The United Police States of America

[Guinevere]

If you recall, I affirmatively welcomed you back here, rather than being silent and unwelcoming.

As for the topic at hand, I did have some specific questions about how and why your views have changed, but I'm going to step away, since you cannot separate the past from the present, and you apparently cannot give me the same benefit of the doubt that you've asked for.

[BoSoxGal]

Ex-Florida deputy arrested in Alaska after more than two decades on the lam
By Ray Sanchez, CNN

(CNN) -- Joseph Keenan May's quiet life on the lam in Alaska was unraveled after he used his late stepbrother's name to apply for a driver's license and unemployment benefits, authorities said.

May, a former sheriff's deputy wanted since 1991 for capital sexual battery in Bradenton, Florida, was arrested on identity theft charges early Friday at his home in Eagle River, Alaska.

"Sometimes Alaska draws people who want to run away from things," Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Bradley told CNN affiliate KTUU. "We find that there's an inordinate amount of fugitives here. It's unusual for somebody to be able to run so long, but eventually he got caught."

Authorities said May, 60, has been the subject of a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution since 1993.

For years, May was living under the identity of stepbrother Michael Camp, who died in his teens in the 1970s in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska said in a statement.

May is charged in an indictment with two counts of unlawful use of a Social Security number for allegedly using Camp's name and number to apply for an Alaska driver's license in 2009 and unemployment benefits in 2013, the statement said. He was also charged with aggravated identity theft.

The Social Security Administration notified federal authorities of the alleged identity theft, KTUU reported.
May faces up to 12 years for the federal charges in Alaska -- and potentially the death penalty in Florida if he is extradited, the U.S. Attorney's statement said.

A former road patrol deputy, May was arrested in 1990, accused of raping a 6-year-old girl in the 1970s, the Bradenton Herald reported. May fled before he could be tried.

[BoSoxGal]

Albuquerque, New Mexico rally to protest police brutality

25 June 2014 - WSWS

A march and rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico were held on June 21 to protest violence by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), in particular the series of fatal shootings that have taken place over the last several years. The rally was organized by the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, the ANSWER Coalition and local community groups. Speakers at the rally included an ex-APD officer and several family members of people killed by the APD.

Ex-police officer speaking at the rally
Reports in the media indicate that the APD planted at least one undercover officer among the demonstrators, who held a “die-in” and mock trial that delivered a guilty verdict against Police Chief Gorden Eden. In 2012 the same sergeant who was present at the rally undercover—and whose name has not been revealed by the APD—shot 20-year-old Dominick Solis-Mora in the stomach outside a West Side restaurant during an undercover drug sting.

Following a familiar pattern, the officer was subsequently cleared by the Bernalillo County District Attorney of wrongdoing. A local news outlet has asked why the sergeant would be at a lawful demonstration with a camera and whether he was gathering intelligence on protesters and other members of the community who are not suspected of criminal activity. There has been no response.

APD officers have shot 36 people since January 2010, killing 26, an extraordinarily high number given that Albuquerque’s population is only slightly more than a half million.

Saturday’s rally was not the first protest in the city against police violence. Previously demonstrators shut down two City Council meetings and held a sit-in at the mayor’s in early June. The latter action resulted in 13 arrests.
Last April, the US Department of Justice announced the findings of a 16-month investigation into the APD, which described the APD’s systemic pattern of violating citizens’ civil rights, particularly through the use of force. It also noted that city and police leaders failed to hold officers accountable. World Socialist Web Site supporters attended the march and rally. They distributed the June 16 WSWS perspective headlined Militarization of police in America.

The WSWS spoke to several of those at the demonstration. Zac Britton came to Albuquerque from California to join the protest. He is a member of the Coalition for Justice for Andy Lopez.

Zac
“I’m from Santa Rosa, California. That’s the place where 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot dead by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. We’ve had 61 deaths at the hands of law enforcement since 2000. That’s the year when the US Commission on Civil Rights came in, because during the ‘90s we had a spate of killings by law enforcement. They had a list of recommendations, none of them were followed, and because of that, 61 deaths later, we’re in 2014.

“The vast majority [of victims] are people who are mentally ill. I think there’s an issue of inadequate training for law enforcement in Sonoma County with regards to dealing with people who have mental illness.”
Zac was asked what he believes to be causing the police violence. “I think the biggest contributing factor is probably the militarization of the police. “All these military veterans come back and become police officers. Some of them have PTSD and they can get triggered very easily. Deputy [Erick] Gelhaus, who killed Andy Lopez, was a military veteran and he had PTSD.”

