Post by sclcookie on May 27, 2006 0:53:01 GMT -5
Hi All,
Earlier today we received word that the state has dropped the indictment of Larry Peterson, so we have a new full-fledged exoneration in New Jersey, and as far as I understand it, our first of a person who faced the death penalty.
Here is the statement that is being disseminated to the media at this time. Below that is the current AP story.
Have an excellent weekend!
--abe
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Field Manager
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP)
Reach NJADP at 609-278-6719 or via www.NJADP.org
Reach Abe Bonowitz at 800-973-6548 or abe@njadp.org
***********
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP)
Trenton, NJ
CONTACT: Celeste Fitzgerald: 973-495-5302
26 May 2006
Please attribute all quotes from this statement to Celeste Fitzgerald, Executive Director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Fitzgerald is available today by mobile phone at 973-495-5302.
NJADP Statement on the Exoneration of Larry Peterson after nearly eighteen years of wrongful incarceration.
"The fact that Larry Peterson has spent a large part of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit is a personal tragedy. It is also a sad reminder that wrongful convictions can, and often do, occur in capital cases - and that they can happen right here in our State.
“While Larry Peterson was thankfully not sentenced to death, the next Larry Peterson might be, and the risk of executing an innocent person must no longer exist in New Jersey.
“The fact that the State of New Jersey tried to execute Larry Peterson should serve as a wake-up call to the minority of New Jerseyans who still support the death penalty. While nothing can be done to restore the years of freedom wrongfully taken from Larry Peterson, this case underscores the need to replace New Jersey's death penalty with the more certain punishment of life in prison without parole.
“New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty sympathizes with the family of the victim in this case, Jacqueline Harrison. We are mindful that they still suffer from their loss and now must endure the pain of uncertainty as this case reopens. We cannot forget that when the wrong person is accused and convicted, the real guilty party is still free to commit more crimes.
“Almost a year ago, Larry Peterson became the first person in New Jersey to have his murder conviction overturned using DNA evidence. Today, Larry Peterson begins the rest of his life, a day that is long overdue."
***
www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-20/1148660676296960.xml&storylist=jersey
Charges dropped in 19-year-old murder case with no DNA match
5/26/2006, 3:02 p.m. ET
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
The Associated Press
(AP) The legal saga of a man imprisoned for nearly 18 years for a murder he said he did not commit ended Friday when prosecutors dropped the charges.
Larry Leroy Peterson, 55, was freed last year after DNA evidence led a judge to overturn his 1989 conviction in the murder of 25-year-old Jacqueline Harrison. Burlington County prosecutors had been planning to retry him, but announced the change of plans Friday.
In dropping the charges, authorities would not concede that Peterson was innocent of the murder but rather said they did not have enough evidence to prove it to a jury.
"I am now satisfied that the status of the evidence is such that the State would not be able to sustain its burden of proof at the time of any retrial," Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said in a written statement.
Peterson's lawyer hailed the decision.
"Whether you call it an exoneration or not, it is freedom for a man who is innocent," said attorney Lawrence Lustberg. Peterson is no longer a convict, is free now and no longer has to check in weekly with a bail officer, which he had been doing since he was released from jail last August.
Peterson, who had been jailed for more than a year before his trial, last year became the first New Jersey prisoner to have a conviction overturned because of DNA evidence. Nationally, 178 convicts have been exonerated with DNA evidence.
In a legal filing submitted to a judge on Friday, prosecutors laid out several pieces of testimony that a judge had barred from any retrial.
That evidence included Peterson's previous criminal convictions and testimony that he had admitted beating his wife and hitting someone with a baseball bat, that he had threatened another woman that he would "follow her home one night" and that he had fresh scratch marks on his arms shortly after Harrison's body was found in Pemberton Township.
Without being able to use those details, Bernardi said, it would be impossible to convict Peterson of the Aug. 24, 1987 slaying.
Additionally, Bernardi said that three of the key witnesses the state relied on to convict Peterson 17 years ago have either changed their stories or have foggy memories. All three claimed Peterson told them about the night in which Harrison was killed.
Prosecutors interviewed one key witness, Robert Elder, last month when he was arrested on unrelated charges and granted immunity. He recanted his claims about Peterson confessing to him and said that he made them because he thought they were what police wanted to hear.
Lustberg said that even with the thrown-out testimony allowed, his client would have had a good case. "DNA is powerful evidence," he said. "Even if there was other evidence, it would have at the very least created a shadow of a doubt."
Between them, the Innocence Project at Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York and prosecutors had dozens of DNA samples from hairs and elsewhere at the crime scene analyzed in the case. None matched Peterson's genetic makeup.
Lustberg said the samples indicated the victim had sex with two men before she was killed. One man was known. The other, unknown man, he said, was the killer.
Vanessa Potkin, a staff attorney with the Innocence Project, said that Peterson is a victim in the case, too. He served all that prison time, she said, and his family owes $13,000 on a loan it took out for bail.
She said he is living with his mother in Pemberton Township and finally got a construction job this week.
