We're forgetting about an important part of our messed up legal system.
A Virginia appeals court declared Thomas Haynesworth an innocent man Tuesday, clearing his name and acknowledging that he spent 27 years behind bars for rapes he did not commit.
It is the first time the state has issued a “writ of actual innocence” in a rape case without the certainty of DNA evidence. Haynesworth, 46, was supported by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and two state prosecutors — all of whom concluded that he was mistakenly identified by a rape victim as he walked to a Richmond market for sweet potatoes and bread one February afternoon in 1984.
“It’s a blessing,” Haynesworth said as he stood with his attorneys and Cuccinelli. “There are a lot of people behind the scenes who believed in me. Twenty-seven years, I never gave up. I kept pushing. I ain’t give up hope.
“I am very happy. Me and my family can finally put this behind us, and I can go on with my life. And I can finally vote.”
The case shows how far Virginia has come in allowing convicts to argue their innocence. Historically, prisoners were barred from introducing new evidence more than three weeks after sentencing, and in the 1990s, then-Attorney General Mary Sue Terry (D) famously said, “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.” But when DNA testing resulted in hundreds of exonerations nationwide, it prompted Virginia lawmakers to open the door for courts to reconsider guilt based first on genetic evidence and later on other evidence, such as recanted testimony, fingerprints or ballistics.
From 1990-1991 Terry was President of the National Association of Attorneys General and in 1992 she received the Wyman Award, which is the Association’s highest honor.
Notice the offending Prosecuter was a Dem. and the one who signed the order to release him was a Rep.
You bring up the real evil bastards in the equation. Too many fucking DA's care about the conviction rate over justice. Conviction rates should not be a metric they are judged upon but they are and that is at the heart of the problem IMO. Officer Friendly can fuck you into the system but it's the DA who will knowingly assrape you even when innocent as long as he thinks he can make a case. I am suprissed more of them are not killed by relatives of the railroaded or those who get out of the Joint.
"God forbid we tell the savages to go fuck themselves." Batboy
johno wrote:Swift & sure justice + Death Penalty for rape -> Thomas Haynesworth = Dead man, not the free man that he is today.
Makes you think.
Imagine this scenario. You get railroaded and sent to prison. While lounging around the gladiator academies we call prisons, you end up on someone's shit list. Not wanting to sucks dicks and take it up the ass for the rest of your time in, you join your local race based prison gang. Next thing you know, you're shanking Leroy with a piece of melted toothbrush or cement sharpened metal. More time is added to your sentence, but it's still better than the alternative.
Then DNA evidence exonerates you on the crime that sent you to prison, but you still get to do time because you were unwilling to Live like a slave prostitute.
Arms are the only true badge of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of the free man from the slave.
There is no single individual in the USA who can fuck up your life forever more than Prosecutor Friendly except the doctor who misses your cancer.
Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party
At least the doctor's not (usually) trying to do it on purpose.
Cases like this are why the death penalty should be abolished. People calling for rapists to be hanged, drug dealers gassed, murderers given the death penalty immediately etc have far more faith in the justice system than is reasonable, IMO.
Slippery slope since there are quite a few people who very well might deserve to die for their crimes...
"Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it"
- Buck Brannaman
baffled wrote:At least the doctor's not (usually) trying to do it on purpose.
Cases like this are why the death penalty should be abolished. People calling for rapists to be hanged, drug dealers gassed, murderers given the death penalty immediately etc have far more faith in the justice system than is reasonable, IMO.
Slippery slope since there are quite a few people who very well might deserve to die for their crimes...
If a person is given the death penalty because of a prosecutor's malfeasance-- that prosecutor should get the death penalty. Balance should pertain.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
baffled wrote:At least the doctor's not (usually) trying to do it on purpose.
Cases like this are why the death penalty should be abolished. People calling for rapists to be hanged, drug dealers gassed, murderers given the death penalty immediately etc have far more faith in the justice system than is reasonable, IMO.
Slippery slope since there are quite a few people who very well might deserve to die for their crimes...
If a person is given the death penalty because of a prosecutor's malfeasance-- that prosecutor should get the death penalty. Balance should pertain.
I think i could get with that. We wouldn't see a whole lot of death penalty cases at that point. In a perfect world...
"Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it"
- Buck Brannaman
When I first heard of this, I lost whatever support I may have still had for the death penalty. This was ca. 2003 if I remember right when I thought I wanted to be a cop or a prosecutor and was sitting in a criminology class or some shit as a 20 year old college student.
The ban would come about 11 years after then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state's nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them.
Since then, Illinois approved reforms to the capital punishment system, including taping interrogations under a proposal forged by President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois Senate. Only two days before leaving office in January 2003, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 164 prisoners to life in prison. Quinn and his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, kept the moratorium in place.
I don't know what the proposal by The Chosen One entails entirely, but if it was responsible for halting the death penalty in some way... credit where it's due.
"Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it"
- Buck Brannaman
Killing innocent people for crimes they didn't commit is terrible but we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have the "posthumous pardon" remedy available to correct any mistakes. This is a sensible "middle ground" between the extremists on all sides.