Darell Lorenzo Wellington is from South Carolina but now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico’s capital. No stranger to the tensions between the citizenry and the police, he was living in Savannah, Georgia at the time of the botched execution of Troy Davis, which shocked public opinion. He is well aware that Albuquerque is not unique in terms of police abuse.

“Nine cities have been investigated. I was at least inspired by the DOJ report, which everyone should read. It is very blunt about the situation. Obviously Albuquerque has had a problem with violence for years. You hear about it in Santa Fe.

“A lot of people want an oversight board that has real teeth in it. I’ve lived in communities with very bad relations with police before… I know that those relations could hit rock bottom to the point that the average person tends to think that the police are more of a threat than any local criminal. That’s the bottom line and there are whole big swaths of big cities with hundreds of thousands of people who have that sentiment, and that is no exaggeration.”

Frances Madeson has written about the prison system in New Mexico. She was carrying a sign denouncing the Secretary of the New Mexico Correction Department’s Secretary, Gregg Marcantel, as a “slave catcher.” The WSWS asked her why she was at the protest. “This is my opportunity to push back against the authoritarian state,” she replied.

Frances explained the sign. “Marcantel is the secretary of the New Mexico Department of Corrections. Pretty much needlessly, he issued an RFP [Request for Proposal] to expand the for-profit women’s prison in Grants [a city in western New Mexico] by over 200 women, an increase of 39% at a time when crime is actually on the decline, when the criminal justice reform committee at the legislature has just begun its work in reforming the criminal code.

“Seventy-five percent of the women who are currently incarcerated are there for drug-related crimes. A very miniscule portion of women who are incarcerated are there for violent crimes. Unfortunately, in this Corrections Corporations of America-run prison, they actually receive a premium for the bed rate for solitary. So women…are being pushed into solitary. Literally, I hear that the stock price is posted daily over the punch clock where the employees come in and punch in and out. If they see profits going down they know just what to do.

“The ACLU and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty in October 2013 issued an 18-page report… It’s called ‘Inside the Box’. It documents the abuses of solitary confinement. We actually have a situation in Grants, where there are retarded women, mentally ill women, they’re doped up—75% of the women are doped up with heavy psychotropics—and they’re shoved into solitary confinement.

“Secretary Marcantel just pulled a stunt a few weeks ago, where he incarcerated himself in the Supermax prison in Santa Fe for two days. Do you know what the average length of solitary confinement in New Mexico is? Over a thousand days. Almost three years!

“What we’re fighting is really important. Not only does this report come out in October about all these abuses about solitary confinement, but the Department of Corrections is so arrogant that they then are trying to expand the prison without curing the abuses that are documented in ‘Inside the Box.’”

[rubato]

Five days ago, in Canberra.

A Canberra police officer caught on CCTV attacking a chained dog with pepper spray is the subject of an internal investigation.
... "

Talk about your dumb cops! The dog is chained up, who cares if he's got pepper spray? Just walk away.


yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

If you recall, I affirmatively welcomed you back here, rather than being silent and unwelcoming.

As for the topic at hand, I did have some specific questions about how and why your views have changed, but I'm going to step away, since you cannot separate the past from the present, and you apparently cannot give me the same benefit of the doubt that you've asked for.

Guin, if it's truly your desire to engage on the substance of the topic, I'm more than happy to do so.

Again, it seemed disingenuous to me that you would quote Andrew as you did - somewhat out of context of that whole discussion - then ask me if my perspective had changed, when I'd pretty much just posted several times in the past few weeks about my changed perspective. It did feel, to me, like you were doing this in a not particularly nice way.

I apologize if I misinterpreted your intent; there is some history of you not being very nice to me and not giving me the benefit of the doubt. As one of the least racist human beings on the planet (and the folks from many other races with whom I've lived, worked, and forged very close friendships will agree with that assessment), it still bothers me that you accused me as you did in that regard, and never retracted the comment but rather 'de-friended' me. It's not always easy to leave the past in the past when it's still the present.

But in any case, I am passionate about my concerns about the criminal justice system, and I'm certainly open to hearing from any attorney who possesses a desire to discuss the issue and offer suggestions for substantive reform. If you have specific questions for me about what I've seen or experienced that has impacted my perspective, I'm happy to answer them.

