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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 2/24/2008 12:18:54 PM |
I would say oh well. He shouldn't have put him self in the predicament to get busted for that crime. So I am sure he wasn't some innocent that was plucked of the street. I work in the system and I know that it is very hard to get into the system, but once you do you it is even harder to get out. So 26 years later he was innocent of that crime but he did the time for a crime he didn't get caught for. So i don't feel sorry for him.
Ok....so the system can't accept that mistakes are made?
And they make them?
Even if he was guilty of something else, he wasn't prosecuted.
AND...the person who did commit the crime wasn't prosecuted.
So this was actually TWO failures....not just one. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 2/24/2008 1:31:22 PM | It's more about public perception of arrest & conviction than guilt or innocence - few individuals have the disposable cash/income for a defense trial & the poorer an individual the more likely hood of a plea bargain than a defense trial  | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/2/2008 3:42:39 PM | | Compliments to Dimesy on a very well written post. Jail space should be reserved for those who commit violent crimes. A person who smokes a joint in his home is not someone who belongs in jail, especially if he is using marijuana for medical reasons. I agree that the war on drugs has filled up jail space that should be used to lock up murderers, rapists and child molesters at the very first offense for the rest of their lives with NO chance of parole. I am a staunch believer in life without parole--the innocent man who is found after conviction to be innocent has the chance to enjoy freedom again, unlike someone who is executed--it's a day late and a dollar short then!!! Life without parole also keeps truly dangerous criminals off the streets and away from society, while also assuring that if someone IS innocent the person has a chance to be free again. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/2/2008 7:28:07 PM | Sadly, this is nothing new.
It's nothing new that people of lesser (misdemeanor) crimes are landing in jails too. Considering the growing "prison-industrial complex", I'm sure we'll see much more of this happening.
Privatized prisons are big business in this country. Lets not forget the incentives for ALL the many vendors to the correctional facilities either. Big, big money. This may (in part) explain why we have more prisons than any other country. Welcome to corporate America.
I know some people belong in there .. but if you really researched this subject you would see where many wide ranging abuses come into play for the sake of huge profit (and monopolies at that).
http://mediafilter.org/caq/Prison.html
Lengthy article, but good reading if anyone's s interested.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons/4
http://www.wrongfuldeathinstitute.com/links/prisonstats.htm | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/2/2008 7:49:42 PM | Thanks to advances in DNA,I think that there's going be a number of exonerations in the near future.
I hope that some municipalities (especially in the South) have deep pockets.
They are going to need them. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/8/2008 10:30:28 AM |
I would say oh well. He shouldn't have put him self in the predicament to get busted for that crime. So I am sure he wasn't some innocent that was plucked of the street. I work in the system and I know that it is very hard to get into the system, but once you do you it is even harder to get out. So 26 years later he was innocent of that crime but he did the time for a crime he didn't get caught for. So i don't feel sorry for him
Because of assumptions like this, it is unfortunate you are part of the system. I view you as part of the problem, but thanks for your opinion nonetheless.
Everyone has a family of some sort. Would you feel sorry for someone in your family who was sitting in prison for 26 years for something they didn't do? | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/8/2008 10:41:00 AM | | Yes, I have heard it is 30 so far in Texas alone that have been DNA tested and found to be imprisoned but innocent. Why wouldnt the government test them all, state by state, & free the innocent to enjoy the rest of their lives & be with their families?? | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/8/2008 11:00:37 AM | | Yes it is terrible that innocent ppl are imprisoned.DNA testing has come along way since 26 yrs. ago Now it is fine tuned with the help of experts such as forensics Dr.Henry Lee.Now hopefully the guilty are condemed and the innocent aren't wondering WTF???in prison. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/8/2008 11:18:51 AM | Ok this points out one of the problems with much of our government. No accountability .
If you mess up,you should pay a price. Be it a criminal in jail, a judge on the bench, or the US congress. When is the last time you heard of some government official who screwed up paying for it? You hear them say they are responsible,and/or they are resigning. But who pays for there mess up? We do!
Someone imprisoned for 26 years,then found innocent should have some recourse under the law. I know what I am saying sounds like it would screw up the American justice system, but isn't it already screwed up? If your put in jail for years,and they are wrong about it. Pay for it! This person had a fair trial? Who cares, the judge,and jury were wrong! And unless there was something else they were in jail for. Pay them for their time. 26 years worth of it. At minimum wage,+ overtime for 26 years! Even if you take out for meals,medical,and dental. They would never have to work again. Thank you very much for the vacation during the rest of my life! One happy jail bird for sure.  | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/9/2008 3:38:33 AM | This was not a "false accusation of rape" - If we are to understand that false rape accusations are someone accusing a sexual partner of rape after apparently consensual sexual penetration.
I'm only assuming the case to be like many other cases of false accusation concerning rape. Has it occurred to anybody that this guy spent 26 years in jail, because some POS wrongfully (understatement) accused him of rape?
False accusers of rape deserve to risk the exact same penalty for their crime against someone's liberty and good name.
In this case a sexual assault did occur. The victim mistakenly picked him out from a photo line-up. His pic was in police files because he was on probation for burglary. He was included in the photo line-up because he lived close to the victim and was physically similar to the description of the perpetrator.
When using a photo line-up that does not include the real perp, eyewitnesses frequently choose the person who looks most similar. This is an honest mistake. Human memory is notoriously poor and extremely vulnerable to suggestion - replicated over and over again in the research. However, eyewitness ID and other testimony carry huge weight with police and juries.
