Prison Blog - Genpop.org

Urgent Action Needed in Hank Skinner Case

2010-03-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

From the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

Thank you for all of the calls, emails, faxes, and letters you have sent on behalf of Hank Skinner. As you know, Mr. Skinner is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on Wednesday, March 24, despite the fact that critical DNA evidence from the crime scene has never been tested. Last week, Chromosomal Laboratories, Inc. in Arizona offered to test the DNA evidence - for free - if Governor Perry grants Mr. Skinner a 30-day reprieve.

TCADP and its partners are urging the Governor to intervene in Hank Skinner's case and issue a 30-day reprieve to allow for DNA testing to take place. Please contact the Governor AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to urge him to exercise his authority to grant this reprieve and to prevent a possible miscarriage of justice!

Talking points and contact information for your letters and faxes can be found below.

To stay up-to-date on developments in Mr. Skinner's case, please go to http://tcadp.blogspot.com/.

Thank you for taking action at this critical moment! TCADP will continue to update you on this situation and provide additional action opportunities.

***
It is very helpful and greatly appreciated to have the support of letters, which should go to the attention of:

CONTACT INFORMATION
Chelsea Thornton Buchholtz
Assistant General Counsel
Office of the Governor
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
The fax number for the General Counsel's office is 512-463-1932.

TALKING POINTS
Since 1973, 139 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Eleven of them were in Texas.

Many of these people were freed because DNA evidence proved their innocence. But DNA testing only works if we use it.

On March 24, Texas is scheduled to execute Hank Skinner, despite denying testing of DNA evidence that could implicate another man in the murder of Mr. Skinner's girlfriend and her two sons. DNA testing could resolve the doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt, but the State has refused to allow evidence to be tested for ten years.

Is Texas about to create the next Cameron Todd Willingham?

Mr. Skinner’s execution date is just days away, but key pieces of evidence have never been subject to DNA testing. Mr. Skinner’s trial counsel chose not to seek DNA testing, despite the fact that Mr.Skinner steadfastly insisted he was innocent of the crime.

The never-tested evidence includes: a man’s windbreaker found next to the victim’s body, which had blood splatter, perspiration stains and human hairs on it; two knives, at least one of which was a likely murder weapon; a bloody towel; the victim’s fingernails, which may have blood under them; and swabs from a rape-kit that could reveal whether the victim had intercourse around the time of her death and with whom.

Mr. Skinner’s attorney also failed to investigate and present evidence of another suspect who might have committed the crime. DNA evidence may or may not implicate this alternate suspect, but we’ll never be certain without testing.

A clemency petition has been filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry.

We urge the Governor to intervene in Hank Skinner's case and issue a 30-day stay to allow for DNA testing to take place.

hank skinner, death penalty, capital punishment, innocence, wrongful conviction, dna evidence, texas, tcadp, ncadp, execution, governor, rick perry

The Troy Anthony Davis Story

2010-03-22T11:20:00.001-07:00

The Boldness of Hypocrisy from Kevin Cooper on Vimeo.

troy davis, video, prison, crime, law, criminal justice

On Torture and Interrogation Methods

2010-03-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

The idea that coercive interrogation works rests on an untested and largely unsupported framework, says Shane O'Mara, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Read the rest:

Boing Boing

Use Your Miles to Help The Exonerated

2010-03-04T10:33:00.001-08:00

From the Innocence Project:

Dear Courtney,
Thank you for your continued support and activism to help free the innocent. Today, I’m writing with a simple and unique opportunity for you to help people who have been exonerated after serving years or decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Without spending a dime, you can help us send exonerees to Atlanta this April for the annual Innocence Network Conference.
Please donate points through your credit card program or miles through your airline frequent-flier plan, and we will use all of the donations to help exonerees attend this critical gathering. American Express Rewards Points are particularly easy for us to process, but we can also work with other credit card and airline programs. If you are interested in using your points or miles to help exonerees, please call me at 212-364-5992 or email me at aamel@innocenceproject.org.
The Innocence Network conference is the only event all year where exonerees from around the country gather to network, receive support from one another, learn ways to cope and transition back into the world after prison, and find ways to prevent future wrongful convictions. This year, we have had more requests for financial assistance for travel than ever. Without donations of points or miles, we will have to say no to some of these requests.
Help us make this conference the best one yet for as many exonerees as possible. Donating points or miles only takes a minute, and it can have a profound impact on the exonerated. Thank you for your support.
Best regards,
Angela Amel
Director of Social Work
The Innocence Project

airmiles, exonerated, points, innocence project, wrongful conviction, prison, rime, law, criminal justice

Solitary is Torture

2010-02-26T16:05:00.001-08:00

Great video, pass it on:

prison, crime, law, solitary confinement, inmate, locked up, torture, incarceration

Interesting Wrongful Conviction Stats

2010-02-26T08:59:00.001-08:00

From the Texas Observer:

—The 250 innocent people have been sent to prison in 33 states for a combined 3,160 years. That's an average of 13 years in prison. Think about where you were in 1997. (I was in the middle of my sophomore year in college). Bill Clinton was just a year into his second term. Now think about spending every day from 1997 till now in prison for a crime you didn’t commit.

—60 percent of the 250 exonerees are African American; 29 percent are white.

—17 were on death row when they were exonerated. That’s 17 innocent people who would have been executed had DNA testing not cleared them. You have to assume there's been an innocent person somewhere who wasn’t lucky enough to have testable DNA in their case and was wrongly executed in this country—quite possibly in Texas and quite possibly Cameron Todd Willingham.

—76 percent of the wrongful convictions were caused, at least in part, by witness misidentification. In 38 percent of the cases, more than one eyewitness wrongly identifying an innocent person.

Read the rest: Who Gets Wrongly Convicted and Why

prison, crime, law, innocence, innocence project, wrongful convcition, wrongfully convicted, exonerated

Johnny Depp Believes in West Memphis Three's Innocence

2010-02-23T15:24:00.001-08:00

From The Huffington Post:

Johnny Depp will appear on this Saturday's "48 Hours Mystery" as he makes a plea for a new trial for the West Memphis Three, three teenagers accused of murdering three boys in a satanic ritual in 1994.
As seen in the preview clip below, Depp says, "I firmly believe Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are totally innocent. It was a need for swift justice to placate the community.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

prison, crime, law, west memphis three, johnny depp, 48 hours mystery, murder, damien echols, jason baldwin, jessie misskelley

Give a Sick Woman Proper Medical Care

2010-02-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

Please take action and call and e-mail Commissioner Epps and Governor Barbour this week. The goal is to have 1k (one thousand) people call and e-mail. Please make this a priority - Jamie's life is at stake. Also, if you have not already, sign the petition on the front page of this ning site. Please also send a copy of responses to mail@wrongfulconvictions.ning.com

Please call the following this week
Christopher Epps - and Ask that Jamie Scott #19197 be given proper medical care and that he also allow an outside specialist who has committed to volunteer his time, to examine her.

Christopher Epps Commissioner
Mississippi Department of Corrections

723 North President Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39202

601-359-5621 (Phone)
601-359-5680 (FAX)
CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us

Haley Barbour - Assistant
Ask that the governor release both Jamie Scott #19197 and Gladys Scott#19142 Jamie Scott is currently in poor health and the sisters have served over 15 years in prison where no one was murdered or injured. Conflictingly, this was based on $11, (eleven dollars)

Haley Barbour -
Personal Assistant
Dorothy Kuykendall
1-877-405-0733
(601) 359-3150
DKuykendall@governor.state.ms.us

Visit WrongfulConvictions at: http://wrongfulconvictions.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

prison, crime, law, jamie scott, woman, ill, sick

Freddie Peacock is 250th Exonerated

2010-02-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

250 is too many people, let's do something about this!

(NEW YORK, NY; Thursday, February 4, 2010) - A Rochester, New York, man who was wrongfully convicted of rape 33 years ago is being exonerated with DNA testing today, in what the Innocence Project said is the 250th DNA exoneration in the United States.

Freddie Peacock, 60, was convicted of rape in December 1976. He was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and released on parole in 1982. He tried to remain on parole because he thought he would never be able to clear his name if he was released from state supervision. For the last 28 years since he left prison, he has fought to prove his innocence even though he was no longer incarcerated.

"Freddie Peacock was released many years ago, but he hasn't been truly free because the cloud of this conviction hung over him," said Olga Akselrod, the Innocence Project Staff Attorney handling the case. The Innocence Project is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law. "Nobody in the U.S. who was exonerated with DNA testing has spent this many years outside of prison fighting to prove his innocence. Today, the decades-long nightmare that Freddie Peacock and his family have endured is finally over."

prison, crime, law, dna testing, dna, exonerated, exoneration, freddie peacock, innocence, innocence project, rape, wrongfully convicted, wrongful conviction

New Prison Blog

2010-02-03T09:34:00.001-08:00

And Justice for All? by Littlesun, go check it out, subscribe, follow: http://prisonzombie.blogspot.com/

prison, crime, law, blog

Court Dimisses Suit Againts John Grisham

2010-02-03T09:26:00.001-08:00

Ada — A libel suit by former Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson against author John Grisham was dismissed in federal appeals court in Denver Monday.

The suit also included allegations against Dennis Fritz who was convicted of a heinous murder, along with Ron Williamson, until DNA two decades after the fact was proved not to match crime scene evidence. Both Grisham and Fritz wrote books about the case which presented information Peterson said was libelous.

The Tulsa World reports that 10th U.S. Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero said the fact public officials were plaintiffs in the case made the burden of proof more difficult.

“Given that plaintiffs are public officials, they face an especially heavy burden in attempting to demonstrate libel,” The Tulsa World reports the judge as writing.

AdaEveningNews.com - Ada, Oklahoma - Court dismisses Peterson suit again

john grisham, bill peterson, dennis fritz, wrongful conviction, innocence, author, book, prison, crime, law

Repeal the Death Penalty in South Dakota

2010-02-03T09:20:00.001-08:00

Count on my neighbor Representative Gerald Lange (D-8/Madison) to stand up for principle and good policy. Lange is prime sponsor of House Bill 1245, a measure to repeal South Dakota's death penalty. Thirteen legislators, all Democrats, have signed their name to this bill. I applaud them for having the gumption to look South Dakota's screwed-up, bloodthirsty machismo in the eye and say that killing people, even killing bad people, is wrong.

Madville Times: HB 1245: Repeal Death Penalty in South Dakota

south dakota, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, execution, prison, crime, law

KPBS Special: Life In Prison: The Cost Of Punishment

2010-02-03T09:17:00.001-08:00

This 30-minute documentary explores the cost of California’s “tough on crime” legislation. It gives you an inside look into three state prisons, including the California Medical Facility. CMF houses the oldest and sickest inmates in the state.

KPBS Special: Life In Prison: The Cost Of Punishment « Prisonmovement's Weblog

kpbs, prison, crime, law, california, tough on crime, california medial facility

John Bradley Violated Texas Open Meetings Act

2010-02-03T09:14:00.001-08:00

Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle has a column today on how Rick Perry's handpicked puppet/chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission violated the Texas Open Meetings Act (PDF) at Friday's meeting, which was held in Harlingen. The Dallas Morning News' Trailblazer blog first reported on Bradley's violation of the TOMA. Bradley should be removed as chair of the Commission. He has proven by his handling of the first meeting that his main goal was to cover-up and impede the investigation into whether Texas relied on faulty arson evidence to execute a person who did not kill anyone.

One of the Commission members should offer a motion at the next meeting of the Commission to recommend that Rick Perry replaces Bradley as chair. Bradley is an elected district attorney. He knows about the TOMA. He obviously violated the act on purpose as part of his cover-up of the Willingham investigation. The commission members should also read up on Robert's Rules of Order to make sure they know how to exercise their own authority to control Bradley.

Read the rest: Texas Moratorium Network: More on How John Bradley Violated Texas Open Meetings Act at Texas Forensic Science Commission Meeting

prison, crime, law, cameron todd willingham, john bradley, texas, forensics, arson, murder, wrongful conviction, innocence, executed

BREAKING: Kansas Votes to End the Death Penalty

2010-01-29T15:13:00.001-08:00

Amazing news out of Kansas today:

TOPEKA – The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill Friday that would abolish the state’s death penalty for crimes committed after July 1.

By a vote of 7-4, the bill now goes to the full Senate for discussion.

Senators had considered two bills: Senate Bill 208, which was debated last year, and Senate Bill 375, which replaces the death penalty with the crime of aggravated murder. The new crime comes with a mandatory life without parole sentence.

The committee tabled the first bill and moved forward Senate Bill 375.

Voting yes were Republican senators Dwayne Umbarger, Thayer; John Vratil, Leawood; Mary Pilcher Cook, Shawnee; Les Donovan, Wichita; Chairman Tim Owens, Overland Park, and Democratic senators Laura Kelly, Topeka and David Haley, Kansas City, Kan.

UPDATED: Senate Judiciary panel passes bill to eliminate the death penalty | Wichitopekington | Wichita Eagle Blogs

kansas, death penalty, senate, judiciary committee, capital punishment, abolition, death sentence, death row, execution

Rest In Peace Howard Zinn

2010-01-28T11:38:00.001-08:00

Howard Zinn, author of the People's History of the United States, has died at age 87. He was an avid supporter of prison reform and concerned with many prison issues. He volunteered and participated in many prison-related non-profit events and fundraisers. He sat on the board of the Prisons Foundation.

The world has lost an incredible man. I urge you to buy A People's History of the United States It will change how you see the entire world.

howard zinn, prison

Backlogs at HPD Lab

2010-01-28T10:31:00.001-08:00

The Houston Police Department has developed a backlog of more than 300 cases in which firearm forensics have not been performed, the third major area of evidence awaiting analysis to build up as the crime lab works to achieve full legitimacy after being engulfed in scandal for years.

Despite years of effort aimed at cleaning up the problems that led to the wrongful convictions of at least four men, backlogs for thousands of cases also have developed in rape kits and fingerprint analysis.

Although the recent issues highlighted in an audit of HPD's fingerprint unit do not involve the crime lab — the two are separate entities — police in both instances have cited ongoing staff shortages, retirements and training requirements to explain the backlog of evidence.

“We're not sitting back here and twiddling our thumbs,” said Crime Lab Director Irma Rios.

Labs across the country have backlogs, and the department has added staff, upgraded facilities and procedures, and is poised to begin using robotics in about 15 months to decrease the number of cases, she said.

“We're accountable, we realize we have a tremendous responsibility ... These backlogs didn't occur overnight, they took many, many years,” Rios said.

Backlog woes continue at HPD lab | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

hpd, rape kits, crime, law, prison, wrongful convictions, dna test, forensics

Texas Forensic Science Commission to Meet Tomorrow: Willingham not on Agenda

2010-01-28T10:28:00.001-08:00

The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting tomorrow for the first time in six months. This is the commission's first meeting since Gov. Rick Perry suddenly replaced its chair and several of its members while it was in the middle of an investigation into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

The Innocence Project will stream live video of the meeting on its website at:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/tfsc.

NCADP - The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

cameron todd willingham, innocence project, innocence, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, arson, forensics, texas, execution, crime, law, prison, murder

Ohio Inmates to Get Email

2010-01-27T09:39:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the 21st century, Ohio!

A new system that allows Ohio inmates to get e-mail could help save the state money and cut down on contraband, which often arrives in regular mail, prison officials said.

The state is setting up a system to allow inmates to view e-mail messages from friends and family.

Ohio will become the 13th state, along with Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, to use the e-mail system, which will debut Feb. 23 at the Madison Correctional Institution in London and expand to all 31 state prisons a month later.

“We very strongly believe that contact with friends and family, community involvement, helps inmates stay engaged and prepares them for re-entry to the community,” said Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The system will dramatically reduce the 14.7 million pieces of mail flowing in and out of the prisons each year and relieve pressure on staff members handling mail, she said.