I will point out, however, that if anybody were to look back to my posts on the subject prior to becoming a prosecutor (generally found at the old CSB), s/he would find that I'd already expressed a healthy level of skepticism about the behavior of some agents of the State while I was a defender, and before that as a legal aid attorney. It isn't as if I was oblivious by any means; during law school I interned for the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Project in DC, where I researched and collated stories about the injustices in that system which prompt the ABA to take an official position for moratorium on the death penalty until/unless the system becomes just.

I guess I would say that overall, my 'realization' after being part of the system of law enforcement and prosecution is that the injustices in the system aren't caused so much by a very few bad apples who intentionally subvert the Constitutional protections afforded to defendants (although that does happen, we all know that from when the truly horrific stories come to light in the media); the far bigger problem is the larger group of LEOs and prosecutors whose views on the system become jaded and/or complacent to the point that adherence to the mandate to 'seek justice' quietly fades to the background, while shortcuts and attitudes that negatively impact that goal become the mundane everyday reality.

Most of the people I've met and known fairly well who were prosecutors and/or LEOs have been good people; people you'd happily invite to your home and/or have a beer with. They're not generally monsters by any stretch of the imagination (Nancy Grace is the exception - I've never met her and never would want to), it's only as you begin to interact on a regular basis that you realize many of them have an 'us/them' mentality that leaves them feeling that 'we' are better and 'they' are pretty much always guilty anyway.

Statistically that is certainly borne out as truth, but in my opinion every case should be approached every time by the agents of the State with an eye to what might be exculpatory, where the evidence might have shortcomings, etc. The State has such power to ruin the lives of individuals, the prosecutor's toolbox is the weightiest around; that power should be exercised with the greatest of caution, reason, restraint - without concern for personal ambition, politics, or a desire to win at any cost.

Andrew D was partly right about something he once posted - at the time I was a public defender and steeped in the religion of the public defender and I vehemently agreed with him - that being a prosecutor is the lowest thing an attorney can become.

I don't believe that now - I believe that being a bad or average prosecutor is the worst thing an attorney can become. Those terms, bad and average, applying to the range from outright misconduct to the far more common willingness to just not care about seeing the defendant as truly presumed innocent at all stages of the process before conviction by judge/jury.

I actually believe that the role of the prosecutor is a very noble one, when fulfilled according to the highest adherence to ethics. I just don't think this happens anywhere close to as often as it should.

What I want to try to figure out, is how do we as a society demand that it happen 99% of the time (as there will always be bad apples) and how do we commit ourselves to holding the bad apples accountable in meaningful ways, rather than giving a pat on the hand to those who go astray. (I consider it to be a pat on the hand when a formed prosecutor is disrobed, loses his law license, and spends a few days in jail after it is revealed that he willfully withheld exculpatory evidence that allowed an innocent many to spend a quarter century in prison, as occurred in a recent case in the news.)

I'm happy to hear any suggestions folks have about those concerns.

[BoSoxGal]

Innocent man: How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life

(CNN) -- Imagine being out to dinner with the love of your life and your beautiful, smiling, 3-year-old child. It's a double celebration: your birthday and the end of your young boy's difficult recovery from surgery for a heart defect.

As you cross the street afterward, holding hands and swinging the little one up in the air, you think, "This is what it's about."

You know it's one of the best days of your life.

For Michael Morton, that day was August 12, 1986. He had just turned 32.

The next day, it was all taken away. The dream became a nightmare.

Christine, his wife, was attacked and killed at their home in Williamson County, Texas, just outside Austin. Michael Morton was at work at the time. Still, authorities suspected him.

"Innocent people think that if you just tell the truth then you've got nothing to fear from the police," Morton says now. "If you just stick to it that the system will work, it'll all come to light, everything will be fine."

Instead, Morton was charged, ripped away from his boy, and put on trial. The prosecutor, speaking to the jury in emotional terms with tears streaming down his face, laid out a graphic, depraved sexual scenario, accusing Morton of bludgeoning his wife for refusing to have sex on his birthday.

"There was no scientific evidence, there was no eyewitness, there was no murder weapon, there was no believable motive," Morton says. "... I didn't see how any rational, thinking person would say that's enough for a guilty verdict."