According to the homepage of The Innocence Project, approx 75% of wrongful convictions are due to eyewitness testimony. I didn't notice any mention of wrongful rape convictions due to false accusations. However, I did find a study which dealt with wrongful convictions. Of 120 rape cases where the convicted person was exonerated (1989-2004) 88% used DNA evidence to help overturn the convictions. 90% of the rape cases involved 'misidentification by eyewitnesses, most frequently across races' such that white victims raped by black men more frequently misidentified their assailant than did white victims raped by white men. These cases are not false accusations of rape, the rapes happened, the problem is that the wrong person is accused.
Chatham is eligible for $50,000 from the state for every year of his incarceration, unless he sues in which case he gives up eligibility for the state money. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/9/2008 5:11:49 AM | | He probably would have been better off to have been executed. Even if he was to find a women of child bearing years (note: under 40 for first child) he probably does not have the skills to keep a relationship going. With 26 years in prision he has probably been raped himself more times than once. Unless he kept up with times and advancements (computer age) he will be at a lost and need retraining to get a decent job to support a family. Just think of all the advancements since 1982. Also women of this day and age, at least on POF are very picky, therefore someone under 40 wanting to date a 47 year old is slim never mind that he just was released from prision. No matter how you look at it he was riped off of his single chance at life. He is scared forever. No matter how much money the state pays out they can never make him young again. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/9/2008 5:16:39 AM | It's said this man will sue and win and mini-fortune, there is no amount of money that will or could repair the damage that this man suffered. There is a very good chance he will never be able to have a normal relationship, how does he deal with the things that happened to him in prison? Salvage a family? That is a stretch and hopefully he can. But, I could see him having problems like so many Veterans coming back from a war.
And another very good reason to abolish the death penalty. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/9/2008 7:05:56 AM | My heart goes out to the guy who spent 26 years in prison, after a wrongful conviction. I hope that he's able to put the pieces of his life back together, somehow, in some way, and assimilate himself back into society.
A wrongful conviction is not only a miscarriage of justice, but travesty of monumental proportion.
Thankfully, through DNA evidence, this man was shown to have been wrongfully convicted. Should he be compensated, you bet, without any appeals by the State of Texas, he should be taken care of, and provided whatever resources the State of Texas can afford this man, to try to make up for its mistake.
The opportunity to have DNA testing done, in particular by those convicted of crimes in Texas, has been around for nearly 30 years; only the person who alleges they have been wrongfully convicted may petition for such testing. The State of Texas, last I knew, wasn't able to petition the Court for a DNA test to be done on anyone, absent compelling evidence.
I was a Police Officer, in Texas, and know well how the criminal justice system there worked when I was a part of it. The criminal justice system was heavily weighted in favor of the person accused, as well it should be. The ability to test DNA evidence, was seen by Police Officers as a way of "excluding" people from connection with a crime, and helping to focus in on the one person who may have committed the crime.
Are there mistakes made? Certainly, that's why the criminal justice system is so heavily weighted toward excluding innocent persons from being accused in to begin with. While there have been mistakes made in our criminal justice, and Court, systems, those mistakes are rare; because the criminal justice system is so heavily weighted toward the accused. This man that was recently released, was proven innocent by DNA evidence testing, something that has been available to prisoners in Texas for a very long time. A question that comes to my mind is: Why did it take so long? Did it take this long for him to Petition the Court to have DNA testing done?
Every person I ever arrested, was convicted. Did I ever have any doubts as to whether the persons I arrested had committed the crime I arrested them for? Absolutely not, I went far, and beyond, making sure that I did not arrest an innocent person. I took my job as a Police Officer seriously, as does the overwhelming majority of those who take the Oath of Office to become Police Officers. No one who works in the criminal justice system ever wants to arrest, or convict, an innocent person of any crime.
I hope this man is given every resource by the State of Texas, to help him to adjust to life on the outside again. I also hope he is compensated in some way, if that's even possible, for those 26 years he was incarcerated.
I know there are some people that owe this man an apology, not that he should accept it. Those people are the Police Officer that arrested him, the prosecutor that filed the charges, and the Judge who sentenced him. That would be a start. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 3/9/2008 9:31:51 AM | The people that wrongfully accused him and put him into jail for all that time should pay for what they did to him. They should literally kiss his ass asking forgiveness from him. This innocent man should be able to do whatever he pleases to these people that did this horrible unfair act against him. Who knows how many times he may have been beatin or raped in jail during those 26 years. For every rape or physical, emotional/mental harm that may have occured to him, there should be a retribution and payback against the system and those inmates that did this to him (if indeed this did happen).
There is a lesson here, when you put someone to jail, you BETTER make sure there is TOTAL UNDENIABLE proof that he or she is guilty, or else the reprocutions could be devastating.
It is really getting corrupt down there, and many men and women who work in the courts and law enforcement, have no business working there. Just like those silly jerks that tasered and killed that totally innocent Polish immigrant at the Vancouver International Airport back in October, some that work in that field can be a greater threat then a help. | |
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| Imprisoned 26 years, then found innocent
Posted: 5/23/2008 5:51:48 AM | Aren't something like 1 in 3 people in American jails there for being in possession of a naturally growing plant whose fibers threatened the profits of the pulp paper industry like 90 years ago?
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Not quite. Dope was actually a threat to the cotton industry or, more specifically, the few large chemical industries who manufactured the various fertilisers, and pesticides essential to good cotton yeilds. Dope is naturally resistant to most pests and can be grown in almost desert environments. | |
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