Ohio Prison Watch: New system to allow Ohio inmates to get e-mail

email, ohio, doc, inmate, prison, crime, law, mail, letters

Governor O'Malley and the Death Penalty

2010-01-26T09:47:00.001-08:00

Awesome editorial on Maryland Governor O'Malley's stance on capital punishment. Thanks @executedtoday!

But I wonder: If O’Malley is so courageous, and this is such an issue of principle for him, why are there still five people on death row in Maryland? Why doesn’t he commute their sentences to life imprisonment, as Maryland’s constitution and laws empower him to do? It would certainly be a more permanent -- and forthright -- approach than this indirect foot-dragging routine with the lethal injection protocols.

To be sure, clearing Death Row wouldn’t achieve his ultimate goal of abolishing the death penalty. But it would save the lives of five people sentenced under what the Commission on Capital Punishment has told the governor was an irretrievably flawed process -- and whose executions, according to O’Malley, would serve no purpose even if that process had been absolutely pristine.

PostPartisan - Why doesn't O'Malley clear death row?

maryland, death penalty, o'malley, death row, death sentence, capital punishment, execution, prison, crime, law

Take Action: Free Efrén

2010-01-26T09:41:00.001-08:00

Follow the link below to sign the petition:

Efrén Paredes, Jr. was arrested at age 15 and wrongly convicted in 1989 for a murder and armed robbery he did not commit; a crime to which others have admitted guilt. He has been imprisoned now over 20 years. The crime occurred in St. Joseph, Michigan (Berrien County), USA.

Efrén had no criminal history previous to his arrest and was a high school honor student at the time. He was tried and convicted only three months after his arrest on March 15, 1989 and convicted by 11 White jurors and one Black juror in a city whose racial composition was 95% White. The judge, prosecutor, and all the investigating police were also all White.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Berrien County ranks among the top 25 most segregated metropolitan areas in the country. It is also important to note that all the youth in Berrien County who have received life without parole (LWOP) sentences have been children of color. Efrén is also the only Latino youth in Berrien County history to receive a LWOP sentence.

Actions | Criminal Justice | Change.org

prison, crime, law, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, murder, armed robbery, convicted, innocent, efrén paredes, governor granholm, michigan

Dope is for Dopes

2010-01-25T09:35:00.001-08:00

Interesting: This is the program my friend at Grafton is hoping to be part of soon:

Recently, Coach Cullin had inmates from the Grafton Correctional Institution come and talk to students here at CHS. For many years now, Coach has coordinated it so that inmates come each trimester and try to influence students to make the right choices.

For most of the students, it is just a time to get out of class, but for others it is a great opportunity to learn from others’ mistakes.

The prisoners that came were from the “Dope is for Dopes” program and get no reward for coming and speaking. On this trip, there were two speakers both with very different stories.

The first speaker was serving a five-year prison sentence for producing methamphetamine. He had come from Akron, and had a very difficult childhood. When younger, his stepfather used to abuse him and his mother. His stepfather and mom were both drug and alcohol users, who had no intention of quitting.

The Observer: Cloverleaf Inside and Out - Cloverleaf High School - Grafton Inmates Visit CHS

prison, crime, law, dope, drugs, inmate, sentence, high school

New Blog: Prisoner's Soul

2010-01-25T09:30:00.001-08:00

This blogged is based on the book, "Chicken Soup for the Prisoner's Soul" as wel as other books and experiences helping prisoners. It's run by Tom Lagana. From the blog:

Tom Lagana is a professional speaker, trainer, author, and engineer. He is a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service in Delaware. He is coauthor of "Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul," "Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul," "Serving Time, Serving Others," "The Quick and Easy Guide to Project Management," and "Serving Productive Time." He presents workshops and seminars for inmates and volunteers.

Check it out: http://www.prisonersoul.blogspot.com/

And don't forget to follow them on Twitter: @prisonersoul

blog, tom lagana, chicken soup for the prisoner's soul, book, prison, crime, law

RIP Captain Dave

2010-01-22T12:06:00.001-08:00

This is from the music blog that my boyfriend (Drummer John) and I run:

Many of you know that Drummer John played with a band called the Playa Dawgs when we lived in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. But what you don’t know is that they played at a bar on the beach called Bad Boys. This place is magical. You sit at a table with your feet digging into the soft, talcum-white sand, looking out at the Ocean and the lights of Cozumel, palms hovering over you and you listen to the Nasty Bastards band or Playa Dawgs cover some of your favorite tunes. It has hosted many Peanut Pet Shelter fundraisers, and every year they put on their infamous smoked turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. The absolute coolest thing about this place, however, was the fact that the owner, Captain Dave, paid to get less fortunate Mexican men out of prison, trained them to work in his bar, and gave them all good paying jobs with tips. Hence the name, Bad Boys.

Last night Captain Dave passed away. I know that he will be sorely missed and I hope that his memory lives on in this amazing bar in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

Poor Treatment of Inmates in Kentucky

2010-01-22T09:47:00.001-08:00

Things like this do my head in. What purpose does it serve, treating another human being like an animal, other than to prove you are no better than anyone who's ever been locked up and to continue the cycle of violence and hatred?

My dad is in Marion Adjustment Center and had to be placed in Protective Custody due to being mistreated by guards. He spoke out against the guards after 5 new inmates came into the prison. They were not given a mat to sleep on, sheet, towels, wash cloths, or any change of clothes. They were made to sleep on the floor with just a small blanket. He said that they went 4 days without a shower.

He stated on the phone that guards were not breaking up any fights between inmates. He has since been harrassed and threatened verbally by several guards. Also a guard ask another inmate to hurt my dad, but the inmate (even though he did not know my dad very well) informed my dad that the guards were out to get him and to watch his back.

Marion Adjustment Center - Unfair & Inhumane Treatment of Inmates - Prison Talk

prison, inmate, human rights, crime, law, kentucky, marion adjustment center

Former Governor George Ryan Nominated for Nobel Prize

2010-01-17T08:40:00.001-08:00

If I could nominate anyone for the Nobel Peace Prize, it would definitely be Former Governor George Ryan of Illinois, who declared a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000. He then commuted the sentences of 167 Illinois death row inmates to life in prison.

University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle said Wednesday he'd forwarded Ryan's name to the Nobel committee based on Ryan's halting of executions in Illinois.

"I said, look, if you want to get rid of the death penalty in America ... then you give the Nobel Peace Prize to Ryan," Boyle said.

Daily Herald | George Ryan again nominated for Nobel Prize

governor george ryan, george ryan, nobel prize, nobel peace prize, nomiation, death penalty, capital punishment, death row, death sentence, moratorium

Round-Up From Facebook: 27 Years Later, Donald Gates is Declared Innocent

2010-01-15T16:08:00.001-08:00

A round-up of prison-related links from my Facebook Friends:

Facebook | Innocence Project: 27 Years Later, Donald Gates is Declared Innocent

Facebook | Innocence Project of Florida: Innocent Chicago Man Tortured into a False Confession, Now Free

Facebook | Students Against the Death Penalty: Abolition Movement at Houston's 32nd MLK Parade

Facebook | Innocence Project: Sunday on Lifetime: "The Wronged Man"

Facebook | Innocence Project of Florida: James Bain to Ring Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and Receive Award on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Facebook | Innocence Project: Sunday on Lifetime: "The Wronged Man"

prison, crime, law, innocence, wrongful conviction, wrongfuly convicted, innocence project, death penalty, capital punshment

Round-Up From The Feeds: Oklahoma State Senator Files Wrongful Conviction Bill

2010-01-15T15:34:00.001-08:00

A round-up of links from feeds I subscribe to:

Oklahoma State Senator Files Wrongful Conviction Bill | KJRH.com

Florida Issues: Fewer Florida juries voting for death — why is unclear

National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons: Acts of cruelty to immigrants

wrongful-convictions: Exonerated Death Row Inmate Speaks To Students

Correctional Officers Fighting for Jobs - KGPE - CBS TV47

Florida Issues: Man convicted in 1991 slaying gets new sentencing phase

Conn. closes Webster prison in Cheshire - Courant.com

Florida Issues: Court vacates Polk killer's death sentences due to prosecutor's misconduct

WKMS: Kentucky prison goes 'all-girl' (2010-01-15)

ACLU keeps Wyo prison system accountable

Death penalty repeal stalls

Capital Punishment...

New DNA test cited in bid for Dechaine retrial

prison, crime, law, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, exonerated, dna testing, innocence, innocence project, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, lethal injections

Twitter Round-Up: Speak out Against Lethal Injection

2010-01-14T20:19:00.001-08:00

twitter, prison, crime, law, lethal injection, petition

Facebook Round-Up: Texas State Bar Video Competition!

2010-01-14T20:08:00.001-08:00

Here's a round-up of prison-related links from my Facebook friends:

DNA evidence prompts charge in 1972 cold case murder - RocNow.com

Facebook | Texas Moratorium Network: Anti-Death Penalty Activists: Make a Video for this Contest Run by the State Bar of Texas

MyPrisonSpace — Blog — Inmates & Parolees can now vote in Washington

Facebook | ACLU of Northern California: Say NO to lethal injections in California

Facebook | Students Against the Death Penalty: Statesman: "it's time to address state's flawed system"

facebook, prison, crime, law, video, competition, texas, bar

Round-up from the Feeds: Is the Death Penalty Dying?

2010-01-14T11:02:00.001-08:00

A round-up of prison-related links from feeds I subscribe to:

Is the Death Penalty dying? - National Corrections Oversight Coalition

Death penalty up for debate - GreenwichTime

The Innocence Project - News and Information: Innocence Blog: The Cost of Faulty Forensics

Florida Issues: A plea to learn from past injustices

A voice from Devil's Island : Dreyfus notebooks published

DNA proved you were wrongfully convicted. after 30 years in prison, ...

The Long Vindication: After 35 years and a lengthy sentence for robbery, Ronnie Barrs remains determined to prove his innocence

Law students offer counsel to needy

Newsvine - $12 million wrongful conviction settlement is hailed

innocence, wrongful conviciton, wrongfully convicted, dna testing, exonerated, innocence project, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, prison, crime, law

Piece on Timothy Cole on Mysanantonio.com

2010-01-14T09:39:00.001-08:00

It won't bring him back, salvage the dreams he had or undo the irreparable pain his family has endured for a quarter of a century, but let the words continue to be trumpeted: Timothy Cole was an innocent man.

All that he, his family, friends and defense attorneys said about him was true: Timothy Cole was an innocent man.

Yet bittersweet is his exoneration because Timothy Cole died an innocent man while still imprisoned for crimes he didn't commit.

Cary Clack: Exoneration came far too late for Cole

timothy cole, innocence, wrongfully convicted, wrongful conviction, prison, crime, law, rape

John Maki: The Rape That Wasn't

2010-01-14T08:46:00.001-08:00

If you know the history of racism in the United States, you'll be familiar with what happened to Jarrett Adams, an African American from the South Side of Chicago who in 1999 was wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman.

In The Rape That Wasn't: The Wrongful Conviction of Jarrett Adams, Jarrett and his lawyer from the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Keith Findley, describe his case and how he was ultimately exonerated in 2007.

John Maki: The Rape That Wasn't: The Wrongful Conviction of Jarrett Adams

prison, wrongful conviction, innocence, wrongfully convicted, jarrett adams, john maki, exonerated, crime, law, rape

The Return

2010-01-12T13:32:00.001-08:00

Yes, I am back. Things have been hectic and they still are somewhat but I've shuffled some things around and made time to post again. Hopefully all will work out. I would still love to have some guest bloggers though! Let me know if you're interested.

Anyway, the title of this post has two different meanings. Obviously one is that I'm back, and two is that, and this is huge for me, my friend who is locked up and who inspired this blog and who I haven't heard from in two years, finally wrote me!

I am ecstatic! I'll post again later! I need to do a few laps around my apartment!

prison, letter, locked up, inmate

Wednesday RoundUp: Prison Articles Around the Web

2009-12-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

Get Involved

1. Annual appeal | Prisoners of the Census
2. The Conversation Project: Beyond Bars « Wilsonville Public Library Blog

Drug War

1. ACSblog | Prison policy/Incarceration | American Constitution Society

Prison Issues

1. 3 caught with prison escapee face charges of helping him | Philadelphia Daily News | 12/16/2009
2. Fulton County Jailer Charged with Excessive Force After Striking a Handcuffed Inmate with a Milk Crate | webnewswire.com
3. Unsupervised prisoner release imminent « Prisonmovement's Weblog
4. Correctional Management and Prison Issues - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com
5. Sentence commuted for woman convicted of manslaughter | Bradenton Sarasota Drigg

Death Penalty

1. The death penalty debate - KFOR

Wrongful Convictions

1. The Associated Press: DNA testing clears man who served 28 years
2. DNA evidence may free prisoner after 35 years
3. Florida Issues: The Florida Actual Innocence Commission
4. Study says widen access to DNA tests - The Boston Globe

prison, crime, law, murder, rape, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, innocence project, innocence, wrongful conviction, exonerated, dna testing

Monday Roundup: Must Read Articles About Prison

2009-12-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

Wrongful Convictions/Exonerations

1. Lake Wales News > News > Local > ‘I’ve been waiting ... for this miracle’
2. Former detective won't say Tuite was overlooked | The San Diego Union-Tribune
3. Sarasota Criminal Justice Reform: Why are innocent persons sentenced to prison?
4. Re: We need to know why innocent people are sent to prison
5. Fighting Wrongful Convictions | BU Today
6. Professional Responsibility: More allegations of prosecutorial misconduct; Second Circuit rules protected by immunity
7. D’Alemberte Petitions for Innocence Commission | The Jacksonville Observer
8. Connecticut searching for any wrongful convictions

Take Action

1. 12 Days of Christmas: Make That Call for Leonard Peltier
2. idealist.org - Spiritual Care Giver: Visit Immigrant Detainees
3. Carlton Gary (Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty) - Fax a Letter

Death Penalty

1. ExecutedToday.com » 10 executions that defined the 2000s
2. Update: Parole board still deliberating in Carlton Gary case, may not issue decision today
3. Fewer Texas inmates sentenced to death -- latimes.com

In Prison

1. The Bloodhound Cell Phone Detector 'Sniffs Out' Contraband Cell Phones in
2. Inmate is found dead in Rockville jail - washingtonpost.com
3. Two Reality Shows Lift Veil on Cook County Jail
4. Privatizing prisons - American Police Beat Magazine
5. California Slashing Millions from Prison Education « Prisonmovement's Weblog

Investigation Procedure

1. Fingerprint trouble plagues others besides HPD | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, exoneration, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, innoent, innoence, murder, rape, death penalty, death row, death sentence, capital punishment

From The Innocence Project

2009-12-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a remarkable year at the Innocence Project. We've freed innocent Americans and won policy reforms that will prevent countless wrongful convictions.

We couldn’t have achieved these victories for justice in 2009 without the partnership of our online community. I’m writing to ask for your support in our pursuit of freedom and justice in 2010.

Please donate today -- your gift could open the prison door to free an innocent person.

Looking back on 2009, I’m incredibly proud of how much we’ve accomplished. Here are just a few examples from a successful year:

— Steven Barnes of New York was exonerated in January, ringing in the New Year with an astounding story of freedom and survival.

— Ernest Sonnier of Texas was freed in August after serving 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

— So far this year, 18 people in the United States have been exonerated through DNA testing. The growing number of exonerations -- 245 to date -- has brought an increased need for our services. We currently represent over 250 clients across the country and we receive more than 300 new requests for assistance each month. Our intake staff works tirelessly to evaluate each and every request.

—The Innocence Project helped pass 19 state laws this year -- from evidence preservation reforms in Nevada, North Carolina and Oregon to exoneree compensation laws in Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.