But with no other suspects, the jury convicted him. "We all felt so strongly that this was justice for Christine and that we were doing the right thing," says Mark Landrum, who was the jury foreman.

Morton spent nearly 25 years in prison.
He saw his son Eric only twice a year. "I would love seeing him, I was fascinated with his every move," Morton says. But Eric "was becoming more distant," Morton says. "He was becoming less mine."
As a teen, Eric had no memories of his father outside of prison. Letters his dad wrote him were "just a window into a life that never happened," he says. His father "barely existed in my life. I didn't have memories of him outside of the visits to prison."
Eric decided to stop visiting. "I think it was embarrassing for me to think that I had to go to jail to see my dad."
Michael Morton wrote Eric saying he had to come and tell him that in person. He did.
"It was another one of those numb, painful things," Morton says. "I just looked at my sister-in-law and said something like, 'Take care of my son.'"
Eric also changed his last name to that of the relatives who raised him.

A few years ago, a group of attorneys, working pro bono on Morton's behalf, managed to bring the truth to light. Not only was Morton innocent, but the prosecutor, Ken Anderson, was accused of withholding crucial evidence.

The little boy, Eric, had seen the attack and told relatives that daddy was not home at the time. He described the man who did it. Neighbors had described a man parking a green van behind the Mortons' house and walking off into a wooded area. A blood-stained bandana was found nearby. None of that evidence made it into the trial.
It took years of fighting, but Morton's attorneys finally got the bandana tested for DNA. It contained Christine Morton's blood and hair and the DNA of another man -- a convicted felon named Mark Norwood.

Norwood had killed Christine Morton. And since no one figured that out after her death, he remained free. He killed another woman in the Austin area, Debra Baker, in similar circumstances less than two years later, authorities say.

Morton was freed in October 2011. He was 57 years old. "I thank God this wasn't a capital case," he said.

Morton's story, told in the CNN Films' documentary "An Unreal Dream," shines a spotlight on wrongful convictions in the United States. More than 2,000 wrongfully convicted people were exonerated between 1989 and 2012, according to data compiled by the University of Michigan Law School.

But Morton's case has paved new ground that could affect cases nationwide.
Last month, Anderson -- Morton's prosecutor who in 2001 became a judge -- pleaded no contest to a court order to show cause for withholding exculpatory evidence. A judgment of contempt from the clerk's office of the 26th Judicial District, Williamson County, Texas, said the court found "Anderson in criminal contempt of court on the matters set out in the show cause order..."
Anderson's punishment pales in comparison to Morton's experience. The former prosecutor stepped down from his position as a judge and agreed to 10 days in jail. He then served only five of those days, under Texas laws involving good behavior behind bars.
He also agreed to a $500 fine, 500 hours of community service, and the loss of his law license, according to the Innocence Project, a legal clinic affiliated with Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School.
It's "an extremely rare instance, and perhaps the first time, that a prosecutor has been criminally punished for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence," the Innocence Project said.
The "historic precedent demonstrates that when a judge orders a prosecutor to look in his file and disclose exculpatory evidence, deliberate failure to do so is punishable by contempt," said Barry Scheck, the project's co-director.

The organization is working with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Innocence Project of Texas to coordinate a review of Anderson's cases.
Anderson, meanwhile, has not publicly acknowledged any personal wrongdoing. In court, he said he couldn't remember details of the case, and that he and his family have been through false accusations over it.
"I apologize that the system screwed up. I've beaten myself up on what I could have done different and I don't know," he said, acknowledging Morton's "pain."
Morton asked a judge to "do what needs to be done, but at the same time to be gentle with Judge Anderson."
In prepared remarks outside the courthouse, Anderson repeated that he wanted to "formally apologize for the system's failure to Mr. Morton and every other person who was affected by the verdict."
A statement released by Anderson on Thursday said, "This resolution resulted in a finding of contempt only. As stated on the record, this resolution did not involve any plea by Mr. Anderson to any criminal charge."
The former prosecutor also commented that he "hopes, for the sake of all persons involved, that this resolution brings an end to the tragic situation that began with the brutal murder of Christine Morton in 1986 and that was followed by the incorrect conviction and incarceration of Michael Morton. Mr. Anderson continues to believe that Mr. Morton's conviction resulted directly from a medical examiner's assessment of Christine Morton's time of death at 1:30 a.m. -- a time when Mr. Morton was indisputably at home with his wife. Regardless of the cause of the wrong result reached in the Morton trial, in light of the DNA results obtained in 2011, Mr. Anderson has consistently expressed -- and continues to express to Mr. Morton and his family -- his regret for Mr. Morton's prosecution and incorrect incarceration."

