Will Texas Execute Another Innocent Man? The Case of.....
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Will Texas Execute Another Innocent Man? The Case of Reginald Blanton
Take a look at this case as this man is about to be executed tonight and could possibly the second innocent man executed in Texas. If you're going to have the death penality you have at least make sure the individual is for certain guilty.
Peace
Take a look at this case as this man is about to be executed tonight and could possibly the second innocent man executed in Texas. If you're going to have the death penality you have at least make sure the individual is for certain guilty.
There’s a lot of focus, as you mentioned, on Texas right now because of the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Governor Perry refused to look at the evidence in that case, went ahead with the execution, and he’s under heavy scrutiny. And he’s participated in a cover-up, basically, by shaking up the Forensic Science Commission.
Right now, he’s threatening to do the same again: ignore the evidence with Reginald Blanton. There’s no—Reginald was convicted for the 2000 murder of Carlos Garza. There’s no physical evidence linking him to the crime. There were no eyewitnesses, no DNA, no fingerprints. No murder weapon was ever found. All they had was coerced testimony from Reginald’s twin brother and his girlfriend at the time, and they later recanted that—or it wasn’t testimony, I’m sorry—statements from them. They recanted it in sworn testimony, saying they were coerced and basically that Reginald didn’t do it. And there was even physical evidence that should have ruled out Reginald altogether. There was a footprint on the door of the victim from it being kicked in, which didn’t match the size shoe that Reginald wears.
So, how we’ve gotten to this point is basically there was racial discrimination. They did this thing in Texas called the jury shuffle, where the prosecutor can basically—well, the defense attorney can do it, too, but in this case it was the prosecutor, who can look at the pool of jurors on physical appearance alone, meaning if they don’t like the fact that they’re—in this case they were—Reginald is a young African American male. In this case, there were a handful of blacks in the front of the jury pool. They called for these shuffles, moved them to the back. There was not a single African American in the first sixty-three jurors to be questioned. So, basically, they systematically excluded African Americans, and Reginald ended up with an all-white jury, not a jury of his peers. So, as I said, they—that he was convicted not by a jury of his peers.
The appeals process was messed up. Reginald’s appellate attorney ignored him, filed something incorrectly, basically procedurally barring his innocence claim. And now there are appeals in the Supreme Court and in the—with the Court of Criminal Appeals right now. But, you know, time is running out, and we really need to put the pressure on Governor Perry to halt this execution. He’s already got innocent blood on his hands with Cameron Todd Willingham, and he really, you know, can’t afford to do it again with Reginald, and this case needs to be looked into.
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
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...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
http://www.texassecede.com/
Perry thinks it might be a good idea.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry-texas-coul_n_187490.html
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
I don't see how they even found him guilty to begin with. I wonder if it was the selection of jurors that made the difference?
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
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St. Paul 2014
I agree with this. It's one of the few black and white issues out there for me.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
is that exactly what I thought I read."
Or at least try to avoid someone saying that you were messing with Texas when in reality you weren't...Texas doesn't care if it's true or not.
i was watching Paradise Falls last night and it began to infuriate me just watching and listening to some of the people who sound so uneducated, and the cocky as hell police "investigators".
it blows my mind sometimes in this day and age, and in a country that is so democratic (supposedly) that someone would be so stripped of their rights.
this is so sad.