Junk science and racial bias

[Gob]

“You’re going to have to bear with me,” the judge said. “I know you’re anxious.”

For a man wrongly convicted of rape almost 30 years ago, Raymond Towler did not look anxious. Perhaps it was because a few more minutes in custody made little difference after so long. Perhaps it was because he had a reasonable idea of what Judge Eileen Gallagher was about to say.

In an extraordinary scene, barely noticed in America this week amid coverage of the enormous oil spill and the New York bomb plot, Mr Towler, a 52-year-old musician, walked free from a Cleveland court after spending more than half his life in prison for a crime of which he always maintained his innocence and which DNA analysis proved he did not commit.

His case is not unique, but the way it ended was uniquely moving. It may serve to galvanise a national movement of lawyers and activists who have used DNA evidence to free more than 250 inmates since 1992, almost all of them black men, but who have so far lacked the resources to tackle thousands of other cases in which experts’ fear of “junk science” and racial bias have produced unsafe convictions.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 120167.ece

[Scooter]

This floored me:

Mr Towler appeared to bear no grudge. “Evidently a crime was committed and I’ve got to respect that they tried the best that they could,” he said. “They had the wrong person. It took them a while to straighten it out but all I care about right now is that they did straighten it out.”

The man is fucking Gandhi reincarnated. I would have been baying for blood.

[@meric@nwom@n]

The man is fucking Gandhi reincarnated. I would have been baying for blood

That was exactly what I thought when I saw the story yesterday.

[BoSoxGal]

Another example of criminal injustice from the 'best legal system in the world'.

I'll be praying he doesn't eventually fall victim to depression, substance abuse, etc. - as happens to so many of the exonerated who along the way became institutionalized in their thinking, despite their innocence.

Given Mr. Towler's attitude of forgiveness, he is much more likely to succeed. I hope he gets a big ol' bundle of cash, too. BIG ol' bundle.

Maybe after enough exoneration lawsuits, prosecutors will get a clue about how to do their jobs right - though I fear until we diminish immunity, we will keep seeing such injustices on a regular basis.

[Andrew D]

Exoneration lawsuits won't do any good until they hit the prosecutors themselves. Prosecutorial immunity is a blight on the entire "justice" system. It should not be diminished; it should be abolished.

95% of prosecutors are perjury-suborning scum -- private-sector rejects who went crawling to the prosecutors' office, where they wouldn't have to trouble themselves with pesky facts and annoying legal reasoning. 4% are religious zealots. At least they can be trusted to prosecute cases honestly; they seek the most draconian penalties available, and they have no sympathy for criminal defendants as fellow human beings, but at least they are up-front about it. 1% (and I am being generous) are good people honestly trying to do actual justice.

Whenever a defendant is acquitted on the merits or later exonerated, the prosecutor(s) involved should automatically receive the maximum sentence to which the defendant could have been subjected. That would be justice. Which is exactly why prosecutors are afraid of it.

[dales]

Would your assesment include Vincent Bugliosi's prosecution of the Manson Trial, Andrew?

(I'm not trying to start something, just interested in your opinion of the case)

[rubato]

"...
I'll be praying he doesn't eventually fall victim to depression, substance abuse, etc. - as happens to so many of the exonerated who along the way became institutionalized in their thinking, despite their innocence.

... "

Well he's too old to die young, that's something he can be thankful for.

yrs,
rubato