Morton now works on programs to help other innocent people behind bars. Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed the Michael Morton Act into law, requiring prosecutors to turn evidence over to defense lawyers in criminal cases, upon the defendant's request, without the need for a court order. The law will make the state's criminal justice system "fairer and helping prevent wrongful convictions," Perry said.

'Life has come full circle'
Vindication is very, very good, but it's something I knew all along.
Michael Morton
"Other people often feel far more anger than I do," Morton says. "Vindication is very, very good, but it's something I knew all along. ... It's really nothing new for me."
He had a religious epiphany in jail, and credits his newfound inner peace with the knowledge that God "loves me."
He's now close with his son -- and daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, who is named after Christine. "I've never seen a more perfect child," Morton says.
"Life has come full circle," his son Eric says. "...I do love him."
"The conundrums of life, the philosophical paradoxes, the metaphysical problems -- I feel like I get it now," Michael Morton says with a smile. "I understand suffering and unfairness. I can't think of anything better to receive than that. I'm good with this."

[BoSoxGal]

This short video is really worth watching; it's beyond admirable how Michael Morton has responded to his wrongful incarceration:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video ... nn-ap.html

[MajGenl.Meade]

Anderson repeated that he wanted to "formally apologize for the system's failure to Mr. Morton.....

Ah, it was the system that failed - not a corrupt prosecutor named Anderson. We are all victims, ain't we?

[Lord Jim]

If, (as appears to be the case, given the prosecution of the former prosecutor) the state is conceding that this fellow was not just wrongly convicted, but wrongly convicted as a result of deliberate misconduct on the part of the state, shouldn't there be some sort of payment involved? The article doesn't address this either way.

LJ, with respect to your the "only the really bad guys get in the news and that's a small minority" theme above, I absolutely disagree.

Well, absent any empirical evidence to support that, we are going to have to agree to disagree. When my personal experience and common sense tell me one thing, I will continue to believe it unless there is hard statistical evidence to the contrary. Such empirical evidence as does exist, suggests I am correct. If you look at the number of substantiated charges of misconduct, versus the hundreds of thousands of individual police officers and cases involving members of the public, it's quite tiny.

It is almost impossible to prove untruthfulness

Well, it seems to me that happens in courtrooms thousands of times every day in this country; it's done with evidence that contradicts the claims that witnesses make....

I suppose one can extrapolate from the anecdotal and speculate all they want to, but for my part, I'm going to extend at least as much presumption of innocence to law officers as would be given to some perp with a rap sheet a mile long...

[BoSoxGal]

FYI: The documentary about Michael Morton's wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration is available for streaming via Netflix and iTunes. Well worth watching!

[Gob]

[BoSoxGal]

I heard on NPR this morning that the victim of that police brutality is a middle-aged, homeless and mentally ill woman.


My position is that we will never turn the tide on these policing outrages until we raise the bar, demanding better-educated police recruits and strengthening psychological screening to weed out the angry and violent bullies attracted to the opportunity to have a license to exert power & control over others.

With so many college graduates looking for work, it's entirely doable - especially if we expand the student loan forgiveness offered to LEOs.

[Gob]

Homeland Security, Feds Swarm Small Town in Bizarre Unannounced Show of Force


Homeland Security agents, backed by police SWAT teams, armored vehicles and a Black Hawk helicopter staged a bizarre unannounced show of force in front of a school in a small Illinois town, scenes which will exacerbate concerns about the increasing militarization of U.S. law enforcement.


Residents of Livingston, IL., population 850, were shocked to see agents from Homeland Security, the US Customs and Border Patrol and local police agencies swarm a field belonging to a grade school yesterday, with one local telling news channel KTVI, “When all the armored trucks started showing up and everything it made me kind of nervous.”

One child said he thought the spectacle was “pretty cool” and that agents invited the local children to check out the choppers up close, despite the presence of weapons inside the helicopters.

The school superintendent said he was not given any information about the operation beforehand, despite authorities using school land as a staging ground. The U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to release any information on the purpose behind the operation.

