Check out all the wins across the nation resulting from November elections!
Call me lazy but I thought I would just re-direct to the Marijuana Policy Page that outlines all of the ballot initiatives and what they stand for.
http://www.mpp.org/library/2008-ballot-initiatives.html
Tuesday, May 13. 2008
The Texas Innocence Summit (aka Indigent Defense Summit), Austin, Texas
On May 8, 2008 in the Texas Senate Chamber, partly in response to the complete failure by the current justice system to create measures to ensure the guilty are not only not convicted, but not put to death, the Innocence Summit was held. Put together in great part by Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas, especially Harris County, has perhaps one of the worst records for properly maintaining the chain of custody of State's evidence, fails to fully perform the duty of a full and proper investigation, and has, as perhaps every jurisdiction's issue, problems with prosecutorial misconduct, and a non-existent public defender system which inevitably has caused the loss of many person's freedoms. This systemic failure lives on the shoulders of state officials, investigators, and police departments as well as defense counsel. Texas just has a poor record of providing criminal defense to those who cannot afford private attorneys.
There are a multitude of reasons for Texas' disgusting record of locking up the accused, but innocent. The primary reasons that were discussed at the summit include but are not limited to the following:
Cross Cultural Misidentification
Mr. Brennan Moon, a white man, discussed spending 18 years, after being convicted by an El Paso jury, in prison for crimes he did not commit when he was misidentified by a non-white witness.
DNA Exonerations-
If we dare to call them "lucky", these men were lucky to have DNA to help them ultimately be released from their cells.
Mr. James Waller, a black man, spent 10 years, eleven months of his life in prison for a sexual assault crime he did not commit. Fifteen years he spent on parole as a registered sex offender. As he said, "my entire life was taken from me". He told his story, his history, the story of a man who thought he would never have to do what his great grandmother did as a slave, which was pick cotton. He lamented the loss of the chance to have a family and spoke of his family which is comprised of his four dogs. He described the generations he gets to see grow which are that of his first dog who gave birth to the second and so on...
Mr. Alejandro Hernandez, a brown man, spent 13 years in prison, also convicted by an El Paso jury in what he referred to as "trial by ambush." DNA evidence is what released him from prison. He is the only man on the panel to speak of Proposition 64 which will allow DNA evidence to exonerate the wrongfully accused IF the identification of a witness is at issue in trial. Mr. Hernandez rightfully challenges this law as being too narrow and seeks support for broadening the use of DNA evidence to exonerate those convicted who want to challenge their conviction.
Mr. James Glen, a black man, convicted by a Dallas jury, spent 10 years in prison, 15 years on parole when DNA evidence exonerated him of the crimes for which he had served hard time, did not commit, and spent 5 years of his life as a registered sex offender. Amazingly, this man stood before the Senate Chamber and told us all he still loves God, and his message: "Don't be afraid."
Mr. Billy Smith, a black man, spent 19 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Exonerated after most of the years he has on this planet were consumed by a system of injustices. He made the very real point that he was lucky to have DNA exonerate him but as he pointed out, most prisoners will not have the benefit of DNA to prove their innocence and they will die in prison. Before Mr. Smith left, he pointed to every one of the people on the floor of the Senate that day and said, "Greatest thing God ever created was the pen" he then challenged lawmakers to use it to create better laws.
Mr. Carlos Lavernia a brown man, native to Cuba, convicted out of Austin. Mr. Lavernia was wrongfully accused and exonerated with DNA evidence for the crime of rape.
Mr. Thomas McGowen a black man, spent 22 years of his life in prison and his message: "This could happen to you."
Mr. Charles Chapman a black man, gave up 27 years of his life.
Mr. James Lee Woodward a black man, perhaps the most recent to be exonerated, also gave up 27 years of his life.
After the eight attending lawmakers heard from these nine wrongfully convicted men, the rest was left up to the likes of Senator Ellis and Mr. Barry Scheck (NY Innocence Project) to provide answers to other lawmakers on how to prevent future wrongful convictions.
Yet, the answers have all been given, and perhaps there are more to be learned but from what we know now and from what we heard at this summit, the common threads are as we stated above:
1. Improper police conduct
2. Dishonest and inferior investigations
3. Criminal defense attorney ineffective assistance of counsel
4. Unreported breaks in the chain of custody of evidence that is later used to convict the accused
5. Judges who fail to prevent any of the above in their court
6. Politicians who fail to properly use their pens
Noticeably missing from this summit was the experience and insight of a single female exonerated prisoner.