—The National Academy of Sciences released a report this year calling for sweeping changes to our country’s forensic science system. We worked with dozens of partners to advocate for reforms that will ensure that our courts rely on solid science.

—Our work doesn’t end when clients leave prison. This year, our social work team worked with 40 people recently freed from prison, easing their adjustment to life after exoneration and helping them secure housing, jobs, transportation and health services.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated by email as events unfold in 2010. But the exonerations and reforms don’t just happen -- your support makes them possible. Nearly half of our funding this year came from generous and committed individual donors.

Please donate to the Innocence Project this holiday season. We’re working hard to make freedom a reality for wrongfully convicted Americans and to bring about critical changes in the system. Will you join us?

Thank you and Happy Holidays,

Barry Scheck
Co-Director
The Innocence Project

P.S. — a donation to the Innocence Project makes a wonderful and meaningful holiday present. Click here to make a gift donation in the name of a friend or relative.

Technorati Tags: innocence project, donate, donation, innocence, wrongful conviction, exonerated, barry scheck, prison, crime, law

New Student Group at Brown Focuses on Prison Issues

2009-12-07T09:14:00.001-08:00

Brown University is home to a new student group that meets to discuss prison issues and conditions. The meetings are open to the public and events are posted on Facebook.

Bruce Reilly served nearly 12 years in Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institution (ACI) for killing a community college professor in 1992. Now out of jail, he recently sat in a small meeting room in the J. Walter Wilson building on the Brown campus with about a dozen Brown students, talking of his experiences with racial divisions in prison and his current work advocating for better treatment of inmates.

Reilly’s visit was sponsored by the Prison Discussion Group, a new student organization that meets every Sunday night to learn about current issues and conditions in Rhode Island prisons. Coordinated by Becky Mer ’10, the group grew out of concerns among members of a Swearer Center service activity, SPACE, that brings arts into local prisons.

Each meeting features a speaker who has worked with prison inmates, followed by questions and then discussions of often controversial aspects of prison management and life. Topics of the meetings include legal, social, and political background on the Rhode Island criminal justice and prison systems, details on how the ACI operates, federal laws pertaining to prisons, the international criminal justice system, and undocumented immigrants in the criminal justice system.

Read the rest: Behind the razor wire | Today at Brown

Technorati Tags: brown university, prison discussion group, prison issues, prison conditions, inmate, prison, crime, law

NCADP Annual Conference - Last Day For Early Bird Registration

2009-12-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

NCADP Annual Conference!
January 14-17, 2010

The Seelbach Hilton Louisville Hotel
500 Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky

Friday's the last day for Early Bird registration! After Dec 4, registration returns to the regular rate. Save $50, and join luminaries like:

Martina Correia, Troy Davis' sister
Tony Amsterdam, who successfully argued the Furman case
Sister Helen Prejean
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip-Hop Caucus
Rev. Barry Lynn, Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Conference Registration: $175 ($225 after December 4, 2009), includes Award Dinner.

Check the Conference website for more info!

Technorati Tags: NCADP, conference, death penalty, capital punishment, death sentence, prison, crime, law

Win a Phone Call From Sister Helen Prejean

2009-12-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Texas Moratorium Network is having a drawing for someone to win a phone call from Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" and one of the world's leading advocates for abolishing the death penalty. Invite your friends to become a fan of the Texas Moratorium Network Facebook page and to enter the drawing, which will be held on December 15. It is free to enter.

Click here to enter the drawing.

Read more here: Texas Moratorium Network

Technorati Tags: texas, helen prejean, drawing, contest, win, prison, crime, law, death penalty, capital punishment

Centurion Ministries: Freeing the Innocent

2009-12-01T09:19:00.001-08:00

Here's a great article about Jim McCloskey and Centurion Ministries, a group devoted to freeing innocent prisoners:

Jim McCloskey has spent the past 30 years in and out of prisons. His offices at Centurion Ministries in Princeton, N.J., show why: The pictures and newspaper articles covering the walls tell one story after another of Mr. McCloskey's tireless work to free innocent men and women from life sentences or death row.

But McCloskey says it took a couple of detours until he finally found, as he puts it, "a life of authenticity – what I think of as a calling."

After graduating from Bucknell University and a three-year stint in the US Navy (where he was awarded the Bronze Star for valor), McCloskey began to climb the corporate ladder.

But after 13 years, even though he'd achieved success, he felt unfulfilled. So, at the age of 37, he surprised his friends and family by entering Princeton Theological Seminary to become an ordained Presbyterian minister.

In his second year at seminary, McCloskey served as a student chaplain at Trenton (N.J.) State Prison. Ministering to dozens of inmates, he heard many stories of woe and regret. But one inmate in particular, Jorge de los Santos, convicted of murder and serving a life sentence, made a deep impression.

"His cries of innocence haunted me," McCloskey says. "And he challenged me to do something." After spending some long nights of soul-searching, McCloskey made another life-changing decision. Convinced of Mr. de los Santos's sincerity, he withdrew from seminary for a full year to devote himself to proving de los Santos's innocence.

Living on his savings, McCloskey dug in. And his work paid off. Through persistence, he uncovered duplicity in the testimony of the star witness – another inmate incarcerated with de los Santos at the local county jail, ironically similarly named Delli Santi (of the saints).

"Neither of them were saints," McCloskey says with a laugh. But "while Jorge was a drug addict, he wasn't a murderer."

In his research on the case, McCloskey discovered a deal between the witness and the district attorney's office that the jury had never heard about. McCloskey's diligence led to Delli Santi's admission that he had falsely accused Jorge to avoid prison time.

At the time of the trial, the witness, Delli Santi, walked out of jail immediately after testifying falsely. And de los Santos went to prison. Even the judge in the appeals court concurred that this case had serious flaws. He remarked that the jailhouse testimony "reeked of perjury and the prosecutor knew it."

De los Santos's conviction was overturned – and an innocent man walked out of prison after seven years of wrongful incarceration. His cries had, indeed, been heard.

With that victory, McCloskey knew he had found his calling.

Read the rest: He helps innocent prisoners win their freedom | csmonitor.com

Technorati Tags: centurion ministries, jim mccloskey, innocence, wrongul conviction, wrongfully convicted, exonerated, prison, crime, law

Urgent: Contact Gov. Rick Perry to Ensure Robert Thompson's Clemency

2009-11-19T09:38:00.001-08:00

Urgent news:

Call the Governor and leave a voice message at 512 463 1782 or email him through his website at http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/. Urge him to accept the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant Robert Thompson clemency and commute his sentence to life. The execution is currently scheduled for Thursday, November 19.

From the Houston Chronicle:
The state pardons board today recommended that Houston killer Robert Thompson's scheduled Thursday execution be commuted to life in prison after his lawyer successfully argued that he was not the triggerman in a December 1996 convenience store robbery-murder.

Gov. Rick Perry, who has only once in his tenure as chief executive voluntarily commuted a death sentence, was expected to rule on the case tonight or tomorrow.

“I'm too scared to be optimistic,” said Thompson's attorney Pat McCann, “but Perry has been receptive to law of parties cases.”

Thompson was sentenced to death in a law of parties case stemming from the slaying of Mansoor Rahim in a Dec. 5, 1996, robbery of a Braeswood Boulevard convenience store. Thompson's partner in the crime, Sammy Butler, fired the fatal shot, but was sentenced only to life in prison.

Under the state's law of parties, all participants in a crime are held fully responsible and can be assessed the death penalty.

Perry's office did not immediately respond to queries about when the governor might decide the case, but McCann said the governor's legal counsel advised him a decision likely would come tonight or tomorrow.

Texas Moratorium Network

Technorati Tags: texas, clemency, sentence commuted, death penalty, capital punishment, eath row, death sentence, life sentence, prison, crime, law, murder, rick perry, governor

Alaska Innocence Project Needs Your Help

2009-11-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Alaska Innocence Project got the state Department of Law to agree to retest the evidence in the case of Gregory Marino, whom they believe to be innocent, but the Anchorage Police Department wants the Innocence Project to pay for it.

...the Innocence Project has hit a snag. The Anchorage Police Department told the Department of Law it wanted to be reimbursed financially for retrieving the 250 pieces of evidence (Bill Oberly, the Alaska Innocence Project executive director and attorney, says they don’t need every piece of the evidence, however). Oberly says he was told this week that APD estimates the first stage of testing—re-running fingerprints and palm prints—could take two people as much as 60 to 80 hours per person to locate, retrieve, and deliver the prints to the state crime lab, at a cost of up to $6,000.

Anchorage Press > News > New wrinkles for the Alaska Innocence Project

Help the Alaska Innocence Project get this evidence retested and possible help free an innocent man: Donate to the Alaska Innocence Project

Technorati Tags: innocence project, alaska innocence project, innocence, dna testing, evidence, anchorage police department, alaska, apd, prison, crime, law, murder, gregory marino

Featured Prison: St. Louis Correctional Facility

2009-11-18T09:39:00.001-08:00

I know I've been crapping the proverbial bed at posting lately, but the whole family has been sick, and then sick again and then sick again. Apparently our bodies got so used to the never-changing 89.6 degree, insane humidity of Playa Del Carmen and now being exposed to the filthy, cold drizzle-mist and whipping wind of Vancouver has rendered our immune systems useless against the common (really common) cold. Ugh. What I wouldn't do for a day at the beach right about now. But thanks to Brandi for filling some of my posting void! If there is anyone else out there whole would like to be a guest blogger now and then, just email me at vlu777@gmail.com

So, today we're looking at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Michigan. The prison, in Gratiot County, opened in 1999 and houses medium security and closed custody level inmates. It has a capacity of around 1200 offenders.

Recently Saint Louis Correctional Facility was in the news when, on Tuesday afternoon, a gang fight broke out amongst 11 inmates in the prison's lunchroom. 3 correctional officers were hurt in the brawl, sending one of them to the hospital.

CORRECTIONS - St. Louis Correctional Facility (SLF)

Check-in, Gossip, and Info Thread.. - Prison Talk

LOCKDOWN-St. Louis Prison - PrisonOfficer.Org Forums

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: st. louis correctional facility, saint lousi correctional facility, michigan, corrections, prison, crime, law, gang, fight, brawl, corrections officers

Prisoners don't suffer enough...

2009-11-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

Really? Are you sure? Ok, maybe you are sure, but how much thought did you put into it? Prisons have been around for about 200 years in the United States, and we've yet to answer that question.

Many people feel that prisoners have it too easy. They hear about prisoners furthering their education, watching television and participating in rodeos. They read about prisoners’ free medical care, three meals a day and a roof over their heads. They come away thinking prisoners are pampered, on tax dollars no less, and they get angry. Very angry. They want to know how these criminals deserve an easier life than them, after all, they themselves are hardworking, productive taxpayers who don’t have a criminal record. They ask why the “bad” are rewarded, while the “good” are punished.

Prisoners may or may not be “bad,” and tax-payers may or may not be “good.” The truth is that prisons typically come from of our least privileged class of citizens; our most socio-economically deprived. It very well may be that prison poses a significant improvement in the quality of their lives. Does that mean that we should treat them less-humanely than that to which they are accustomed? What would that say of us? Prison may be better than the tenements many grew up in, than the untreated illnesses many suffered, than the hunger most endured daily as children and it may be a temporary relief from the lack of legitimate opportunities to survive and prosper (yeah, unattainable but ever pursued American Dream). But prison is not “easy street” for anyone. Prison is not living in Mom’s basement and letting her do your cooking and laundry. Hollering at you when supper is ready.

Prison is about deprivations. What prisoners receive is based on constitutional rights (42 USC 1983)- edible food, a dry clean bed. It’s based on the safety for guards as well as the prisoners - riots can break out over the seemingly smallest issues. And, lastly it seems, it is based on rehabilitation - or at least it began that way with the Quakers. The constitution provides rights to everyone, some of which, but not all – no, not all – are surrendered at the door. The most evident rights surrendered are those provided in the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Beyond that, prisoners are also deprived of liberty, goods & Services, autonomy, heterosexual contact, and security(i). Knee-jerk reactions to the rhetoric of others are worthless. Considering what prison must be like isn’t having empathy for a criminal, it is a necessary process in having a qualified opinion on the topic. So consider what these deprivations really mean and how you would feel in this situation.

The loss of liberty means confinement. In its extreme, this might be days spent in Solitary or years spent in a Super-Max facility. At its most lenient, this might mean a line rather than razor-wire forms the boundary that an inmate cannot cross. In either case, the weight of having no freedom of movement, no option to visit an ill relative or even buy shampoo is heavy and persistent. Yes, they “should have thought about that” before committing their crime, but that doesn’t lessen the impact.

The loss of access to goods and services affects a person’s identity. Consider how you’re your possessions help you to define yourself. All Americans define themselves in part, by their possessions. In prison, instead of pride in having a nice house, car, and clothes, there is shame in being assigned a number, a jumpsuit, and a toothbrush. Again, they should have thought of this, but the impact isn’t lessened.

The loss of autonomy is the loss of choices in daily routine. Prisoners are told when to get up, when to go to bed, when and what to eat, what kind of exercise they can access, what their surroundings will look like. There is very little in their lives that they can choose.

With the exception of conjugal visits, sex is prohibited in prison, however, according to a federal study, 12% of all federal prisoners admitted to having had homosexual sexual activity. Sexual urges are biological in nature and refraining from sex for extended periods of time may be one of the most difficult requirements posed upon prisoners. One major way in which humans define themselves is through contact with the opposite sex, so like most of these deprivations, the loss of heterosexual contact adds to the loss of a prisoner’s identity.

The loss of security in prison is staggering. Almost half of the prisoners questioned had been victims of assault, theft, and property damage (to what few possessions they have) within the six months preceding the interview. In prison, there’s no option to move to a safer neighborhood, to secure your personal space, to avoid certain areas that pose a danger.

The final consideration to be made, unquestionably, is not, “Is prison harsh enough.” The final question is, “Who will they be when they get out?” Will they have learned? Will they have legitimate opportunities that they didn’t before, or will they have learned new illegitimate tricks and be “hardened” from the prison experience?

Punishing severely might make society in general feel better initially, and there are folks out there who can feel better about themselves because they’ve never been to prison. Those folks – the unenlightened majority, it would seem - don’t like hearing about education or therapy programs. But does purely severe punishment and nothing else truly serve even those members of society in the long run? Equate it with this scenario: Going to the dentist may not feel good at the time, but it doesn’t take wisdom to know that healthier teeth without pain makes the trip worth it, for years to come. How we handle criminals shouldn’t be any different.

If you're one of the unenlightened, give the dentist a try, it's not that bad; in case you hadn't hear, black cats aren't really bad luck.

(i) Whitehead, Jones, Braswell. Exploring corrections in America, 2nd edition (2007). p 243.

Brandi Pool
A Texas Criminology Major

Charter for Compassion

2009-11-17T11:42:00.001-08:00

Bonnoe says: "The folks at the TED Prize have been working with partners around the world to fulfill the wish of best-selling author and former nun, Karen Armstrong – the Charter for Compassion. The Charter is a document collaboratively written with contributions from thousands of people from more than 100 countries. With a sense of urgency, the Charter is a call to action for all of us to live more compassionately with each other in the hopes of ending global suffering. People from every corner of the world – including Oslo, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, Tehran, Capetown, Sydney, San Francisco, Mumbai and more - have embraced the Charter’s inclusive message by affirming the Charter at the Charter for Compassion website and posting the official widget on their blogs in a show of solidarity (see here). It’s a powerful message and one that we wanted to share."