KTVI labeled the presence of the feds a “mystery,” although it subsequently emerged that the school was being used as a staging ground for a raid on a house three miles away. Authorities refused to divulge the purpose behind the raid or if anyone was taken into custody.

Reporter Roche Madden said he learned that ten police cars showed up at the house to conduct the raid, suggesting that the Black Hawk and the armored vehicles were merely on standby.

The sheer number of feds present, in addition to multiple armored vehicles, military-style choppers and other vehicles, in order to conduct a raid on a single house clearly suggests overkill and will prompt more concerns as to the increasing militarization of U.S. law enforcement.

Authorities routinely stage unannounced drills, often in the middle of the night, which terrify startled residents. Critics have asserted that Americans are being conditioned to accept military-style policing as a routine occurrence.

The purchase of armored vehicles formerly used in anti-terror operations overseas has prompted widespread concern that domestic law enforcement in the United States is becoming increasingly militarized and violent. A recent ACLU investigation into the issue decried the fact that American neighborhoods are turning into warzones as SWAT tactics become more brutal, causing an increase in deaths, injuries and property damage.

[Guinevere]

I don't think its pay or opportunities to continue their education that are lacking. According to this chart (admittedly from 2001, but its the best summary I found so far), many states are already offering tuition reimbursement, and/or incentive pay. In Massachusetts, officers get both -- and believe me, they take advantage of the benefit. When you add that in, with their OT hours (and under Federal law they get OT on base play PLUS incentives) they are doing extremely well. It is always several patrol officers and sergeants who are among the top earners in almost every town in the Commonwealth (well above the Chiefs, and the Managers).


The summary:

All fifty states require state police officers to have a high school diploma. Twenty (or 40%) require additional qualifications or experience, such as post secondary education, military service, or law enforcement experience.

Of the 45 states that provided information about incentives for further education, 35, offer financial incentives, such as pay raises, bonuses, and tuition reimbursements; the other 10 do not offer any incentives.

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2001/rpt/2001-R-0092.htm

[Econoline]

Part of the problem? http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barr ... y?id=95836

[oldr_n_wsr]

Most cops here on Long Island make over $100K a year. I have had nothing but good experiences with them. Got pulled over one time for going down the shoulder to make a right turn. they were waiting for us and I just handed the officer my info and he came back and gave me a ticket for no seatbelt. No points on my license, just a little fine ($50 IIRC). I learned a long time ago, just cooperate.

[BoSoxGal]

Former Texas District Attorney up against Misconduct Claim

Nearly four years after a Texas man was exonerated of crimes he did not commit, he has filed a grievance with the State Bar which states that a former district attorney engaged in misconduct by withholding evidence from the defense that pointed toward his innocence. Anthony Graves served 18 years in prison — 12 of them on death row — after being wrongfully convicted of playing a role in the horrific murders of two women and four children before evidence of his innocence freed him in 2010.

The Eagle reported that Graves’ complaint against former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta could lead to his disbarment if found guilty. Sebesta chose to have the case heard by an administrative judge in private as opposed to being heard before the public in district court.

Graves and his co-defendant Robert Cater were charged in 1992 with the murders of a family whose home had also been set on fire. Carter originally told investigators that Graves had participated in the killings, but later told Texas Rangers that he only named Graves because he felt pressured to identify a co-defendant and that Graves was actually not involved. Carter made similar statements to Sebesta before trial and again on his deathbed.

Graves is pleased that the State Bar has determined there is "just cause" to move forward with his prosecutorial misconduct claim against Sebesta.

"I sought justice for a long time while imprisoned, having to trust the court system and the legal profession to care about justice, and to do the right thing," Graves said in a statement. "I am glad to see the State Bar of Texas now act favorably on my grievance at this stage."

Graves' attorney, Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, said she was disappointed Sebesta chose to have his complaint heard in private.

"A prosecutor's duty is not simply to secure convictions, but to see that justice is done," she said. "Conviction of an innocent man like Mr. Graves through prosecutorial misconduct is abhorrent and undermines public trust."

Read more: http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/form ... 1183a.html (Note that the DA is obsessing over procedural issues regarding the State Bar's review of the matter, further resisting any formal review of his conduct!)

