The U S justice system provides that you are considered innocent until proven guilty and you can not be tried twice for the same offence. But what happens if you are proven "not guilty" the first time and the prosecution somehow gets a second shot (I'm talking Criminal Court, not a second trial in Civil Court) at getting a convection and his results are successful? The short version is you most usually go to jail. There is an appeal process, but it often takes years for a new trial; all while you remain in prison.
It is estimated that as many as 2.3 to 5 percent of all prisoners are thought to be innocent; although they have been proven guilty. That percentage works out to somewhere between 51,600 and 112,200 innocent people in US prisons at any given time.
Following is a list of a half dozen people who were wrongly convicted, only to be later determined innocent; often times, much later.
1. Kirk N Bloodsworth has the distinction of being the first U S death row inmate to be proven not guilty due to DNA evidence. He was convicted of rape and premeditated murder in 1984. Maintaining his innocence from the beginning, he spent two years on death row but then in 1992, DNA testing was first introduced. When Bloodsworth's DNA was compared with DNA found at the crime scene, surprise, surprise, they were not a match. To make this particular case more than just a bad job by the prosecution, coincidentally, the person who actually committed the crime was locked up for a different crime entirely just a month after the murder in 1984, and was in the cell directly below Bloodworth's cell.
2. Kenny Waters, who was convicted of murder in 1983, spent the next 18 years in prison until he was finally released on June 19, 2001, based on the fact that his DNA did not match the DNA of the person responsible for the crime. His sister, Miss Betty Anne Waters, worked her way through college and law school in order to defend her brother in court. Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this case was that less than six months after he was released from prison, he died in an accident after falling, which resulted in a skull fracture. His estate sued for his wrongfull incarceration and was awarded $3.5 million in 2009, so I guess that law degree paid off for Miss Waters in some small way in the end.
3. He was only 15 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1970; Barney Brown was convicted of raping and killing a woman, as well as, robbing her husband. Mr. Brown was first tried as a juvenile, and when the dead victim’s husband could not identify Brown, the judge acquitted him of the charges. That however, did not stop the prosecution from violating double jeopardy laws and trying Brown as an adult for the same charges. The death penalty was sought, but instead of death, a conviction was obtained for life in prison. After 38 years in lockup, he was released from prison because he had been to trial twice for the same crime, which is still unconstitutional today.
4. Luis Diaz was sentenced to multiple life sentences in 1980 following a guilty verdict on seven separate sexual assault cases. At the trial, he had been charged with eight counts of sexual assault, battery, and kidnapping. Following a search of Diaz' home, items missing from the victims were not found, and further no weapon or DNA evidence was ever found on Diaz, in his home, or in his car. All of the victims had previously described their attacker as someone who was between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing over 200 pounds. Diaz was only 5 foot 3 inches and only weighed 134 pounds, but he was picked out of a lineup and pointed out in the courtroom. He spent 25 years in prison and in 2005, Diaz was finally freed when his DNA was determined not to be a match for any of the cases he was convicted of, thus his innocence was proven.
5. In 1981, Ralph Armstrong was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting a 19-year-old college student in her apartment. He was given a life sentence plus 16 years for first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault. During the trial it turned out that Armstrong knew the victim, in fact he had been using drugs with her the night of her murder, and to make things worse, he also owed the victim's boyfriend $400. The girl's neighbor described someone of comparable build to Armstrong leaving the victim's apartment prior to the deceased’s body being found, and the detectives actually went as far as having the witness hypnotized in an effort to strengthen her testimony. With her observation and the hair which was found at the scene of the crime that was described to be “similar” to Armstrong's hair, he was convicted. But in 2005, Armstrong's conviction was overturned after a DNA test was conducted on the hair, and Armstrong was granted a new trial. Later it was learned that the prosecution had ordered secret DNA tests in the first trial and had destroyed evidence to ensure an Armstrong conviction. Finally in 2009, after almost 30 years in prison, Armstrong was found not guilty of the crime
6. Perhaps the worse known case of wrongful conviction of record occurred in Harlan County, Kentucky in March of 1926. Condy Dabney, a former coal miner and married father of two, turned cab driver was convicted of murdering 14 year old Mary Vickery.
Although several people testified they had seen Dabney in other places at the time the murder had occurred. A witness for the prosecution, Marie Jackson, insisted she had, at the time of the crime, been in the company of the victim all of that day and had actually seen the murder take place and yes the guilty party was none other than Condy Dabney.
Just two days short of a year later, now 15 year old Mary Vickery turned up in Williamsburg , Kentucky
Upon further investigation, officials were reminded that Mr. Vickery (Mary’s father) had posted a $500.00 reward for information that would result in the conviction of anyone who had murdered his little girl. Marie Jackson finally admitted she had lied in order to collect the reward!
I expect the good news about this true story is that they didn’t hang Dabney even though he was convicted. Kind of makes you want to say something colorful like, "A guilty verdict does not a killer make,” but I’ll bet some version of that comment has already been made.
Our system is not fair by no means but I guess its the only one we have. I would imagine many more people are not guilty and have died in jail or still sitting in the cell wondering what happen.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that you are right.
ReplyDelete