Charter for Compassion

Karen Armstrong's TED Prize: Charter for Compassion - Boing Boing

Technorati Tags: compassion, charter for compassion, ted, karen armstrong, prison, crime, law, human rights

New Guest Blogger: Brandi Pool

2009-11-12T15:07:00.000-08:00

We have a new guest blogger here at Genpop.org, Brandi, who is a criminology student in Odessa, Tx. Here are the answers to the questions I posed to guest bloggers:

1. Are there any circumstances under which you would support state sanctioned killing?
None that I can imagine at this point. I was asked this question this morning in my Law & Society class by a class mate, “you mean if your daughter was raped and murdered you wouldn’t want the person who did it to die?” My reply was that in that situation I wouldn’t have the ability to make a rational decision on the matter and that emotion shouldn’t play a role in determining the fate of another person. See 1st attachment.

2. Do you believe there are situations in which children should be tried as adults? If yes, which situations.
Laws surrounding this issue in Texas currently seem well thought out, but the age at which you can be tried as an adult varies from state to state – with some of them being ridiculous. I believe North Carolina permits it at age 7! If I were to say yes to this question it would be based on the individual. How close to 18 are they? Whether or not there were extenuating circumstances, if they had a long record of felonies, if animal abuse was a part of their history, if their crime “shocked the conscience,” if they seemed unable to be rehabilitated, then yes, I don’t think they should benefit from a clean slate at the age of 18. The death penalty needs to remain unconstitutional for those under 18, regardless of my overall opinion on the death penalty.

3. Name one thing that could change in the American Justice System that you think would make a massive difference in the public's safety and US crime rates.
My goal is to become a college professor with the privilege to remain gainfully employed, to further the Liberal Education of others, and – here’s the selfish part – to do research that can and hopefully WILL influence our state and federal legislators on editing current and creating new laws that BENEFIT everyone. I’m cautiously optimistic, willingly sounding cliché. To address the real question you’ve asked, however, the second attachment should cover it.

Brandi also writes for Amazon Cares and you can follow her on Twitter here: @TxCriMjr

I look forward to her first post! If you are interested in becoming a guest blogger here on Genpop.org, read the info posted at : http://www.genpop.org/2009/11/guest-bloggers-needed.html

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, blogger, criminology

Goodnight John Allen Muhammad

2009-11-10T16:44:00.001-08:00

John Allen Muhammad, the supposed sniper that terrorized Washington DC for 3 weeks in 2002, is set to die tonight at 9pm.

His lawyer insists he is innocent. As we learned from the Cameron Todd Willingham case, this could very possibly be true. Which means a few things:

1. An innocent man could be murdered legally tonight.
2. A very guilty murderer remains at large and could kill again at any moment.
3. Whether this man is innocent or guilty, a law-abiding, innocent family will be punished for loving him.

All in your name. Think about it. Think about your tax dollars (a lot of them) being spent on this. Mull it over tonight while your government kills another human being. Just think about it. It's all I ask.

Technorati Tags: prison, death penalty, capital punishment, john allen muhammad, sniper, dc, washington, death sentence, death row, inmate, execution, crime, law, murder

Guest Bloggers Needed!

2009-11-05T12:44:00.001-08:00

The business is picking up, the boy is walking, and living in the big city just has a tendency to suck up your time. Doing what? I can't put my finger on it, but it seems I had a lot more time to do things like blog on Genpop.org when I was living in Mexico. In any case, I love this blog, I love this web site and I don't want it's readers to get bored and abandon it, so I'm looking for someone or several people who want to blog about prison issues, treatment of inmates, the anti-death penalty movement, wrongful convictions and prison books.

Candidates must be fully literate, good with English grammar and spelling (funnily, I typed that wrong and had to edit) and have a serious interest in these issues whether they are professionals or not. I don't want death penalty supporters, I don't want tough-on-crimers. I would like thoughtful, intelligent individuals that can look at empirical data that is widely available from one coast to another, and see that the way we treat our criminals is not helping to make us safer.

While I have absolutely nothing against any religion, I would like to keep religion out of this blog so as not to alienate anyone. This blog is about prison and the death penalty and how both of these punishments simply do not work.

You must also agree that anything you post is subject to my own personal edits. Yeah. That's how we're running things over here. Big brother style. Take it or leave it. (I can't think of any situation that would call for these edits, so long as we stick to the subject matter).

Benefits to you include:

- Doing something good for people who really need it, and for your community
- Educating the public on very serious issues that threaten our personal safety.
- Being able to plug your own related web site or organization every once in a while.

Send me your full name, email address, location, what your relationship to the issues surrounding prison is, an example of your writing and answer these 3 questions:

1. Are there any circumstances under which you would support state sanctioned killing?

2. Do you believe there are situations in which children should be tried as adults? If yes, which situations.

3. Name one thing that could change in the American Justice System that you think would make a massive difference in the public's safety and US crime rates.

If you don't want to be a guest blogger but still want to answer these questions, I welcome the answers in the comments. Otherwise email your application to vlu777@gmail.com

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, bloggers wanted, blogging, bloggers

Prison Twitter List

2009-11-05T12:21:00.001-08:00

So I started a Twitter list for all my favorite prison related tweeple, which you can see here: http://twitter.com/vlu77/prison-related - I skimmed through all the people I followed and picked out the members of the list, but 5000 twitter accounts is a lot so I probably missed a few here and there. If you'd like to be added to it, @reply me, don't DM. I get too many direct messages, I never read them. I wish I had time, but I barely have time to run this blog. Which brings me to my next post, coming in a few minutes.

Technorati Tags: twitter lists, twitter, prison, crime, law

Prosecutorial Immunity

2009-11-04T10:26:00.001-08:00

SCOTUSblog on prosecutorial immunity in the case of Curtis McGhee:

Prosecutors are normally immune from suit for their official actions during a trial. Tomorrow, in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the Court will consider whether that immunity extends to actions taken in preparation for trial. The stakes in this technical question are high because the prosecutors’ actions at issue in the case resulted in two men – the respondents here – being incarcerated for twenty-five years based on falsified evidence.

In 1978, Curtis McGhee and Terry Harrington were convicted of murdering a retired police officer in Pottawattamie County, Iowa and sentenced to life in prison. Twenty-five years later, the release of new files in the cases revealed that prosecutors had fabricated the testimony of a lead witness at their trials and failed to disclose evidence about an alternative suspect to the defense. The Iowa Supreme Court vacated Harrington’s sentence, and McGhee pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for time served. Both prisoners were freed.

After their release, McGhee and Harrington sued the prosecutors and the county officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court ruled that the prosecutors could be held liable for violating McGhee and Harrington’s substantive due process rights, and the Eighth Circuit affirmed that conclusion.

Amy Howe has previously written on the certiorari‑stage briefs in the case at SCOTUSwiki; you can read her discussion here.

The two main issues discussed by both parties in their merits briefs are, first, whether the respondents McGhee and Harrington can establish a constitutional violation by the Pottawattamie County prosecutors; and, second, whether the prosecutors have immunity from suit under § 1983 for such a violation.

In 1976, the Supreme Court held in Imbler v. Pachtman that prosecutors have absolute immunity from liability for their official actions during trial. That conclusion rested largely on policy reasons: the Court emphasized that prosecutors must be able to pursue criminals with “courage and independence,” and without worrying about the threat of lawsuits.

Read the rest: How Broad Is Prosecutorial Immunity? | SCOTUSblog

Anyone who knowingly introduces falsified evidence in court and it results in an innocent man's freedom being taken away, especially for that amount of time, ought to be treated like a criminal. I don't see the question here. It's pretty straight forward to me.

Technorati Tags: prosecutorial immunity, scotus, curtis mcghee, prison, crime, law, murder

Featured Prison Revisit: Pleasant Valley State Prison, CA

2009-11-04T10:04:00.001-08:00

I covered Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California back in July, but we're going to bring it up again because it is where Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan has been transferred to from Corcoran recently.

Sirhan is now 65 years old, and remains a target in the prison system. He had been in protective housing at Corcoran after being single out as a potential terrorist threat. He had been in isolation for 6 years, and was concerned about his safety at Pleasant Valley. At Pleasant Valley, he would still have his own cell but would interact with more inmates than at Corcoran.

Pleasant Valley is a minimum to medium security prison, unlike the minimum to maximum security Corcoran. Pleasant Valley State Prison is grossly overcrowded.

The Associated Press: Robert F. Kennedy's killer is moved to new site

Technorati Tags: sirhan sirhan, robert f kennedy, bobby kennedy, assassination, assassin, prison, crime, law, murder, corcoran state prison, pleasant valley state prison, california

The Dying Death Penalty in Maryland

2009-10-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

The death penalty, in Maryland and elsewhere, is dying. Its death rattle is audible in court rooms and state houses around the nation. And well it should, because it just doesn't work the way it's applied. So maybe the time has arrived to end all the delaying and posturing by doing away with capital punishment once and for all. Governor O'Malley, a death penalty opponent, tried and failed but settled for a compromise. And here we are again, hung up on the protocols of taking a life by lethal injection.

The death penalty in America is an elaborate game of angles and loopholes that anybody on death row can play with the help of a willing attorney who'll file a lifetime of appeals that have little or no relationship to the condemned person's transgression. And all the while it costs $50,000 a year to house a prisoner. There are currently five inmates on death row in Maryland

The death penalty in Maryland has, in effect, been suspended for three years in a dispute over the manner in which the punishment is applied. And the moratorium was recently extended by indirection when a review panel of legislators found "serious flaws" in the new regulations that were proposed by the O'Malley administration. The committee attempted to subpoena all 24 state's attorneys to testify because of differences over how the death penalty is applied in the various counties. The subpoenas were dropped.

Read the rest: The Slow Death of Capital Punishment | Politics & Media | SPLICETODAY.COM

Technorati Tags: death penalty, death row, death sentence, capital punishment, moratorium, maryland, crime, law, prison, inmate

It should NEVER be too late for claims of innocence

2009-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

News out of Texas:

It's not entirely unusual for supporters of a death row inmate to throw everything but the kitchen sink out there to make their case, but a fax from "Supporters of Reginald Blanton," have made an interesting allegation. Blanton is scheduled to be executed tomorrow.
Reginald Blanton who faces execution on October 27, 2009 has
just been denied commutation of his death sentence to a lesser
penalty by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. This is in the
face of being advised that there is no physical evidence of guilt.
There is evidence of a shoe print on the door of the murder
victim's apartment which does not match the shoes worn by Blanton
either is style of shoe sole or in size. Charles Aycock, an
attorney and member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, met with
Blanton and refused to listen to Blanton's description of his
innocence and unfair legal process. Aycock told Blanton that the
Board was not interested in his innocence. Blanton asked if the
Board was not the last forum to which the issue of innocence could
be brought. Aycock told Blanton again that the Board was not
interested in his innocence. He also refused to listen to any
explanation by Blanton for the number of infractions reflected in
Blanton's prison record as being the result of Blanton's stand for
fair treatment of inmates and compliance by the Texas Criminal
Justice Department with their own regulations. Recent coverage of
the bias of the Board in the Houston Chronicle is confirmed by the
treatment Blanton received. Blanton said it is evident that
Aycock had not read the petition for clemency.
To be fair, I'm not sure it is the board's job to retry the case.

So, what? Just kill him instead? Like they did Cameron Todd Willingham? Yes, due to a technicality, ignore the claims of innocence, and kill the bastard. Because it is the structure and technicalities of the American justice system that keep it's crime rates so respectably low, right? *shakes head*

TEXAS DEATH PENALTY Blog | The Dallas Morning News

Technorati Tags: death penalty, death row, death sentence, capital punishment, execution, texas, reginald blanton, innocence, crime, law, prison, inmate

Prison Book: A Prison Diary by Jeffrey Archer

2009-10-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

A Prison Diary by Jeffrey Archer is about prison in the UK. Jeffrey Archer was a bestselling novelist and British Lord. He was convicted of perjury and sentenced to four years in prison. This is volume one in a series of 3 books recounting his time in British prisons, starting with BMP Belmarsh, a notorious, maximum security lockup. This first of three was written while he was incarcerated at Belmarsh.

The book describes daily life in British lockup and explains the daily routine as well as the unexpected moments he experienced while at Belmarsh.

Jeffrey Archer is critical of the British prison system and questions many different policies, including sending small time criminals and short-term offenders to a high-security prison like Belmarsh, explaining that it makes a bad situation worse.

While I would hardly describe this book as excellent, it was extremely interesting to someone who almost exclusively reads books about the American prison system. There are some blaring differences and some surprising similarities. It is definitely worth a read, along with the other two books in the series, Purgatory: A Prison Diary Volume 2 and Heaven: A Prison Diary Volume 3

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: prison diary, jeffrey archer, bmp belmarsh, belmarsh, prison, crime, law, incarceration

DNA Test Waivers, or Rather, Bull%&*$

2009-10-22T10:07:00.001-07:00

The Plain Error Blog at the Innocence Project of Florida just keeps getting better and better. I highly recommend subscribing to the feed.

Plain Error recently posted about DNA test waivers, which basically make federal defendants waive their right to DNA testing if they plead guilty. I really don't understand this, and I will never understand anyone's opposition to DNA testing whenever possible. Pre-trial, post-conviction, post-execution, it doesn't matter. Should the truth not matter more than anything? More than the cost of DNA testing, more that the possibility of the authorities being wrong? I believe DNA testing should be allowed, automatically, for any defendant, convicted felon or death row inmate no matter how long it's been since conviction. We should, first and foremost, be concerned with the rights of human beings, and denying a potentially innocent person the right to prove that innocence is a violation of basic human rights, even if 9 out of every 10 are proven guilty.

During the Bush administration, a policy was passed requiring some federal defendants to abandon their right to DNA testing, mainly those who plead guilty. These waivers deny the defendant DNA testing, a federal right granted to them in the Innocence Protection Act of 2004, even if new evidence emerges.
Prosecutors who use them, including some of the nation’s most prominent U.S. attorneys, say people who have admitted guilt should not be able to file frivolous petitions for testing. They say the wave of DNA exonerations has little impact in federal court because all those found to be innocent were state prisoners, and the waivers apply only to federal charges. DNA evidence is used far more frequently in state courts.
This pretty much undermines the 2004 law, since a majority of federal inmates plea guilty (97%). Prosecutors often present the waiver alongside a plea agreement, and failure to sign the waiver breaks the agreement seeking lighter prison time.

Read more: Justice Department to Review DNA Test Waivers | Innocence Project of Florida

Technorati Tags: dna testing, dna test waivers, federal prison, innocence project, prison, crime, law

Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

2009-10-22T09:18:00.001-07:00

From the Texas Moratorium Network:

It is time to march and rally to abolish the death penalty. This Saturday at 2 PM in Austin at the Texas Capitol is the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Three innocent, exonerated former death row prisoners will be among the special guests at theTenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24, 2009 on the South Steps of the Capitol at 11th and Congress. Also attending will be the friend of Todd Willingham, Elizabeth Gilbert, a Houston teacher and playwright who first investigated his innocence and is still fighting to exonerate him. Plus, Todd’s last lawyer Walter "Skip" Reaves.

Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network said: “The last request of Todd Willingham to his parents was 'please don’t ever stop fighting to vindicate me.' Please attend the march to support the Willingham family as they continue to fight to prove that Todd Willingham was innocent."
10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24 in Austin

Panel Discussion: Friday, October 23, the night before the march, there will be a panel discussion on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin at 7 PM with Elizabeth Gilbert (the penpal of Todd Willingham who first investigated and then advocated for his innocence), Shujaa Graham and Curtis McCarty, who will both speak about what it is like to be innocent and sentenced to death. Shujaa spent three years on death row in California. Curtis spent 19 years on death row in Oklahoma before his exoneration and release in 2007. The panel is in the Sinclair Suite (room 3.128) of the Texas Student Union on Guadalupe Street.