[BoSoxGal]

SLEEP NO MORE - Richard LaGravenese, HuffBlog

An excerpt from a Memorandum of Law of an Amended Petition for Post Conviction Relief filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas:

'Marshall Hale is an innocent man convicted of a crime he did not commit. This fact has been known by the Commonwealth since the police ran tests on Mr. Hale's blood during his trial which determined conclusively that he did not rape the victim. Since that time--at 3:00 p.m. on September 26, 1984 -- the Commonwealth has repeatedly thwarted Mr. Hale's attempts to establish his innocence: first by withholding the very evidence within its control that proves his innocence, then by providing the indecipherable information and arguing against the appointment of either counsel or expert to allow him to understand it. Because the Commonwealth so egregiously violated Mr. Hale's protected rights to due process of law, and because the Commonwealth ensured that Mr. Hale would remain ignorant of the very evidence to prove his innocence, this Court should grant Mr. Hale's petition, reverse his conviction and set him free. Mr. Hale has already spent 26 years in prison serving a sentence meant for another man...'

The memorandum was filed by Marissa Boyers Bluestine, the legal director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. Ms. Bluestine is a mother of three, whose husband is a schoolteacher and musician. She rarely gets vacation time with her family. But has no complaints. Sharp, dedicated, skilled, she is also one of funniest women I've ever met, which I'm convinced comes in handy considering she's committed her life to overcoming the often insurmountable task of overturning wrongful convictions -- of setting imprisoned innocent people free.

Marissa admitted to me that, for many lawyers, having guilty clients is preferable. It offers the opportunity of exercising your lawyering skills, of getting that rush of being a trial lawyer by giving your client their constitutional right to their day in court. With innocent clients, she adds, you don't sleep.

Stories like Marshall Hale's are the norm throughout the 53 U.S. projects under the umbrella of the Innocence Network, which also include an additional 13 projects outside the U.S. There have been 317 innocent people exonerated as a result of DNA testing. The Innocence Project is responsible for 179 of those exonerations. The IP lawyers are also committed to reforming a broken criminal justice system. The word "broken" is mine, not theirs. In a recent study, it was determined that 4 percent -- 1 out of every 25 Death Row inmates -- are innocent.

The death penalty issue is obviously a divisive one. But whether one is for or against, you can not deny the basic illogic -- if we know the system is flawed, if we know there are innocent people on Death Row, then until the system is reformed, should we not abandon the death penalty to protect those who are innocent?

On a recent John Oliver Last Week Tonight, he showed a clip of a debate led by Brian Williams in which he prefaced a question to Texas Governor Rick Perry with the information that Gov Perry had been responsible for over 200 executions. Before Mr. Williams could continue, the audience cheered and applauded Gov. Perry. Mr. Williams then asked Gov.
Perry "Do you ever lose any sleep over whether or not any of those executed were innocent?" Gov. Perry quickly answered, "No. I do not."

It's a horrifying concept to me. How do you survive living in a cell knowing you are innocent? Many of those exonerated whom I have met seem to have a more benign, grateful attitude toward life than those of us who walk free. Many find a religious or spiritual stronghold. It's as if they know that letting loose the anger and the rage against the injustice would only imprison them again. In developing The Divide, premiering July 16 on WEtv (w/ co-creator Tony Goldwyn), our attempt to portray their stories as well as those dedicated to the Innocence Project has been a humbling experience.

Every night before going to bed, after long days and nights of fighting the fight, Marissa Bluestine says good night to her children, then lays awake for a moment before drifting off to sleep and thinks about Marshall Hale, still in his cell after 26 years.

"What is Marshall doing right now?" Marissa thinks to herself.

While in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, I think it's safe to assume, is dreaming.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I do not doubt there are "bad cops" just like there are "bad people". When NYC has over 30,000 officers there are going to be some bad apples. Nassau and Suffolk counties have about 2500 officers each and there are several towns that have thier own police departments. There are going to be some bad people in these departments.
A year or so ago, a cop shot a taxi driver. Cop was in his own car and there was a minor fender bender. Cop shot the cabbie. Big investigation as the cop was not charged at the scene, was visibly drunk and the cabbie did nothing to warrant the shooting. I believe it was Nassau cop in a suffolk district. Thigs tried to get covered up but they are continuing to be brought out into the open. Don't remember if the cop is fired, but I kinda doubt it as I think the case is still ongoing.

[Jarlaxle]

One must (timidly) ask the question, in today's domestic world, what sort of person chooses to be a police officer?

The same sort of person who becomes a Hell's Angel, or a mob boss's leg-breaker. The police are the most dangerous street gang in the country.