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?

Curtis Flowers

This picture is of Curtis Flowers.  


Flowers is on the verge of facing his 6th murder trial in Mississippi for the "execution-style" slaying of Bertha Tardy, a Montgomery County furniture store owner and three of Mrs. Tardy's workers, thirteen years ago.  Flowers has been sentenced to death three times, four of the convictions have been overturned for blatant prosecutorial misconduct, and the fifth trial declared a mistrial after a black juror refused to convict on the evidence.  That juror, James Bibbs, a Vietnam veteran, retired school teacher, and local volunteer football referee was interviewed by the white Judge, abused in open court, arrested, and jailed for perjury!  The charges against juror Bibbs were "quietly" dropped.


For 13 years, Curtis Flowers has sat in jail.  The evidence against him based on motive, Flowers is a disgruntled former employee with a wage dispute with Mrs. Tardy, he has no alibi, on the other hand the forensic evidence against him is "wafer thin" and the eyewitness testimony is doubtful.


Here is what we know, Winona, Mississippi is one of the most racist places in the United States.  It is a place that made the cover of Time magazine in 1937 for the notorious Duck Hill lynchings and murderous southern racism.  In 1963 civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer (who coined the expression,: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired") was arrested after being refused service at the Winona bus station lunch counter; she suffered terrible injuries from jail house beatings arranged by the racist authorities.


In addition to the treatment of the juror, Mr. Bibbs by the white Judge, the prosecutorial approach to the case been until the last trial--exclude blacks from the jury.  The US  Supeme Court has held that this tactic denies black Americans fundamental due process.  You think?


Well, our dear Mississippeans have caught the attention of the BBC and other international media.  Here's a link to the BBC story:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8377236.stm

There's a separate website to support the cause of justice in the Curtis Flowers case:  http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/curtis-flowers-and-the-cruel-legacy-of-montgomery-county/