Schedule for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
Saturday Oct 24 in Austin
1 PM – 2 PM Press conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room (2.W6) inside the Capitol building. The purpose is to allow the media to ask questions and conduct interviews with the speakers listed above.
2 PM We start to gather at the Texas Capitol on the sidewalk by the South gate of the Capitol entrance on Congress Avenue at 11th Street (Map)
2:30 or 2:45 Start to march down Congress Ave to 6th Street and back to Capitol
3:00 or 3:15 Rally on the South Steps of the Texas Capitol with speakers.

Speakers at the march will include three innocent, now-exonerated death row prisoners (Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty and Ron Keine), Jeff Blackburn (Chief Counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas), Jeanette Popp (a mother whose daughter was murdered but who asked the DA not to seek the death penalty), Elizabeth Gilbert (the penpal of Todd Willingham mentioned in The New Yorker article who first investigated his innocence and helped his family find a fire expert to investigate), Walter Reaves (the last attorney for Todd Willingham, who fought for him through the execution and continues to fight to exonerate him), Terri Been whose brother Jeff Wood is on death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone, and Anna Terrell the mother of Reginald Blanton who is scheduled for execution in Texas on Oct 27 three days after the march, plus other family members of people currently on Texas death row.

Post-march Strategy Meeting: Immediately after the march on October 24, we plan to hold a networking and strategy meeting inside the capitol. Everyone is invited to attend the strategy session and help us plan how to move forward towards abolition in Texas. A major aspect of the session will be for family members of people on death row to share their stories and learn from each other and us how tThe strategy session will start about 30 minutes after the last speaker at the march and last about an hour and a half.

If you are in Houston and want to ride a bus to Austin for the march, e-mail abolition.movement@hotmail.com to confirm a seat on the bus from Houston to Austin for the march on Saturday. They will meet at S.H.A.P.E. Center, 3815 Live Oak, 9:30 Saturday morning in Houston, have a press conference at 10:00 where they will shout it from the rooftop that Todd Willingham was innocent. Then they will leave for the march in Austin. They will return to Houston after the march and rally.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2006 that in the modern judicial system there has not been “a single case–not one–in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.” On Saturday Oct 24 in Austin, people from across Texas will gather and shout out that Todd Willingham was innocent to show the world and Rick Perry that there are people in Texas who are convinced that Todd was innocent and that executions in Texas should be stopped before another innocent person is executed”.

The annual march is organized by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and Kids Against the Death Penalty and sponsored by over 50 various organizations. For the full list of sponsors, click here.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed the petition to Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas to acknowledge that the fire in the Cameron Todd Willingham case was not arson, therefore no crime was committed and on February 17, 2004, Texas executed an innocent man.

More than 3,260 people have signed. We are also working with another organization (CredoMobile) that collected 2,617 on their own similar petition. So together we are nearing 6,000 petition signatures to turn in to Rick Perry on October 24 during the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin at the Texas Capitol.

Thank you also to the many people who have donated to help us organize the march. We have reached our goal of raising $1,000 for the march! Your contribution now will help us continue to fight the death penalty after the march.

You can make a tax-deductible donation by credit card or by sending a check to:

Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 78731

Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so donations are tax-deductible.

We are making a difference! After ten years of organizing the Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, we have convinced many people to change their minds from supporting to opposing the death penalty. Just this week, former Texas Governor Mark White announced he has changed his mind about the death penalty.

Former Gov. Mark White, who was involved in the executions of 20 condemned criminals, says it may be time for Texas to do away with the death penalty. The death penalty is no longer a deterrent to murder, and long stays for the condemned on death row shows justice is not swift, White said. More than anything, he said, he has grown concerned that the system is not administered fairly and that there are too many risks of executing innocent people. White said the state needs to take a serious look at replacing the death penalty with life without parole. “There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don't look up one day and determined that we as the state of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent,” said White.

If you live outside Texas and can not attend the march Saturday, please call Governor Perry and leave him a voice mail saying that you are participating by telephone in the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. Tell him to stop covering up the execution of an innocent man. Tell him to admit Todd Willingham was innocent. Tell him to Stop Executions before he executes another innocent man.

Gov. Rick Perry's Voice Mail - 512 463 1782.

Technorati Tags: texas, death penalty, death sentence, death row, capital punishment, execution, lethal injection, cameron todd willingham, texas moratorium, rick perry, governor, march, crime, law, prison

Featured Prison: Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison

2009-10-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison houses Georgia's death row inmates, otherwise known as inmates under death sentence or UDS inmates. It is also home to the death chamber, where inmates are executed via lethal injection. Most recently, Mark McClain.

The prison opened in 1968 in Jackson, Georgia and has a capacity for 1785 maximum security or UDS inmates. It is the largest prison in the state of Georgia. It serves as the diagnostic center or processing center for the Georgia Department of Corrections.

This is also where Troy Anthony Davis is housed, a death row inmate who has maintained his innocence since his conviction in 1991. After his conviction, a vast majority of the prosecutions witnesses recanted their testimonies and further evidence supporting the theory that someone else committed the crime surfaced. This past August, the Supreme Court ordered a hearing in Troy Davis' case.

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

|| Georgia Department of Corrections ||

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison - Prison Talk

Hard Time | Photos | - National Geographic Channel

Maximum Security: American Justice | Programmes | National Geographic Channel

Troy Davis case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Troy Anthony Davis

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, death row, death sentence, death penalty, capital punishment, execution, troy davis, georgia, jackson, georgia diagnostic and classifcation prison, mark, mcclain

Mark White: Review the Death Penalty

2009-10-20T11:46:00.001-07:00

From Plain Error at the Innocence Project of Florida:

As Texas Governor Rick Perry shamelessly insists on plowing ahead with the October 27th execution of Reggie Blanton (for a good article on the Blanton case go HERE), former Texas Governor Mark White is urging for a review of the death penalty in Texas following the recent hullabaloo surrounding Perry’s actions relating to the 2004 execution of Todd Willingham. A Houston Chronicle article today quoted the former Governor as saying he believes the “system is so unreliable it creates an unnecessary possibility that an innocent person would be executed in Texas.” Well, kudos to Governor White, but he only got it partially correct. The system he refers to is so unreliable that it does not merely create the possibility that an innocent person would be executed in Texas, it in fact permitted an innocent person to be executed in Texas. His name was Todd Willingham. While Perry appallingly refuses to come to terms with (or even speak somewhat honestly about) Willingham’s execution, Governor White (who presided over the execution of twenty individuals during his time in office) has some more intelligent things to say, e.g.
There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don’t look up one day and determined that we as the state of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent

Read the rest: Former Texas Governor Calls for Review of Death Penalty in Texas | Innocence Project of Florida

Technorati Tags: texas, death penalty, capital punishment, execution, crime, law, prison, governor, rick perry, reggie blanton, mark white, death row, inmate

Was Perry Briefed Before Willingham Died?

2009-10-15T10:32:00.001-07:00

Just 88 minutes before the February 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, Gov. Rick Perry's office received by fax a crucial arson expert's opinion that later ignited a political firestorm over whether Texas, on Perry's watch, used botched forensic evidence to send a man to his death.

In a letter sent Feb. 14, three days before Willingham was scheduled to die, Perry had been asked to postpone the execution. The condemned man's attorney argued that the newly obtained expert evidence showed Willingham had not set the house fire that killed his daughters, 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron, two days before Christmas in 1991.

On Feb. 17, the day of the execution, Perry's office got the five-page faxed report at 4:52 p.m., according to documents the Houston Chronicle obtained in response to a public records request.

But it's unclear from the records whether he read it that day. Perry's office has declined to release any of his or his staff's comments or analysis of the reprieve request.

A statement from Perry spokesman Chris Cutrone, sent to the Chronicle late Friday, said that “given the brevity of (the) report and the general counsel's familiarity with all the other facts in the case, there was ample time for the general counsel to read and analyze the report and to brief the governor on its content.”

wrongful-convictions: Perry's office quiet on expert's arson report

Technorati Tags: texas, governor, rick perry, caermon todd willingham, execution, death penalty, capital punishment, death row, innocence, wrongful conviction, prison, crime, law

Shackling Female Inmates During Labor

2009-10-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

This grossly torturous practice is finally being condemned:

I’m not sure if this has been posted here yet, but its been all over the web recently. Earlier this month, in a 6-5 decision, an en banc 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned last year’s decision by a three judge panel for the Circuit and held that constitutional protections against shackling pregnant women during labor had been clearly established by decisions of the Supreme Court and the lower courts. The full decision is available HERE.

The Americn Civil Liberties Union, which represented the prisoner who brought the complaint, recently issued a Press Release, described the facts of the case as follows:

[Shawanna] Nelson was a 29-year-old non-violent offender who was six months pregnant with her second child when she was incarcerated by the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADOC) in June 2003. Three months later, after going into labor, she was taken to a local hospital where correctional officers shackled her legs to opposite sides of the bed. Nelson remained shackled to the bed for several hours of labor until she was finally taken to the delivery room.

The shackles caused Nelson cramps and intense pain, as she could not adjust her position during contractions. She was unshackled during delivery, but was immediately re-shackled after the birth of her son. After childbirth, the use of shackles caused her to soil the sheets of her bed because she could not be unshackled quickly enough to get to a bathroom.

8th Circuit Court of Appeals Rejoins Humanity and Condemns Shackling Of Pregnant Prisoners In Labor | Innocence Project of Florida

Technorati Tags: prison, law, crime, inmate, women, pregnancy, shackles, labor

Featured Prison: Northeast Correctional Center

2009-10-14T10:08:00.001-07:00

The Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, Missouri, opened in 1988 and has a capacity of 1,975 high - medium security inmates.

In 2008, inmates and filmakers collaborated on several projects including:

The single-channel video Time and Time Again was produced during an extended collaborative project with inmates at Northeast Correctional Center (NECC), a close-security men’s prison in Bowling Green, Missouri. The script is written as a long list of common clichés, proverbs, and other familiar sayings about time, arranged to create a through-line as it progresses. Filmed inside the prison, the phrases are recited by a group of 20 actors from NECC and are edited into quick succession. The language is by nature generic and overly familiar, phrases we have heard over and over, but who is speaking them makes all the difference to their meaning.

Jan Estep » Time and Doing Time

Recently, NECC has been in the news because an inmate at the facility threatened to kill President Barack Obama in a letter. The inmate, Josh Randall McCallum, faces federal charges that could land him five more years in prison.

Missouri inmate charged with threatening to kill President Obama in letter mailed from prison

MO Department of Corrections - Northeast Correctional Center

Northeast Correctional Center - Missouri - Profile - Prison Talk

Alberici Enterprises: State of Missouri Northeast Correctional Center

Northeast Correctional Center

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, assassination, threat, barack obama, president, inmate, letter, northeast correctional center, missouri, bowling green

Prison Book: 4,000 Days by Warren Fellows

2009-10-09T10:20:00.001-07:00

4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison. Alright, so this book isn't about the American Prison system but it's a fantastic read anyway. Warren Fellows is an Australian who was imprisoned in Thailand for drug trafficking. Fellows was locked up for 11 years, or 4,000 days, along with professional rugby player and former Olympian, Paul Hayward. While in prison in Thailand, Fellows became addicted to the very drug he had been trafficking. His conviction was overturned on appeal and he received a royal pardon in 1989.

The book, 4,000 Days is a journal of Warren Fellows' time in Thai prison. It is extremely unpleasant, horrifying and shocking. By the time you put the book down, you find yourself wondering how any human being can go through that and come out relatively alright. For those of you who have seen the movie Brokedown Palace, this is 200 times worse. I read this book before my return to Thailand 3 years ago and I couldn't help but think about it the whole time I was there, about 3 weeks or so. A spectacular trip otherwise, I kept thinking about the fact that there were prisons in this country that treat people the way I read about in that book. Haunting to say the least.

4,000 Days is a fantastic read and a definite recommendation to anyone wanting to know about prisons and justice systems around the world.

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: prison, thailand, warren fellows, crime, law

The High Cost of the Death Penalty

2009-10-08T15:42:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday I had an argument with @Imajyn about the cost of the death penalty. I caught this tweet:

I'm not talking about the death penalty. I <3 the death penalty. WAY cheaper than life in prison. I'm talking about eugenics (http://twitter.com/Imajyn/status/4664075202)

And I thought I ought to educate the fellow. Some of the things that were said in the ensuing argument would have been amusing had we not been talking about a life or death issue. It got me thinking about how amazing it is to me that people still believe in this myth, that the death penalty costs less than life in prison. Even when you stop to think about it, it doesn't make sense, and yet people insist it is true. I suppose none of them are really stopping to think about it.

Regardless, I was looking for some good facts to sling his way and prove my point, when I came across this excellent article in the New York Times:

... keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. North Carolina has put 43 people to death since 1976 at $2.16 million per execution. The eventual cost to taxpayers in Maryland for pursuing capital cases between 1978 and 1999 is estimated to be $186 million for five executions.

Perhaps the most extreme example is California, whose death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year beyond the cost of imprisoning convicts for life. The state has executed 13 people since 1976 for a total of about $250 million per execution. This is a state whose prisons are filled to bursting (unconstitutionally so, the courts say) and whose government has imposed doomsday-level cuts to social services, health care, schools and parks.

Read more: Editorial - High Cost of Death Row - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: death row, death penalty, capital punishment, budget, cost, execution, prison, crime, law

DNA Exoneration Project Gets Federal Grant Funds

2009-10-08T11:08:00.001-07:00

The newly-created Colorado Justice Review Project, which will review 5,000 rapes, murders and manslaughters to ascertain if defendants were wrongly convicted, has received $1.2 million in federal grant funds.

The DNA project will be administered by the Colorado Attorney General's Office and the Denver District Attorney's Office.

Under the program, some people previously convicted of felonies can apply to have DNA testing performed in their case, according to the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

"DNA is one of law enforcement's most effective tools for convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent," Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in a release. "These grant funds will allow us to use DNA to ensure that no Coloradan has been wrongly convicted."

Suthers said that in addition to working with the Denver District Attorney's Office, he will work with several other organizations, including the University of Denver College of Law, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Public Defender's Office.

The organizations will help run the program and select which cases will be reviewed.

Read more : wrongful-convictions: DNA exoneration project gets $1.2 million

Technorati Tags: dna, colorado, exoneration, dna testing, innocence, wrongful convictions, prison, crime, law

Support the Innocence Project of Florida

2009-10-08T10:59:00.001-07:00

Wilton Dedge’s Bike Blast | Innocence Project of Florida

This weekend, October 10-11, 2009, the Annual Bike Blast will take place in Titusville, FL. This event is very special to us because it is coordinated by Wilton Dedge, who was exonerated in 2004 after DNA testing proved he did not commit the rape for which he was convicted and imprisoned.

Wilton owns a great biker bar in historic Titusville called the Southern Room (345 S Washington Ave) which will be the epicenter of the the event. They expect there to be as many as 5,000 bikes at this 2-day event.

The best part is that they will be having a Poker Run to raise money for the Innocence Project of Florida, which will assist our efforts to find and free the wrongfully convicted. You can view the Poker Run flier and register for the Poker Run. If you would like to be a vendor at the Bike Blast, you can see vendor information and fill out this vendor form.

Come to this great event and support Wilton and the Innocence Project of Florida. For more information, click here.

Technorati Tags: innocence project, florida, prison, crime, law

Featured Prison: Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

2009-10-07T10:08:00.001-07:00

A maximum security prison in Lucasville, Ohio, Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is home to Ohio's death house, where they execute death row inmates.

The prison opened in 1972 has about 1350 inmates and 671 staff. On site, it runs a farming program and the harvested crops are donated to a homeless shelter.

