Supreme Court... WTF?
cajunkiwi
Posts: 984
http://lat.ms/h2e3OA
If you don't want to read the article, I'll give you the highlights:
A New Orleans man was convicted of an attempted carjacking as a prelude to being charged with murder, and was sentenced to death. He sat on Death Row for 14 years protesting his innocence, and weeks before he was due to be put to death, a PI discovered that the DA's office had withheld evidence that exonerated the condemned man. The guy's lawyers found that several prosecutors knew about the hidden evidence, and they also found that this wasn't the first time it had happened. The man was freed, and won damages in a civil suit against the DA. The Supreme Court just overruled the jury verdict, denying the man his money, because it was a "single incident where mistakes were made" instead of a "pattern."
I'd like to know when "it has happened before" became "it's a single incident" and when "withholding evidence that proved conclusively the accused was innocent" became a "mistake."
If you don't want to read the article, I'll give you the highlights:
A New Orleans man was convicted of an attempted carjacking as a prelude to being charged with murder, and was sentenced to death. He sat on Death Row for 14 years protesting his innocence, and weeks before he was due to be put to death, a PI discovered that the DA's office had withheld evidence that exonerated the condemned man. The guy's lawyers found that several prosecutors knew about the hidden evidence, and they also found that this wasn't the first time it had happened. The man was freed, and won damages in a civil suit against the DA. The Supreme Court just overruled the jury verdict, denying the man his money, because it was a "single incident where mistakes were made" instead of a "pattern."
I'd like to know when "it has happened before" became "it's a single incident" and when "withholding evidence that proved conclusively the accused was innocent" became a "mistake."
And I listen for the voice inside my head... nothing. I'll do this one myself.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
PJ: 2011-09-03 2011-09-04
Plus, the exculpatory evidence in question was in relation to a separate armed robbery charge that had nothing to do with the murder charge. The murder conviction was overturned because he was convicted of the armed robbery first, thereby preventing the him from taking the witness stand in the murder trial for fear of being impeached with evidence of the armed robbery conviction (which would otherwise be inadmissible in the guilt phase of the murder trial).
Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the deplorable actions of the prosecutor here, but the Supreme Court made the right call in this case.
I stand by my opinion that the behavior involved one case and one case only, meaning that no "pattern of conduct" can be established.
Don't worry, Canada is not better when it comes to distinguishing between innocence and guilt.
1998: Barrie
2000: Montreal, Toronto, Auburn Hills
2003: Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal
2004: Boston X2, Grand Rapids
2005: Kitchener, London, Hamilton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto
2006: Toronto X2
2009: Toronto
2011: PJ20, Montreal, Toronto X2, Hamilton
2012: Manchester X2, Amsterdam X2, Prague, Berlin X2, Philadelphia, Missoula
2013: Pittsburg, Buffalo
2014: Milan, Trieste, Vienna, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Detroit
2016: Ottawa, Toronto X2
2018: Padova, Rome, Prague, Krakow, Berlin, Barcelona
2023: Chicago X2
2024: New York X2
Too much power. Ulterior motives for EVERYTHING. How about some fucking justice once in a while?
This is an awful story. And just an agregious act of ignorance by the Supreme Court. It's fucking criminal.