so. Allowing unqualified public defenders to continue sets the stage for future inadequate performances and possible wrongful convictions.
The defense and the prosecution should have an equal and adequate budget to hire experts and other necessary personnel to assist in the preparation of cases. As it is, defense attorneys have an extremely limited budget, far less than prosecutors' huge budgets. On such an unequal playing field, no confidence can be placed on the outcome of court proceedings or verdicts. Furthermore, public defenders should have the same size staff as the district attorneys to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by sheer manpower.


There should be a limit to the number of cases a public defender is allowed to take on at one time. In the Bronx, for example, it is not unusual for a public defender to have 140 cases at the same time. Overburdening a public defender prevents him or her from giving each case the time, preparation and investigation it deserves.


Public defenders should be given pay equal to that of prosecutors.
Indigent defendants should be provided with court-appointed attorneys to handle post-conviction motions so that they can have competent legal representation, rather than trying to represent themselves against trained and seasoned prosecutors. A post-conviction motion differs from an appeal in that the defendant may be seeking to introduce new evidence or new issues of law that could not have been raised on appeal.


DNA
Access to DNA testing should always be provided, even in cases where defendants have pled guilty -- there have been 11 instances where an innocent defendant has pled guilty, often as a result of fear of a higher sentence, only to be proven innocent by DNA.
Judges should be given the authority to order crime scene DNA comparisons to DNA databases; currently the law does not explicitly give them that authority, and whether the testing goes forward or not often is up to the discretion of the prosecution. Current law allows judges the authority to order DNA in those cases in which DNA could affect the outcome. It should be that, in any case in which there is testable material, a test should be done.


Prosecutors should not be allowed to explain away a negative DNA test result at a trial by claiming the victim had a consensual sexual encounter, without first proving that such an encounter took place. When a prosecutor argues that a rape or other crime was committed by one person, and then a post-conviction DNA test shows the defendant is innocent, prosecutors should not be allowed to then change their theory on appeal and claim that a crime was committed by two people. Conclusions should be based on what the evidence shows, not by making evidence fit a conclusion.


Post-Conviction Review
In many wrongful conviction cases, it is usually discovered that the cleared person's appeals ran out years before. More review is needed to catch mistakes and correct wrongful incarcerations. Courts of appeals should review all cases, as a matter of a defendant's right, as an additional level of review, with the goal of catching more wrongful convictions.


There should be a review apparatus, besides appeals or pardons, for reviewing cases in which a defendant has a strong innocence claim. Appellate review is not enough to protect the innocent, and a governor's pardon occurs within a highly charged political environment. A review should be independent of both the courts and the governor's office, and be staffed by wrongful conviction experts.


An Innocence Commission should be created to study what went wrong in wrongful convictions, so that lessons can be learned and changes adopted to try to prevent future wrongful convictions.


Compensation
A guilty person on parole currently receives more help than an exoneree, who receives nothing. All wrongfully convicted individuals should be compensated upon discovery that he or she was innocent of the crime.
An immediate sum of $15,000 dollars for each year spent wrongfully incarcerated should immediately be paid to those who have been cleared of a crime. This should be aside from any money awarded as a result of a lawsuit, to meet immediate needs such as housing, cost of living, mental health services, health insurance and education.


Compensation lawsuits should receive fast-track processing in the courts.
Bad case law stating that an exonerated person who has contributed to his or her own wrongful conviction should not be eligible to receive any compensation should be changed. The idea that anybody would intentionally get themselves wrongfully convicted and sentenced to prison only to then clear themselves in order to be in position to sue is ridiculous. To deny compensation to anybody who has been wrongfully convicted adds insult to injury.


Parole
The Parole Board should not be allowed to deny parole to those who profess their innocence based on the idea that they are not taking responsibility for their crimes or expressing sufficient remorse. These standards do not take into account the possibility -- and reality -- of wrongful convictions. The wrongfully convicted should not be made to stay in prison based upon their protestation of innocence. It is a fact that some wrongfully convicted prisoners have been denied parole after finishing their minimum sentences for these reasons.


Similarly, the Parole Board should not be allowed to deny parole to prisoners based upon their being removed from a sex offender class due to a refusal to admit guilt, because such a practice places the wrongfully convicted in the catch-22 of either falsely admitting guilt to try to regain freedom, or to lose a chance at freedom as the price for maintaining innocence.