Remember Stephen Brodie? He's Innocent.

I told you about Stephen Brodie last July and advised you as a practical matter to avoid being arrested in Texas.  Brodie (pic, above) was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated ro sexually assaulting a young girl he did not sexualy assault.   No physical evidence connected Brodie to the crime (which in actuality was committed against the 5 year old victim by someone else), and the charges against him followed a marathon interrogation; and, he's deaf.  No interpreter was present.  Ah, . . . Texas, what a country!

According to reporter Jennifer Emily at the Dallas Morning News, Judge Lena Levario has issued an order exonerating Brodie who will soon be released.  Brodie promised in July that if this occurred he was "leaving Texas."

Video Link to Ray Towler's Release from Prison

At this link the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the extraordinary video of  Ray Towler's release from custody ny Judge Eileen Gallagher. 

Another Wrongly Convicted Man Goes Free After 29 Years!

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting on the Cleveland man freed after 29 years in prison.   Yesterday a Cuyahoga County judge freed Ray Towler after DNA evidence proved Towler was not the rapist of an 11 year old girl three decades earlier.  The Judge, Eileen A. Gallagher, descended from the bench and with tears streaming down her face embraced Mr. Towler who smiled and said he was walking out into "the light." 

Look, Ray Towler wasn't on death row in Ohio, but do we need further evidence of why capital punishment is such a bad idea?  Until recent decades in Georgia and throughout the south, ( at least, until Corker v. Ga. in 1977), criminal defendants were executed for rape.  Want to guess how many innocent men, particularly black men went to their deaths at the hands of a vengeful society intent on stamping out the crime of rape?

Exculpatory Evidence

The Dallas Morning News has this article about Richard Miles, who was sent to prison for 40 years by a Dallas County court 14 years ago.  He was ordered released based on prosecutorial misconduct following the efforts of the Innocence Project uncovering "exculpatory evidence" in the possession of prosecution that was not given to Mr. Miles at the time of his conviction in 1995.  I'm quoting the report by Steve McGonigle and Jennifer Emily:

"The claim that Miles, 34, is innocent is still being investigated by the DA's office. 'We have serious questions as to whether he was convicted of a crime that was committed by someone else,' said Mike Ware, who oversees the DA's conviction integrity unit. Miles was convicted in the May 1994 shootings of Deandre Williams and Robert Ray Johnson Jr. near a gas station in the Bachman Lake area. Both men were shot multiple times while sitting in a car. Williams died. Johnson lived but was permanently disabled. If Miles is exonerated, he would be the second man District Attorney Craig Watkins has agreed was wrongly convicted in cases that did not involve DNA evidence.  Miles would be at least the sixth Dallas County inmate in the last two years to have his conviction voided because exculpatory evidence was not disclosed."

As I've said before, evidence is the testimony and documents allowed by the Judge to be heard by the jury or received by the Judge into consideration by himself if the case is tried without a jury.  Exculpatory evidence is that which tends to clear the accused from alleged fault or guilt. 

National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, today, had an superb half hour-plus with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project and others discussing plea bargains in American jurisprudence and the pitfalls for wrongful imprisonment of the innocent when prosecutors without integrity fail to disclose exculpatory evidence.