Initially, authorities sought the death penalty for Peterson. Last year, he lobbied lawmakers to repeal capital punishment in New Jersey. Currently, the state has a temporary moratorium on the death penalty.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Earlier today we received word that the state has dropped the indictment of Larry Peterson, so we have a new full-fledged exoneration in New Jersey, and as far as I understand it, our first of a person who faced the death penalty.
Here is the statement that is being disseminated to the media at this time. Below that is the current AP story.
Have an excellent weekend!
--abe
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Field Manager
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP)
Reach NJADP at 609-278-6719 or via www.NJADP.org
Reach Abe Bonowitz at 800-973-6548 or abe@njadp.org
***********
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP)
Trenton, NJ
CONTACT: Celeste Fitzgerald: 973-495-5302
26 May 2006
Please attribute all quotes from this statement to Celeste Fitzgerald, Executive Director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Fitzgerald is available today by mobile phone at 973-495-5302.
NJADP Statement on the Exoneration of Larry Peterson after nearly eighteen years of wrongful incarceration.
"The fact that Larry Peterson has spent a large part of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit is a personal tragedy. It is also a sad reminder that wrongful convictions can, and often do, occur in capital cases - and that they can happen right here in our State.
“While Larry Peterson was thankfully not sentenced to death, the next Larry Peterson might be, and the risk of executing an innocent person must no longer exist in New Jersey.
“The fact that the State of New Jersey tried to execute Larry Peterson should serve as a wake-up call to the minority of New Jerseyans who still support the death penalty. While nothing can be done to restore the years of freedom wrongfully taken from Larry Peterson, this case underscores the need to replace New Jersey's death penalty with the more certain punishment of life in prison without parole.
“New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty sympathizes with the family of the victim in this case, Jacqueline Harrison. We are mindful that they still suffer from their loss and now must endure the pain of uncertainty as this case reopens. We cannot forget that when the wrong person is accused and convicted, the real guilty party is still free to commit more crimes.
“Almost a year ago, Larry Peterson became the first person in New Jersey to have his murder conviction overturned using DNA evidence. Today, Larry Peterson begins the rest of his life, a day that is long overdue."
***
www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-20/1148660676296960.xml&storylist=jersey
Charges dropped in 19-year-old murder case with no DNA match
5/26/2006, 3:02 p.m. ET
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
The Associated Press
(AP) The legal saga of a man imprisoned for nearly 18 years for a murder he said he did not commit ended Friday when prosecutors dropped the charges.
Larry Leroy Peterson, 55, was freed last year after DNA evidence led a judge to overturn his 1989 conviction in the murder of 25-year-old Jacqueline Harrison. Burlington County prosecutors had been planning to retry him, but announced the change of plans Friday.
In dropping the charges, authorities would not concede that Peterson was innocent of the murder but rather said they did not have enough evidence to prove it to a jury.
"I am now satisfied that the status of the evidence is such that the State would not be able to sustain its burden of proof at the time of any retrial," Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said in a written statement.
Peterson's lawyer hailed the decision.
"Whether you call it an exoneration or not, it is freedom for a man who is innocent," said attorney Lawrence Lustberg. Peterson is no longer a convict, is free now and no longer has to check in weekly with a bail officer, which he had been doing since he was released from jail last August.
Peterson, who had been jailed for more than a year before his trial, last year became the first New Jersey prisoner to have a conviction overturned because of DNA evidence. Nationally, 178 convicts have been exonerated with DNA evidence.
In a legal filing submitted to a judge on Friday, prosecutors laid out several pieces of testimony that a judge had barred from any retrial.
That evidence included Peterson's previous criminal convictions and testimony that he had admitted beating his wife and hitting someone with a baseball bat, that he had threatened another woman that he would "follow her home one night" and that he had fresh scratch marks on his arms shortly after Harrison's body was found in Pemberton Township.
Without being able to use those details, Bernardi said, it would be impossible to convict Peterson of the Aug. 24, 1987 slaying.
Additionally, Bernardi said that three of the key witnesses the state relied on to convict Peterson 17 years ago have either changed their stories or have foggy memories. All three claimed Peterson told them about the night in which Harrison was killed.
Prosecutors interviewed one key witness, Robert Elder, last month when he was arrested on unrelated charges and granted immunity. He recanted his claims about Peterson confessing to him and said that he made them because he thought they were what police wanted to hear.
Lustberg said that even with the thrown-out testimony allowed, his client would have had a good case. "DNA is powerful evidence," he said. "Even if there was other evidence, it would have at the very least created a shadow of a doubt."
Between them, the Innocence Project at Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York and prosecutors had dozens of DNA samples from hairs and elsewhere at the crime scene analyzed in the case. None matched Peterson's genetic makeup.
Lustberg said the samples indicated the victim had sex with two men before she was killed. One man was known. The other, unknown man, he said, was the killer.
Vanessa Potkin, a staff attorney with the Innocence Project, said that Peterson is a victim in the case, too. He served all that prison time, she said, and his family owes $13,000 on a loan it took out for bail.
She said he is living with his mother in Pemberton Township and finally got a construction job this week.
Initially, authorities sought the death penalty for Peterson. Last year, he lobbied lawmakers to repeal capital punishment in New Jersey. Currently, the state has a temporary moratorium on the death penalty.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.