In 1993, a riot broke out at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, during which the prison was controlled by 450 inmates. Several factors contributed to causing the riot, including overcrowding and "discontent in the general population that the authorities were going to force Muslim prisoners to undergo tuberculosis vaccinations in violation of their religious beliefs. During negotiations, the inmates did not feel they were being taken seriously, and voted as a group to kill an Officer in retaliation. They handcuffed Officer Vallandingham, who they had taken hostage, and killed him by strangling him with a dumbell from the prison weight room. During those eleven days, representatives from the Sunni Muslims, Aryan Brotherhood, and Gangster Disciples met every day in an improvised leadership council." (Wikipedia). $40 million dollars in damage is said to have been caused by the riot. Since the riot, the prison is said to be haunted.

As the home of Ohio state executions, this prison has been in the spotlight lately. The state of Ohio has halted executions until the lethal injection procedure is overhauled in an attempt to avoid another botched execution. Last month, Ohio botched the execution of Romell Broom, making it the first time in modern American history that an execution has been abandoned after it began. A grueling, painful two hours after it began.

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility - Ohio DRC

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility/Prison-Lucasville, Ohio - Prison Talk

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

Haunted Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility Riot

Another week to live: Ohio delays execution of Romell Broom after officials can't find inmate's usable vein | Mail Online

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: prison, law, crime, capital punishment, death penalty, death row, death house, execution, lethal injection, southern ohio correctional facility, ohio

Cameron Todd Willingham Meeting Post-poned

2009-10-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

Looks like Governor Perry of Texas doesn't want it confirmed that he killed an innocent man:

A well-placed source has confirmed to TIME that Perry ignored the written pleas from several members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, including two of his own appointees, to reappoint the board's well-respected chairman, Austin lawyer Sam Bassett. Bassett's departure has resulted in a delay in an important investigation of evidence in a death-penalty case that critics say will prove an innocent man was executed on Perry's watch.

...

Much of the case for Willingham's innocence rests on the conclusions of two prominent forensic arson experts including Craig Beyler, who was scheduled to testify before the commission last week. But Perry's new forensics chairman, Williamson County district attorney John Bradley, a well-known, tough-on-crime prosecutor, cancelled last week's meeting on Willingham, saying he needed time to get up to speed on the commission's work. Beyler's testimony in the Willingham case has now been put off until Bradley sets a hearing, and he has not indicated when, or if, he will, saying he needs to talk to state leaders about the role of the commission. So far, leading Democrats in the state senate who pressed for the creation of the commission are praising Bradley's integrity, but say they will call a hearing in a few weeks to hear what his plans are.

Read more: Texas Forensics Board Gutted Ahead of Death-Penalty Case - TIME

Technorati Tags: cameron tod willingham, texas, forensics board, rick perry, governor perry, death penalty, execution, capital punishment, innocence, wrongful conviction, prison, crime, law

Executions Halted in Ohio

2009-10-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

There's something fundamentally wrong with the logic that it's totally humane to kill so long as the victim feels no pain. But if the possibility of pain is going to stop the state of Ohio from killing, so be it.

The governor of Ohio has halted executions in the state three weeks after a prisoner was subjected to a gruelling two hour attempt to kill him by lethal injection.

The governor, Ted Strickland, issued reprieves for two murderers facing imminent execution after a court blocked further attempts to put to death Romell Broom who endured "torture" as nurses repeatedly sought to insert needles into his arms and ankle, puncturing muscle and hitting bone.

Yesterday, a federal court put Broom's execution for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl on hold at least until after a hearing on 30 November. Another court temporarily delayed Thursday's execution of Lawrence Reynolds after his lawyers argued that Ohio's state executioners are incompetent.

Strickland then called off the executions of Reynolds and Darryl Durr at least until next spring while Ohio reviews its procedures for using lethal injections, the second time it has had to do so in the past three years. The state is considering using lethal injections into the bone marrow or muscles of inmates as alternatives to the traditional intravenous procedure.

The governor said he is prepared to halt the execution of a third prisoner, scheduled to be put to death in December, if the problems have not been resolved.

Read more: Ohio governor halts executions

Of course, there has never been anything humane about lethal injection (http://www.ocucc.org/DeathPenalty/Problems.htm) whether you believe in the death penalty or not.

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, death penalty, capital punishment, execution, lethal injection, ohio, ted strickland

I'm back!

2009-10-06T09:50:00.001-07:00

Moving two countries away is not easy, but I did it again. With a dog. And a baby. Im not quite sure how I did it, but apparently I did as I am here now in chilly Vancouver, BC. Tanless, be-socked and exhausted.

Anyway, in the midst of moving puppies on planes and driving from Calgary and shopping at Ikea every ten minutes to fill up our new space, I didn't have any time to read any news or keep up to date on what's happening in the criminal justice world. So send me some stories, tell me what's happened in the last month and maybe I'll post some of your suggestions. Tweet me @vlu77 or email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Also, be sure to stay tuned this week for the return of the Featured Prison and Prison Book Review

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law

Damon From Death Row

2009-09-03T11:23:00.001-07:00

This was sent to me from Ronja in Norway who is pen pals with Damon, a death row inmate at the Polunsky Unit, Texas.

This is the story of one of my best friends, which I met through a internet page that offers penpals on death row. I thought to myself, “this is great. Why shouldn't I use some of my money and time, to give another person in another country an easier day?”

I started looking trough the list of inmates, and after about an hour I came over a guy named Damon. In that very instant I knew I had to write to him. There was something special about his eyes, they were so.. How should I put it? Secretive. But at the same time they told an entire life story. The pain and fear in them, and at the same time this hard look, as if he are hiding something. His feelings, sort of like he was trying with everything in him to not let the world see who he really was, and what he felt.

I wrote him a long letter, and after about a month I got an answer. In the first letter he sent me some of the lyrics he had written, rap lyrics. I don't have any of them here at the moment, but I will share something he wrote for me further down.

His writing in my opinion is really good. The way he can tell you something one person would use an entire book for, in only one sentence, one line. His vocabulary, knowledge. It really made me think; what was he doing there? How could such a wise person end up in that place?

I asked him what crime he committed, but he didn't answer. He is appealing his case, so he cant talk about it, in fear of ruining it. If I remember correctly, that was something his lawyer told him. But the crime isn't important, and I just asked out of my natural curiosity. The truth is, I don't care what he did. He says hes innocent, I don't question that, because whether or not he is innocent, it isn't an issue I care to think about. Why would I let mistakes he have made in the past, ruin his future?

Damon has an 6 year old son, who was born shortly after he went to death row. A beautiful boy, just like his dad. They are so much alike, it is almost scary in a way. I don't think I've ever seen a father and a son more alike then they are.

Damon has never gotten to hold his son, feed him, hear his first words, or hold his hands as he tries to learn how to walk. He didn't get to follow him to the first day of school. He hasn't even got to stroke his chin, or even gotten to be somewhat close to him in a physical way. Can you imagine that? If you were to meet your son or your daughter, but you couldn't reach out for them.

Imagine knowing your son is running around in the streets, and that if he ever were to get into trouble, you could never help him, you could never protect him. Never, not even once, in his entire life, have you gotten the chance to give him a hug.

I can't imagine the pain he feels. Can you?

People seem to think that the inmates on death row are evil people who deserve it. Not a person, but an inmate, who never can be good for anyone, or contribute with anything. Well, I'll tell you something. Never in my life have I met a smarter person than Damon. Never in my life have I met a person more good. He is caring and loving, and even though I try to look, I cant see anything negative about him. The only thing he might have done wrong (I say might, because I don't know if he is innocent or not) is a mistake from when he was 16 years old.

Who doesn't make mistakes? Especially at that age. You are very easily influenced, you don't really know who you are, or where you're going. So you start exploring around. That's what he was doing. The thing is, the environment he was in wasn't a good environment. He did things he maybe shouldn't have done, and he might have done the thing he now is on death row for.

Be patient with me, I tend to get stuck on one thing for a while, but Ill get to my point now.

People make mistakes, okay? That's something everybody can agree on. Only difference is the type of mistake. Some make small mistakes, other make big mistakes. But because of one mistake, should we really punish the person by killing him or her? And if we kill a murderer, how is that right? We kill someone, because they killed someone. I don't see the logic in that. People change. Damon has changed. He regrets every bad thing he has ever done. I would think this is the point with for example prison, to make people look at themselves and regret, maybe change.

He is a good man. The best man I have ever known. And if there ever came a time where I would have to put my life in his hands, I wouldn't hesitate one second, because there is nowhere in the world my life would be safer; than in his hands.

There hasn't been one time I have regretted writing him that letter. Having this friendship with him is hard, challenging. It hurts when I think about what the Polunsky Unit is going to do to him. Kill him. I can't think about it, if I do I will just start crying, and I'm in a cafe, so that is something I want to avoid.

What I want to say is that in spit of how much it hurts to hear about how they treat him there, or to know the pain he is living in, I still don't regret it. He is the best friend I have ever had. There isn't any friendship I value more then his. And there isn't anything else in the world I want more then to see him free. To know he is walking down the streets in Houston, breathing in the air, on his way to pick up his son from school.

I have never met him, I have just talked to him in letter form. I live in Norway, and he lives in USA. But he has given me so much. Seeing a letter from him in my mailbox brightens up my day to an extent I cant even begin to explain. His words make me laugh.

Someday I'll get the money needed to visit him. To actually see the greatest man the world will ever know.

SPECIAL PEOPLE.

Special people come our way.
The joy they bring is clear as day.
Like angels above,
They take our hopes up real high,
As we float on cloud 9,
Way up in the sky.

They give us gentle love,
A love true and bold.
As a matter of fact a love story yet to be told.
When all else fails and we don't know what to do,
We turn to our special friends,
Knowing they will come through.

Beyond these walls,
Its hard to see,
How special people bring joy,
Because it was destiny,
I sit in my cell and think of you,
My special angel,
Who gets me through.

You will never know what your letters mean to me,
Until you've been where I've been,
And seen what I've seen.

Your letters are witty+ funny too.
They are special to me,
Because they've come from you.

You're a special person,
This I will say,
Thanks for giving me a brighter day.

(Damon)

You can find your own pen pal and change a human being's life, here: http://www.letterstoprison.com - a new web site offering their services free for 6 months.

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, death row, polunskty unit, texas, pen pals

Featured Prison: Polunsky Unit, TX (and a little chat about the death penalty)

2009-09-02T08:46:00.001-07:00

Most of you can probably figure out why I chose Polunsky Unit this week, but for the rest of you, it's because Cameron Todd Willingham spent the last years of his life there. It is the home of Texas' Death Row.

The Polunsky Unit is situated in Livingston, Texas and was established in 1993. It holds 2,900 offenders in General Population, Ad-Seg and death row. It became home to Texas' death row in 1999. Previously it had been located at the Hunstville Unit in Hunstville Texas.

The State of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham on February 17th, 2004 for setting a fire that killed his children. Recently, in a re-examination of the evidence, it has become apparent that the fire was not arson and that no crime had been committed. Texas executed an innocent man... an innocent, grieving father.

A poem written by Cameron Todd Willingham while he was at the Polunsky Unit:

Who knew that justice could be so
blind

The scales to rust with the passage
of time

stripped of love, my life, all but
pride

Everyday my Hands are tied...

Defenseless to push away the tide

Head held under waves of lies

Drown in blood of thier Genocide

It's all gone wrong and the Innocent
die

while the Guilty laugh on the
mountainside
http://www.deathrow-usa.com/ToddWillingham.htm

Here's where I leave courtesy and manners behind and give death penalty supporters a proverbial slap upside the head. What, on God's green Earth, has ever given you the impression that the criminal justice system, run by mortal human beings just like you and I, is a fail-safe system, free of error, so much so that you would trust it to take life? I read sentences like, "The fear that an innocent person might be executed has long haunted jurors and lawyers and judges." (The New Yorker), and I think to myself, am I really more intelligent than these "jurors and lawyers and judges"? Is it possible that so many people can be so naive as to think that an innocent man has never been executed and never will? Here's how to end the haunting, jurors and lawyers and judges: abolish the death penalty. Done and done.

How about this awesome quote, "super due process to make sure that no innocent defendants are executed" said by a gubernatorial Bush advisor. "Super due process" (I like this explanation). Right. Is that like the Axis of Evil? Or the Evil-doers? I'm sorry, are we waiting for a Bat signal? Is the Green Lantern going to come and save us all? Care Bear Stare, everyone!!

Death Penalty supporters are, I am sorry, a group of childish adults (if they are even the same species as us) who believe the criminal justice system is somehow immune to human error and that the world will one day be rid of all evil if we just kill enough bad guys, and eventually we can all live in a land of lollipops, gummi bears and and the %$@*^%$ Backyardigans.

All the happy little political-correctness keeners would love to tell me right now to respect other people's opinions and that they are entitled to them. No. I am sorry, you are not entitled to the opinion that killing innocent people is ok. It is not ok, ever. In war, in justice, in any situation. The killing of an innocent person is under no circumstances, justified. It is murder.

There. Are. No. More. Arguments. Left. You cannot support the death penalty and be a decent human being.

Wake up, you cold-blooded killers. An innocent man has been murdered by the Glorious State of Texas. An innocent, grieving father. What do you have to say now about "super due process"?

Polunsky Unit - TDCJ

Polunsky Unit - Welcome to hell

Polunsky Unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

YouTube - Dead Man Walking

YouTube - A Saint on Death Row by Thomas Cahill

YouTube - Death Row Kids - USA

Cameron Willingham - Wikipedia

Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty : The New Yorker

Capital punishment in Texas - Wikipedia

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, murder, arson, fire, cameron todd willingham, execution, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, death row, death sentence, death penalty, capital punishment, texas, polunsky unit

Barry Scheck on the Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham

2009-08-31T06:52:00.001-07:00

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, wrote this for the Huffington Post.

Willingham was convicted of murdering his two young children by arson. He spent 12 years on death row in Texas before he was executed. Forensic science that supposedly proved the fire was intentionally set was central to Willingham's conviction was, in fact, completely invalid -- which the experts who testified should have known in 1992. A state forensic science commission in Texas is officially looking into the case and selected a widely respected expert to analyze whether the forensic testimony was valid. Last week the expert filed a report confirming what five other leading arson experts have found -- what passed for arson analysis in the Willingham case had no scientific basis, and the scientific facts in Willingham's case were the same as the case of Ernest Willis. In an entirely separate case, Willis was sent to death row in Texas for an arson murder of family members but, luckily, in his the state recognized the arson analysis was wrong. Willis was fully exonerated just months after Willingham was executed.

The state forensic commission in Texas is still finishing its work on Willingham's case, but David Grann's New Yorker article examines the entire case, including the jailhouse informant who plainly gave false testimony and the circumstantial evidence, flimsy in the first place, that was not what it appeared to be to the jury. After reading Grann's report, fair-minded people will know beyond a reasonable doubt that an innocent person was executed

So what now? Whether our criminal justice system has executed an innocent man should no longer be an open question. We don't know how often it happens, but we know it has happened. Cameron Todd Willingham's case proves that.

The focus turns to how we can stop it from happening again. As long as our system of justice makes mistakes -- including the ultimate mistake -- we cannot continue executing people.

Read the full article: Barry Scheck: Innocent, but Executed

Technorati Tags: execution, innocence, texas, cameron todd willingham, barry scheck, innocence project, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, arson, crime, law, murder, prison

Prison Book: The Innocence Commission

2009-08-28T07:04:00.001-07:00

The Innocence Commission: Preventing Wrongful Convictions and Restoring the Criminal Justice System by Jon Gould. Jon Gould is the chair of the Innocence Commission of Virginia (ICVA) and a professor of justice studies as well as an attorney. He writes about the beginnings if the ICVA and how it was created. The book also covers 12 cases of wrongful conviction, how they happened and how the innocent were freed. He lists lessons to be learned from these cases and suggests changes in the way investigations are conducted in order to minimize cases of wrongful conviction in the future.

