Post by Anja on Jun 9, 2006 2:02:03 GMT -5
Memories fail wrongly accused; so does Florida
Memories fail. Orlando Bosquete can tell you: Even in the most brutally
intimate of circumstances, eyewitnesses can identify the wrong man. And if
a distraught sexual assault victim insists that a shirtless Mariel refugee
standing in the half-light outside an all-night convenience store was her
assailant, being innocent is hardly enough to keep him out of prison.
Bosquete spent 13 years in prison and years more as a fugitive on the word
of a single witness who in 1983 thought she recognized him from the back
seat of a police cruiser.
She was wrong. 23 years later, DNA evidence exonerated Bosquete (though
the feds immediately stuck him back behind bars to await an immigration
hearing). It was another horrible error undone by DNA testing. It was
another horrible error that our criminal justice system regards as a mere
aberration. Even as the aberrations add up.
18-YEAR ERROR
Just Tuesday, James Calvin Tollman was freed after 18 years in a
Connecticut prison. In 1988, a woman recognized his face in a photo lineup
as the man who raped her. A DNA test, 18 years later, proved otherwise.
The Innocence Project counts 181 wrongly convicted prisoners freed by DNA
testing since 1989. Project director Barry Scheck said Wednesday that
about 80 percent of those convictions had been based on mistaken
identification by eyewitnesses.
Memories fail. Luis Diaz can tell you. Eight eyewitnesses identified him
as Miami's infamous Bird Road rapist and sent him to prison for 26 years
until DNA evidence reminded us that, with a little artful police work,
eyewitness recollections can be retrofitted to fit a particular suspect.
It happened to Luis Diaz 8 times over.
Memories fail. In 1981, a 17-year-old victim of a brutal rape in Sharpes,
Fla., picked Wilton Dedge out of a photo lineup and that was enough to
send him to prison. Dedge managed to win a new trial in 1984 but he was
convicted again through another notoriously rotten prosecution tactic: a
jailhouse informant claimed he heard Dedge confess. No surprise there.
LYING SNITCHES
The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School
found that nearly 10 % of the erroneous convictions were based on lying
snitches, looking to sweeten their own deal.
Dedge did 22 years in Florida prisons before DNA testing set him free.
Memories fail. Alan Crotzer did 24 years in Florida prisons for robbery,
rape and kidnaping in Tampa after a witness picked him out of a lineup.
Years later, DNA proved the witness wrong.
Frank Lee Smith of Fort Lauderdale died of cancer after 14 years on Death
Row for murdering a child in Fort Lauderdale. But DNA testing later proved
that the lone eyewitness had picked the wrong man.
Of course, she had attempted to recant her testimony, claiming Broward
County Sheriff's deputies had pressured her into picking Smith from a
photo lineup. Memories fail. And sometimes the failure is enabled by lousy
police work.
7 FREED
DNA testing, pushed by the nonprofit Innocence Project, has now exonerated
7 wrongly convicted prisoners in Florida, including Jerry Frank Townsend,
a mentally disabled man whose confession was extracted during a relentless
interrogation by BSO.
But Florida pretends that wrongful convictions are mere aberrations.
Neither the courts, the prosecutors, the governor nor the Legislature have
pushed for new technology and modern scientific identification procedures.
They haven't tried to reform a system that puts the innocent in prison.
"I'm disappointed," admitted Scheck, who said he had expected Florida to
launch workshops, teach-ins and pilot projects to fix a broken system. "I
really thought that after all these exonerations, they'd do something.
"They've done nothing."
(source: Miami Herald)
Memories fail. Orlando Bosquete can tell you: Even in the most brutally
intimate of circumstances, eyewitnesses can identify the wrong man. And if
a distraught sexual assault victim insists that a shirtless Mariel refugee
standing in the half-light outside an all-night convenience store was her
assailant, being innocent is hardly enough to keep him out of prison.
Bosquete spent 13 years in prison and years more as a fugitive on the word
of a single witness who in 1983 thought she recognized him from the back
seat of a police cruiser.
She was wrong. 23 years later, DNA evidence exonerated Bosquete (though
the feds immediately stuck him back behind bars to await an immigration
hearing). It was another horrible error undone by DNA testing. It was
another horrible error that our criminal justice system regards as a mere
aberration. Even as the aberrations add up.
18-YEAR ERROR
Just Tuesday, James Calvin Tollman was freed after 18 years in a
Connecticut prison. In 1988, a woman recognized his face in a photo lineup
as the man who raped her. A DNA test, 18 years later, proved otherwise.
The Innocence Project counts 181 wrongly convicted prisoners freed by DNA
testing since 1989. Project director Barry Scheck said Wednesday that
about 80 percent of those convictions had been based on mistaken
identification by eyewitnesses.
Memories fail. Luis Diaz can tell you. Eight eyewitnesses identified him
as Miami's infamous Bird Road rapist and sent him to prison for 26 years
until DNA evidence reminded us that, with a little artful police work,
eyewitness recollections can be retrofitted to fit a particular suspect.
It happened to Luis Diaz 8 times over.
Memories fail. In 1981, a 17-year-old victim of a brutal rape in Sharpes,
Fla., picked Wilton Dedge out of a photo lineup and that was enough to
send him to prison. Dedge managed to win a new trial in 1984 but he was
convicted again through another notoriously rotten prosecution tactic: a
jailhouse informant claimed he heard Dedge confess. No surprise there.
LYING SNITCHES
The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School
found that nearly 10 % of the erroneous convictions were based on lying
snitches, looking to sweeten their own deal.
Dedge did 22 years in Florida prisons before DNA testing set him free.
Memories fail. Alan Crotzer did 24 years in Florida prisons for robbery,
rape and kidnaping in Tampa after a witness picked him out of a lineup.
Years later, DNA proved the witness wrong.
Frank Lee Smith of Fort Lauderdale died of cancer after 14 years on Death
Row for murdering a child in Fort Lauderdale. But DNA testing later proved
that the lone eyewitness had picked the wrong man.
Of course, she had attempted to recant her testimony, claiming Broward
County Sheriff's deputies had pressured her into picking Smith from a
photo lineup. Memories fail. And sometimes the failure is enabled by lousy
police work.
7 FREED
DNA testing, pushed by the nonprofit Innocence Project, has now exonerated
7 wrongly convicted prisoners in Florida, including Jerry Frank Townsend,
a mentally disabled man whose confession was extracted during a relentless
interrogation by BSO.
But Florida pretends that wrongful convictions are mere aberrations.
Neither the courts, the prosecutors, the governor nor the Legislature have
pushed for new technology and modern scientific identification procedures.
They haven't tried to reform a system that puts the innocent in prison.
"I'm disappointed," admitted Scheck, who said he had expected Florida to
launch workshops, teach-ins and pilot projects to fix a broken system. "I
really thought that after all these exonerations, they'd do something.
"They've done nothing."
(source: Miami Herald)