According to a recent Washington Post article by N.C. Aizenman, one in one hundred Americans are in prison, at a cost to the states of $50 billion a year and to the federal government of $5 billion a year. "One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 for white women in the same age group." Mr. Aizenman points out that China is second to our prison population with a much larger populous. Are all of these prisoners, all of these people serving time -- lengthy time, longer sentences than ever before in history -- be where they should be?
There are a multitude of reasons for Texas' disgusting record of locking up the accused, but innocent. The primary reasons that were discussed at the summit include but are not limited to the following:
Cross Cultural Misidentification
Mr. Brennan Moon, a white man, discussed spending 18 years, after being convicted by an El Paso jury, in prison for crimes he did not commit when he was misidentified by a non-white witness.
DNA Exonerations-
If we dare to call them "lucky", these men were lucky to have DNA to help them ultimately be released from their cells.
Mr. James Waller, a black man, spent 10 years, eleven months of his life in prison for a sexual assault crime he did not commit. Fifteen years he spent on parole as a registered sex offender. As he said, "my entire life was taken from me". He told his story, his history, the story of a man who thought he would never have to do what his great grandmother did as a slave, which was pick cotton. He lamented the loss of the chance to have a family and spoke of his family which is comprised of his four dogs. He described the generations he gets to see grow which are that of his first dog who gave birth to the second and so on...
Mr. Alejandro Hernandez, a brown man, spent 13 years in prison, also convicted by an El Paso jury in what he referred to as "trial by ambush." DNA evidence is what released him from prison. He is the only man on the panel to speak of Proposition 64 which will allow DNA evidence to exonerate the wrongfully accused IF the identification of a witness is at issue in trial. Mr. Hernandez rightfully challenges this law as being too narrow and seeks support for broadening the use of DNA evidence to exonerate those convicted who want to challenge their conviction.
Mr. James Glen, a black man, convicted by a Dallas jury, spent 10 years in prison, 15 years on parole when DNA evidence exonerated him of the crimes for which he had served hard time, did not commit, and spent 5 years of his life as a registered sex offender. Amazingly, this man stood before the Senate Chamber and told us all he still loves God, and his message: "Don't be afraid."
Mr. Billy Smith, a black man, spent 19 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Exonerated after most of the years he has on this planet were consumed by a system of injustices. He made the very real point that he was lucky to have DNA exonerate him but as he pointed out, most prisoners will not have the benefit of DNA to prove their innocence and they will die in prison. Before Mr. Smith left, he pointed to every one of the people on the floor of the Senate that day and said, "Greatest thing God ever created was the pen" he then challenged lawmakers to use it to create better laws.
Mr. Carlos Lavernia a brown man, native to Cuba, convicted out of Austin. Mr. Lavernia was wrongfully accused and exonerated with DNA evidence for the crime of rape.
Mr. Thomas McGowen a black man, spent 22 years of his life in prison and his message: "This could happen to you."
Mr. Charles Chapman a black man, gave up 27 years of his life.
Mr. James Lee Woodward a black man, perhaps the most recent to be exonerated, also gave up 27 years of his life.
After the eight attending lawmakers heard from these nine wrongfully convicted men, the rest was left up to the likes of Senator Ellis and Mr. Barry Scheck (NY Innocence Project) to provide answers to other lawmakers on how to prevent future wrongful convictions.
Yet, the answers have all been given, and perhaps there are more to be learned but from what we know now and from what we heard at this summit, the common threads are as we stated above:
1. Improper police conduct
2. Dishonest and inferior investigations
3. Criminal defense attorney ineffective assistance of counsel
4. Unreported breaks in the chain of custody of evidence that is later used to convict the accused
5. Judges who fail to prevent any of the above in their court
6. Politicians who fail to properly use their pens
Noticeably missing from this summit was the experience and insight of a single female exonerated prisoner.
According to a recent Washington Post article by N.C. Aizenman, one in one hundred Americans are in prison, at a cost to the states of $50 billion a year and to the federal government of $5 billion a year. "One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 for white women in the same age group." Mr. Aizenman points out that China is second to our prison population with a much larger populous. Are all of these prisoners, all of these people serving time -- lengthy time, longer sentences than ever before in history -- be where they should be?
Posted by The Shefman Law Group
in Texas Criminal Defense-Innocence Project
at
19:14
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