John Gould also explains the need for an Innocence Commission in every state to protect the rights of the innocent as well as protect society from the real perpetrators of crime.

This book is of a much higher caliber than anything else I've read on the subject. I don't think the suggestions for change in investigative practices are enough, though. I don't believe these changes will ensure no innocent man is ever executed again. Only one measure can ensure that, and that's the abolition of the death penalty.

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: innocence commission, jon gould, icva, innocence commission of virginia, innocence, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, exonerated, prison, crime, law, book

Danny Brown's Struggle to Reclaim His Name

2009-08-27T18:06:00.001-07:00

Victim of Justice: Danny Brown's Struggle To Reclaim His Name

Danny Brown is a 50-year old man who lives in Toledo, OH. He was wrongly convicted in 1982 of the rape-murder of a woman with whom he had a casual acquaintance. Danny served 19 years for a crime he did not commit. Danny maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and trial, even to the point of rejecting a plea-bargain that could have freed him after serving one year in prison.

Throughout the trial, his belief in the ultimate triumph of truth gave him confidence that he would be vindicated. There was no physical evidence connecting Danny to the crimes, and circumstantial evidence was riddled with holes. However, a six-year old boy's inconsistent, often-contradictory testimony was enough to convince a jury to convict Mr. Brown of aggravated murder.

Danny continued to fight for his freedom during the nearly two decades spent behind bars. However, it wasn't until the DNA evidence was analyzed in the year 2000 that Danny was ultimately freed. The semen recovered from the victim was eventually tied to a convicted murderer named Sherman Preston. Ironically, at the time of the DNA identification, Preston was incarcerated for similar murders.

Technorati Tags: danny brown, wrongful conviction, exoneration, wrongfully convicted, innocent, dna testing, crime, law, prison

Featured Prison: Northpoint Training Center, KY

2009-08-26T08:18:00.001-07:00

Northpoint Training Center near Danville, Kentucky was originally a mental hospital. It also served as a facility to house German POWs during the second world war as well as a youth center for juvenile offenders. In 1983, it officially became Northpoint Training Center and today has a capacity of 1,256 inmates.

Just a few days ago, on August 21st, a riot broke out at Northpoint Training Center, during which inmates set fire to three separate buildings. It took several riot squads and the prison's own Corrections Emergency Response Team to end the riot. Only minor injuries were reported, however, many buildings are in such disrepair, it is likely they will have to be torn down and rebuilt.

More than half of the prison's inmates will have to be relocated. A smoking ban is in effect since the riot and 4 inmates remain hospitalized.

Kentucky: Department of Corrections - Northpoint Training Center

Northpoint Training Center - Wikipedia

Smoking ban imposed after Ky. prison riot

Northpoint Training Center - Prison Place

Northpoint Training Center focus page on DailyMe

Needing info on Northpoint Training Center - Prison Talk

Does anyone have a loved one at Northpoint? - Prison Talk

Ky DOC Northpoint Training Center

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: northpoint training center, kentucky, corrections, prison, prison riot, crime, law

Could Texas Have Executed an Innocent Man?

2009-08-25T11:47:00.001-07:00

I just watched At the Death House Door last night, so it's a little odd that this news would pop up today. It's always so bittersweet when you think about cases like this because on one hand, you want this man to be proven innocent so that we're that much closer to ening the death penalty, but on the other hand that means an innocent, grieving father was murdered.

In a withering critique, a nationally known fire scientist has told a state commission on forensics that Texas fire investigators had no basis to rule a deadly house fire was an arson -- a finding that led to the murder conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.

The finding comes in the first state-sanctioned review of an execution in Texas, home to the country's busiest death chamber. If the commission reaches the same conclusion, it could lead to the first-ever declaration by an official state body that an inmate was wrongly executed.

Indeed, the report concludes there was no evidence to determine that the December 1991 fire was even set, and it leaves open the possibility the blaze that killed three children was an accident and there was no crime at all -- the same findings found in a Chicago Tribune investigation of the case published in December 2004.

Willingham, the father of those children, was executed in February 2004. He protested his innocence to the end.

Cameron Todd Willingham case: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson -- chicagotribune.com

Technorati Tags: execution, death penalty, death sentence, capital punishment, death row, inmate, texas, arson, murder, innocence, crime, law, wrongful conviction

The Death Penalty Trump Card

2009-08-24T09:50:00.001-07:00

Steve Sheppard wrote this piece (Sharon Keller, Troy Davis, and the Duty of a Death Case Judge) about the danger that the "technical rules will overcome the moral demand of the law", however, I don't like how he continues to support the death penalty:

We—officials and citizens—have a duty to ensure that the protections of the laws are secure, and that we execute only the person guilty of the crime accused. Otherwise we violate the American commitment to freedom, truth, and the rule of law.

I just don't understand how anyone can continue to support an execution when it has been proven that:

- Eyewitnesses have just about as much chance pointing the finger at the wrong person than they do at the right person.
- Confessions can be false.
- Snitches can be snitching for personal gain.
- Many areas of forensic science are faulty.
- Not all law enforcement officials are concerned with the truth.
- Not all lawyers have their clients' best interests at heart.

With all of these things being true, how can we ever be sure we are executing the right person? Put aside the fact that the death penalty is more expensive, forget about the fact that it is and has never been an effective deterrent, and forget the fact that all other Western developed countries have outlawed it. The trump card when it comes to death penalty is: How can any decent human being with any sort of moral compass continue to support state-sanctioned killing when there is really no possible way to ensure you have the right person?

Technorati Tags: death penalty, sharon keller, troy davis, capital punishment, wrongful conviction, execution, prison, crime, law

Connecticut Innocence Project Frees Kenneth Ireland

2009-08-21T08:41:00.001-07:00

Cleared Conn. man: Freedom like waking from coma

Kenneth Ireland recently got a good look at himself in a real mirror for the first time in more than 20 years, and realized just how much he had aged in prison.

A Connecticut judge on Wednesday dismissed murder and rape charges against Ireland, after DNA tests showed he could not have committed the crime.

Ireland is the third Connecticut inmate freed from prison in the past three years based on new DNA testing. The Connecticut Innocence Project represented all three men. More than 240 people nationwide have had wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, according to the group.

Technorati Tags: wrongful conviction, exoneration, dna evidence, dna testing, kenneth ireland, connecticut, innocence project, crime, law, murder, prison

Prison Book: The Guardians: The True Story of The Saints of Dannemora

2009-08-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

The Guardians: The True Story of The Saints of Dannemora by Joseph M. Sauter, Sheldon Abend and Isidore Zimmerman is a true story story about jailhouse lawyers, wrongful conviction and the effects of a life sentence on a human being. I read this a long time ago so I don't remember a lot of the details, and my copy is back home in Canada. This book is also extremely rare and there are no reviews or synopses anywhere on the web (well, after about 30 minutes I stopped trying, I *do* have a dayjob), so if I get a few things wrong, deal with it.

Izzy Zimmerman was convicted in the 1930s of having supplied weapons to a gang of men who later used them to kill a police officer. The single man who accused Zimmerman of this, did so as a way to hide his own involvement. He was sentenced to die by electrocution. A lot of people believe Izzy was innocent and as such, two hours before he was set to be executed, the call came in that his sentence had been commuted to life in prison.

24 years later, the appeals court overturned his conviction after finding that one of the prosecutors had suppressed exculpatory evidence. 21 years after that, Izzy was given a million dollars as compensation and he died 4 months later. His wife died soon after him and with no next of kin, the money went back to the State of New York.

In this book, Izzy spoke about how much he would have rather been executed than spend life in prison. It is an excellent argument against people who claim that the death penalty is the worst possible punishment. Here is an excerpt:

"They couldn't understand. To them, death was the most horrible thing that could happen to a person. "But," Peewee muttered to himself, "Everybody is going to die. Nobody beats death. These 'Guardians' don't really know what it is to do twenty-five or thirty years, forty-five or fifty years in the can until you die."

Once Izzy received his commuted sentence of life in prison, he lost the will to live altogether. He didn't care what he did, or what the outcomes were. He made life a living hell for Corrections Officers and inmates feared him because he did not care about anything. He figured he was going to rot away in his cell until he died.

Eventually Izzy found peace in acting as one of the best jailhouse lawyers in history, helping many people with their cases.

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: izzy zimmerman, prison book, books, prison, crime, law, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, innocent, death penalty, execution, capital punishment

Gitmo rocked by The High Strung

2009-08-20T08:33:00.001-07:00

A humorous account of Indie Rock Band, The High Strung playing live shows at Gitmo:

Granted, there’s also that other, infamous purpose for the base. “Our escort, Mike, offered to give us a tour, and our first request was to see the prison camp. Of course, he said no,” Derek said, “but then later he took us to the high point on the island, and he had some binoculars and he showed us Camp X-Ray, and he said that we could see that it was closed down. And we looked at that and we were like, yeah, looks like there’s nobody there. But it was still, like, in the back of our heads the whole time, that there were prisoners there, in other prison camps. It was kind of creepy.” At some point, later in the trip, while they were in a rec building, Flight 93 came on—the movie about the 9/11 plane that went down in Pennsylvania—and everyone they were with noticed, but nobody said a word. “And I was like, the guy who did this is here, right?” Derek asked. “And one of the military guys said, ‘No, this movie wasn’t shot here.’ And I was like, No. Khalil Sheikh Mohammed, the guy who thought up the whole 9/11 plot. He’s here, right? And they were like, Oh, yeah. He’s one of the masterminds. He’s here. And that was that. I wanted to talk about it more, but it was just a really awkward moment.”

Read the rest: The High Strung Rocks Gitmo: Brett Berk | Vanity Fair

Technorati Tags: Guantanamo, Guantanamo bay, gitmo, prison, high strung, rock show

Scalia Thinks It's Ok to Commit Murder

2009-08-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

This is an excellent opinion piece on statements Justice Antonin Scalia made in objection to the Supreme Court's decision to order a new hearing for Georgia death row inmate, Troy Davis:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia's position is that if someone have been found guilty and sentenced to death in a procedurally correct trial, that it is constitutional to execute that person even if it is later discovered that the person convicted did not commit the murder.

He stated in a recent dissent over a recent grant of an original habeas corpus petition by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Troy Davis, in the face of post-trial recantations by almost all of the witnesses against him and a confession of guilt for the murder by someone else who is in prison:

This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is "actually" innocent.

Professor Alan Dershowitz, at Harvard Law School, explains what this means:

Let us be clear precisely what [Scalia's dissent] means. If a defendant were convicted, after a constitutionally unflawed trial, of murdering his wife, and then came to the Supreme Court with his very much alive wife at his side, and sought a new trial based on newly discovered evidence (namely that his wife was alive), these two justices would tell him, in effect: "Look, your wife may be alive as a matter of fact, but as a matter of constitutional law, she's dead, and as for you, Mr. Innocent Defendant, you're dead, too, since there is no constitutional right not to be executed merely because you're innocent."
Scalia: It's OK To Execute Innocent People | Wash Park Prophet

This is also an excellent argument against the death penalty. As the Washington Post states, "Davis has come close to execution several times since he was convicted of the 1989 killing". In the hypothetical scenario above, what if the man's wife returns, alive, after the execution? Can people really be so naive as to think this scenario (or similar)could never happen? Lest we forget, The Dead Alive.

Technorati Tags: troy davis, antonin scalia, supreme court, scotus, death penalty, capital punishment, execution, death row, georgia, crime, law, murder, prison

Featured Prison: Standish Maximum Security Facility, MI

2009-08-19T06:55:00.001-07:00

Opened in 1990, the Standish Maximum Security Facility in Standish, Michigan faces closure in October, 2009. In an effort to save the prison and the hundreds of corrections jobs that would be lost in the event of a closure, Michigan's Governor Jennifer Granholm offered to house some of California's excess prison population. California prison officials responded saying it was to expensive and didn't have the medical facilities required.

The other option to save the prison is to house Guantanamo prisoners there, which would still result in a loss of corrections jobs as the military would be running the prison. Many people in Standish have voiced their opposition to the idea, expressing a fear that their town would suddenly become a target for terrorist attacks.

Gov. Granholm is petitioning other states to send their excess prisoners in the meantime.

Standish Maximum Correctional Facility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CORRECTIONS - Standish Maximum Correctional Facility (SMF)

Michigan prison still seeks inmates | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Michigan Region I - East Prisons and Camps - Prison Talk

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: prison, law, crime, inmates, michigan, california, guantanamo, gitmo, jennifer granholm, budget cuts, layoffs, economy

Sotomayor Votes on Death Penalty Case

2009-08-18T06:34:00.001-07:00

Sotomayor’s first vote on death penalty | SCOTUSblog

The newest Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, on Monday night cast her first vote in a death penalty case, joining three other members of the Supreme Court in dissent as the Court permitted the execution Tuesday of an Ohio inmate, Jason Getsy, 33. He was scheduled to die in Lucasville, Ohio, at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The Supreme Court’s order is here. Sotomayor would have granted a stay of execution, along with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens. Sotomayor’s predecessor, retired Justice David H. Souter, frequently voted to postpone executions.

Technorati Tags: sonia sotomayor, sotomayor, supreme court, scotus, crime, law, prison, death penalty, capital punishment, execution

P.S. Some days it really hits me, the words I'm typing into the Technorati tags field and I think, isn't this 2009? Should the only blog the word "execution" be found on as a tag, be a history blog? Seriously. We are so barbaric.

Great News: Troy Davis Granted a New Hearing

2009-08-17T18:02:00.001-07:00

U.S. Supreme Court orders new hearing for Troy Davis | ajc.com

Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer: “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing. ... Imagine a petitioner in Davis’ situation who possesses new evidence conclusively and definitively proving, beyond any scintilla of doubt, that he is an innocent man. The dissent’s reasoning would allow such a petitioner to be put to death nonetheless.”

Technorati Tags: troy davis, innocence, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, evidence, death penalty, capital punishment, death row, crime, law, murder

Michael Moore: Make us a Film about Prison, Please!

2009-08-17T07:28:00.001-07:00

I have often thought about what a documentary by Michael Moore on the US prison system would be like, and I know without a doubt that I would love it, as I do most of his documentaries. As such, I have signed this petition to request that his next film is about the criminal justice system, and you should too:

We know the Criminal Justice system is unjust. We know thousands of innocent people are in prison. We know there are unspeakable abuses that happen behind the walls of courtrooms and jails. We realize that some people are profiting off of the amount of bodies they hold, not necessarily the services they provide. We are jointly asking Mr. Michael Moore to hear our pleas to document these injustices and make them public.

We the undersigned have witnessed injustice in our system that directly affects our loved ones. We used to believe that one was innocent until proven guilty that is, until we found ourselves victimized by the reality of the our situations.

We realize now that corporations are profiting from those repeated and constant abuses within the criminal justice system and certain individuals are gaining status from our loved ones suffering. We are asking you to use your talents in raising public awareness on the most serious and growing issue of wrongful convictions. Please film this injustice and make it public.

Sign the Petition

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, criminal justice, michael moore, film, documentary, movie

Prison Book: Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right

2009-08-14T10:43:00.001-07:00

Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer is a must-read for anyone curious about wrongful convictions. It is a book that takes a look at the work of the Innocence Project, an organization that defends convicted felons with claims of innocence. The Innocence Project's most notable cases are covered and the causes of wrongful conviction in the United States of America are explained. The book talks about police error, prosecutorial misconduct, poor defense lawyers, jailhouses snitches and faulty eyewitness accounts. It is also pointed out that there are many more people out there who are innocent but who are being denied post-trial DNA testing.

The authors are men to be admired. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the Innocence Project in 1992 and have enabled the exoneration of 241 innocent people in the United States since. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld are also known for being on the defense team for O.J. Simpson. Jim Dwyer is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at the New York Times.

The book is easy to read and very informative. It is depressing. It's scary. It's true and you should read it.

Innocence Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barry Scheck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Neufeld - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jim Dwyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: prison, crime, law, wrongful conviction, wrongfully convicted, innocence, innocence project, exonerated, dna evidence, dna testing, barry scheck, peter neufeld, jim dwyer, actual innocence

Celebrities Against the Death Penalty

2009-08-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

Scott Langley is slowly building a portfolio of portraits which feature famous folk stating their political opposition to execution in the US. More: I Oppose the Death Penalty - Prison Photography

Technorati Tags: death penalty, capital punishment, execution, martin sheen, prison, crime, law

Featured Prison: California Institution for Men, Chino, CA

2009-08-12T12:23:00.001-07:00

California Institute for Men (CIM) is a multi-security level complex in Chino, California. It opened in the 1980s and has a capacity of 2778 offenders, but is currently home to, according to statistics found on Insideprison.com, a mind-blowing 6298 men. With that in mind, there is no wonder it was recently in the news for a riot that injured 250 inmates.

This prison's past has been riddled with problems other than overcrowding and riots. A corrections officer was killed in 2005, inspections have found it poorly maintained, inadequately staffed and unsanitary, and there have been escapes (one that resulted in 4 murders). A recent swine flu outbreak has also afflicted the prison.

Almost every article I've read asks the question, "what caused this riot?". Some speculate it was racial tension. A disgustingly over-budget system is now going to spend more money trying to discover the cause of this riot, rather than trying to solve what those of us with our eyes open already know caused it. Overcrowding.

There is racial tension in every prison. The difference, is that this is a grossly overcrowded, understaffed and poorly maintained prison that recently suffered a swine flu outbreak. It seems fairly obvious to me that California could save itself more headaches, more money and more lives if it just stopped being so lock-up happy. Maybe California ought to redefine what a criminal who presents a threat to society and is deserving of lock-up really is. 47% of all state held inmates are in for non-violent offenses. Is this worth the budget problems? The job cuts? The riots? The deaths of corrections officers and inmates alike? Is it really worth it? All of this to keep a few marijuana peddlers off the street? When does the silly become absolutely and morbidly absurd?

The prison remains under lockdown. Because that will solve all of California's needless corrections woes.

CDCR - California Institution for Men (CIM) - Home Page/Mission Statement

Record Poor at Riot-Scarred California Prison, Files Show - NYTimes.com

California Institution for Men - prison stories, prison history, prison conditions, and inmate treatment for California Institution for Men

At Chino, mute evidence speaks of violent riot - Los Angeles Times

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: prison, inmates, riot, california institute for men, chino, california, swin flu, overcrowding, budget, corrections officers, layoffs, crime, law, murder

Dear California

2009-08-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

Dear California,

I realize budgeting an entire state is a difficult task, especially during this recession. But seriously, how can you get it so wrong? I have a few very serious questions for you, California.

1. How can you justify cutting funding to the education system, while you continue to spend on locking up non-violent offenders? Do you not understand the correlation between poor education and crime? Do you not understand that by cutting funding for education, you are ensuring an increase in all crime in your future?

2. How can you continue to justify spending money on locking up drug offenders? You do realize that your efforts are entirely futile and that no matter how many drug users and drug dealers you lock up, there will still be more. Maybe if you spent less on lockup and more on education, you could lower the numbers of offenders. Maybe if you spent more on drug treatment programs, there would be less drug offenders. Stop locking up people who are only a threat to themselves and pissing away money that could be used for essential services.

3. How can you justify running a death row when you are cutting funding to essential services like education? Does killing a human being mean that much to you, California, that you would sacrifice your child's education, and thus, any shot at a decent life just to do it? Do you not think that perhaps your rage and desire for revenge is getting the better of you and causing you to not see clearly? Do you not realize the massive cost that is involved in having the death penalty as opposed to life in prison?

4. I realize being in close proximity to a half asleep moron eating cheezits and playing Halo can be uncomfortable, but is it so much so that marijuana needs to be illegal? Do you realize the money that could be made off of these completely harmless potheads who almost single-handedly account for 7-11's entire revenue, just by taxing weed? That wouldn't be tough on crime though, would it? Not like locking up 242 innocent men and women while the real perpetrators go free. That's really tough on crime.

In short, California, pull your head out of your proverbial ass. Budgeting an entire state may be hard, but it's nowhere near as hard as you make it out to be.

Sincerely,
Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: california, budget, recession, education, marijuana, crime, prison, law, death row, death penalty

Ernest Sonnier is a Free Man

2009-08-07T13:56:00.001-07:00

The Innocence Project - News and Information: Innocence Blog

Innocence Project client Ernest Sonnier is free today after more than two decades in Texas prisons for a rape he didn’t commit. DNA testing has proven Sonnier’s innocence of the 1985 attack and implicated two other men. Sonnier was freed on bond today by a Texas judge while he continues seeking to fully clear his name in the weeks ahead.

His mother, Altha Davis, told reporters that she always knew he was innocent because he was with her when the crime was allegedly committed – on Christmas Eve 1985. “It’s been long for me, so long,” she said. “I’m happy and so sad at the same time.” Watch a video interview with Sonnier’s mother here.

Sonnier will stay with Davis while he adjusts to his newfound freedom. He was joined in court today by family members, Innocence Project Staff Attorney Alba Morales, Social Worker Angela Amel and several people previously exonerated by DNA testing in Texas.

Sonnier’s case is the latest in a string of wrongful convictions caused in part by faulty forensic testing at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab. Although blood-type testing on important crime scene evidence conducted before trial didn’t match Sonnier’s type – and even suggested that he may be innocent – an analysts testified at his trial that he could still be the perpetrator, based on a conclusion not supported by the analyst’s own report.

Technorati Tags: wrongful conviction, ernest sonnier, innocence project, wrongfully convicted, exonerated, dna testing, crime, law, prison, rape

How Naples Deal with Ex-Cons

2009-08-07T09:34:00.001-07:00

Street-cons on probation in Naples work as free tour-guides - Boing Boing

But what's most innovative is that they've also given 80 former convicts gigs offering tourists advice on staying safe in the city. The (mostly) men, clad in yellow vests, can now be found escorting tourists attempting to maneuver through dodgy neighborhoods, helping with heavy luggage, and offering suggestions to avoid becoming a target of a petty crime (you really shouldn't be wearing that flashy watch, now should you?). Their services are all free, and tipping is discouraged (let's not even talk about bribes).

Technorati Tags: naples, italy, x-con, probation, prison, crime, law

Prison Book: The Wrong Men

2009-08-07T08:34:00.001-07:00

The Wrong Men: America's Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions by Stanley Cohen is an excellent look into the causes of wrongful convictions. Each of the major causes of wrongful convictions are outlined in their own chapters, with specific cases given as examples of innocent people convicted despite their innocence.

This was another one of the very first books I read related to prison. This is the book that opened my eyes to the wrongful conviction epidemic. I was already reeling from the realization that good people like my friend could be locked up, and this book made me realize that some of those incredible people were actually innocent and science could prove it. My entire worldview was flipped upside down. All I could think was, "Wait a sec, you mean prison isn't filled with bad guys?"

This book includes the stories of 102 wrongful convictions and focuses on those sentenced to death. It was released in 2003. There have been many more exonerated innocent people freed from death row since. In a country where 1000 executions have taken place since 1976, and 241 people have been exonerated with DNA evidence, this book is of the utmost importance and an absolute must read.

As Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center said, "Some day, the number of mistakes in death penalty cases will become intolerable. Thankfully, The Wrong Men brings that day closer."

To suggest a book to be featured on Genpop, please email me: vlu777@gmail.com

Click here for the archive of all prison books.

Technorati Tags: prison book, prison, book, wrongful conviction, death row, death penalty, capital punishment, stanley cohen, richard dieter, the wrong men, crime, law

Innocence Project Artists’ Committee

2009-08-06T12:16:00.001-07:00

The Innocence Project

Following are the members of the Innocence Project Artists’ Committee:

* Joan Baez @Joancbaez
* Bob Balaban
* Paris Barclay
* Blue Man Group
* Amy Brenneman @Theamybrenneman
* James Bundy
* Stephen Colbert @stephencolbert
* Judy Collins @thejudycollins
* Zooey Deschanel @Zooeyde
* Dave Eggers @McSweenys
* Eve Ensler @vdayorg
* Nora Ephron
* Jules Feiffer and Jenny Allen
* James Gandolfini
* John Grisham @jgrishamonline
* Charles Grodin
* Taylor Hackford
* Dexter Holland
* Nia Long @nialong_
* Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
* Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky @DJSpooky
* Helen Mirren @HelenMirren
* Matthew Modine @matthewModine
* Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick
* Aidan Quinn
* Trent Reznor
* Susan Sarandon @susan_sarandon
* Taryn Simon
* John Singleton
* Morgan Spurlock @FindMorgan
* Debra Winger and Arliss Howard

Technorati Tags: innocence project, artists committee, wrongful convictions, innocence, prison, crime, law

Norfolk Four Receive Conditional Pardon

2009-08-06T11:32:00.001-07:00

Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project » Blog Archive » BREAKING NEWS: Norfolk Four Receive Conditional Pardon

BREAKING NEWS: Norfolk Four Receive Conditional Pardon

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has announced that three of the four sailors known as the Norfolk Four have received a conditional pardon.

Technorati Tags: wrongful conviction, pardon, norfolk four, virginia, tim kaine, prison, law, crime

Innocent Man Freed by DNA in Connecticut

2009-08-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

I wonder how many more it will take before everyone realizes the system is flawed.

“You can take the handcuffs off,” Judge Richard Damiani said. And with that, a man who has been in jail for 21 years — and was supposed to spend decades more behind bars — walked away a free man.

DNA set him free.

The dramatic release took place Wednesday morning in Connecticut Superior Court on Church Street.

Kenneth Ireland went to jail in 1988, at the age of 20, convicted of raping and killing a woman named Barbara Pelkey of Wallingford. The sentence: 50 years.

His case was taken up by the Connecticut Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence from crimes to prove that people have been wrongfully accused. They did that in this case to buttress Ireland’s longstanding claim that someone else, not he, committed Pelkey’s rape and murder. The Project petitioned for a new trial, and the petition was granted.

Read More: New Haven Independent: DNA Frees Accused Killer, Rapist After 21 Years

Technorati Tags: wrongful conviction, connecticut, innocence project, innocence, wrongfully convicted, exonerated, dna testing, prison, crime, law, murder

Corrupt Judge Pleads Guilty

2009-08-06T07:31:00.001-07:00

New Orleans-based Innocence Project attorneys overturned the wrongful conviction of Jackson resident Cedric Willis after Willis spent 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. DeLaughter, a former Hinds County prosecutor at the time of Willis' conviction, convinced Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Breland Hillburn to toss DNA evidence and witness testimony that would have proved Willis' innocence.

Read more: DeLaughter Pleads Guilty

Technorati Tags: innocence project, bobby delaughter, judge, corruption, law, crime, wrongful conviction, prison

John Waters on Leslie Van Houten

2009-08-05T10:15:00.001-07:00

Very interesting first part of a 5 part series on Manson family member serving life for murder, Leslie Van Houten by filmmaker John Waters

In 1976, Leslie's original conviction was thrown out due to "ineffectual counsel" (her original lawyer drowned in the middle of her trial and was replaced) and she was given a new trial in 1977. This time, she was all by herself as a defendant in the courtroom. Remorse had started to creep in soon after she was imprisoned away from Manson. Locked away forever, Leslie, Susan, and Patricia were of no further use to Charlie and he dropped them quickly. The outsider voices of reason from the prison social workers started to seep in and Leslie began to see the holes in Manson's brainwashing. "When I'd be questioned," she later told author Karlene Faith for her very insightful and intelligent but little known book The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten, "I'd go blank and become frustrated like when a machine jams and just sits there making noise. In my head nothing was functioning. I was trying to understand, breaking down stiff little slogans that had been drilled into me." When two other "Manson girls", Mary Brunner and Catherine Shaw, a.k.a. "Gypsy", were sent to jail and placed with Leslie, Susan and Patricia, Leslie grew tired of listening to their Manson talk and confided to Patricia that "I've changed. I'm not into this." "It took three years to understand" and five or six years of therapy to "take responsibility" for the terrible crime she had helped commit.

Leslie finally had a good lawyer for her second trial. Taking the witness stand truthfully for the first time, she tried to explain her state of mind through the Manson madness and his control techniques. And the jury listened, too. After about twenty-five days of deliberation there was a hung jury; seven voted for guilty of first-degree murder, and five for manslaughter due to her cult domination and uncertain mental health at the time of the crime.

Refusing to offer a plea bargain, the prosecutor took her to trial for a third time in 1978 and added a felony robbery motive (clothes, a wallet and a few coins had been taken from the La Bianca home), a crime that now couldn't legally be excused by state of mind. But this time Leslie made bail and was released from prison. She found employment as a law clerk and lived in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. She was free for six months and lived quietly, unnoticed by the press. When a few of her new neighbors found out who she really was, after they already thought they knew her, all were "supportive" and "protective" of her anonymity.

When Leslie's third trial finally began, she came to court every day on her own. Long gone was the shaved head, and the X on her forehead was covered by bangs. No more trippy little riot-on-Sunset-Strip, satin miniskirt outfits either, like the ones she and her female co-defendants wore to the first trial. This time she was dressed tastefully and looked lovely, something that obviously didn't sit well with Stephen Kay, the prosecutor who had inherited all the Manson-related cases from Vincent Bugliosi. "All dolled up", Mr. Kay cracked to the press, giving Leslie one of her first, but definitely not last, opinionated fashion reviews. When she was finally convicted of first-degree murder at the end of the trial, life imprisonment suddenly became very real.

Read more: John Waters: Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship, Part 1 of 5

Technorati Tags: leslie van houten, charles manson, manson family, sharon tate, tate murders, prison, crime, law, murder

Featured Prison: Halawa Correctional Facility, HI

2009-08-05T07:55:00.001-07:00

Halawa Correctional Facility is a medium security and special needs prison in Hawaii. Maximum security inmates, closed custody inmates, inmates who need to be in protective custody, mentally ill inmates and other inmates that cannot be placed in the general population are housed in the special needs unit of Halawa Correctional Facility. The medium security unit is the newest in Hawaii.

In June, 2004 HCF started housing some of it's medium security male offenders in other states in an effort to slow down overcrowding, including Arizona, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

This prison was in the television series Lost, in episodes Live Together, Die Alone and Every Man for Himself.

Recently it was announced that the State of Hawaii would close Kulani Correctional Facility to save money. The inmates from that prison are to be relocated to HCF.

Halawa Correctional Facility — Department of Public Safety

Halawa Correctional Facility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Halawa Correctional Facility: Lost Virtual Tour Hawaii - Filming Locations

Halawa Correctional Facility (HCF) - Prison Talk

Aleph Institute - Halawa Correctional Facility

State Will Close Big Island's Kulani Prison

To submit a little known fact about this or any other prison, or to suggest a prison for next week's featured prison, please email me at vlu777@gmail.com

Archive of all Featured Prisons on Genpop.org

Technorati Tags: halawa correctional facility, hcf, kulani correctional facility, hawaii, lost, prison, crime, law, inmate

Massive Prisoner Release in California?

2009-08-04T18:33:00.001-07:00

U.S. judges on Tuesday told California to prepare to release more than 40,000 of its 150,000 inmates to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, which suffer from massive healthcare problems.

The cash-strapped state already plans to release ailing and short-term inmates for budget issues. That would clear up to 37,000 beds over two years, estimated California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate.

Read more: California told to prepare massive prisoner release | Reuters

Technorati Tags: california, state budget, prison, inmate, release, crime, law