What Are The Chances...

S

Satchel

2,500+ Posts
.... that Dallas County has sent innocent men to their deaths? I'd say they're excellent. If there's a state in the Union that should abolish the death penalty, it's Texas. Meanwhile, the exonerations continue:

Two Dallas County men exonerated in 1983 rape case

A state district judge this morning declared two men "actually innocent" in a 1983 rape case after DNA evidence proved they did not commit the crime.

James Curtis Williams and Raymond Jackson are the 31st and 32nd men exonerated in Dallas County since 2001.

Judge Susan Hawk told Williams and Jackson that at their trial, "justice was not served in this courtroom for you."

Williams and Jackson beamed as the judge proclaimed their innocence.

"To say I'm sorry is not enough," Hawk said. "But I hope you both have very full and happy lives."

Hawk and Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins shook hands with Williams and Jackson.

"I'm sorry for the criminal justice system not working for you," Watkins said.

Jackson said that there were many days in prison when he thought he would never make it out. But he prayed and "God blessed us both" with attorneys, Julie Doucet and Michelle Moore, and a DA's office willing to hear their pleas of innocence.

Williams said it was strength from God that kept him going.

"I'm happy, and I thank God for the Constitution we have in this country where a man get due process," Williams said.

The men, who are black, were wrongly convicted in a kidnapping, sexual assault and shooting of a Canadian woman by an all-white jury. They were sentenced to 99 years in prison. The jury did not believe their alibi witnesses and eyewitness testimony, which has been proven notoriously unreliable in recent years, sent them to prison.

Jackson was paroled in 2010 and Williams in 2011.
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I think a far bigger problem we have in Texas is early parole for habitual criminals. The death penalty is fraught with a huge number of problems but it does some good things as well. One good thing it does is free up a cell for another criminal.
 
Cool. So we're at a point in which DNA evidence can overrule years of trials and testimony. I'd say the ability of DNA to further prove one's innocence or guilt should be grounds for using the death penalty more.

(Note: My initial sentence is not to suggest that the two men in this case are guilty. My point is that in 2012, DNA evidence should be an example of rightful conviction today as opposed to losing the death penalty because it has exonerated people in convictions decades ago when it wasn't available.)
 
As the exonerations in Dallas County alone prove, the practice of state sanctioned murder should be abolished since it is imperfect and irreversible.
 
I think all courts should be required to try every case at least four times to make sure they got it right. No one should ever be punished for a crime until we're absolutely positive that there's no way he could have done it.
 
There's a guy that has been breaking into cars in Memorial Park in Houston. The local cops say the guy's already been arrested 15 times for the same crime. Time to just lock up the jerk. Death penalty helps overcrowding.
 
I'm all for the death penalty for child molester, child abusers, violent rape, etc... I'm sure that won't be too popular on here but I'm tired of a justice system that seems to favor the defendant.
 
A justice system that favors the defendant was not in place in Dallas County prior to Watkins's election as DA. It had a nearly 100 percent conviction rate. Certainly I believe criminals should pay for a crime, but what was happening in Dallas county was that "somebody" -- probably poor, black and with a criminal record -- was going to pay whether police or prosecutors could catch the real culprit or not.
 
My guess is that Dallas County pre - Craig Watkins was not much different than the rest of the state in prosecuting crimes or seeking the death penalty. Makes you wonder how many other wrongful convictions occurred in other counties that no one has ever bothered to re-examine.
 
Death Penalty

1. WWJD? And please save the Old Testament ********. If you call yourself a follower of Christ, stand behind His words:

"So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."



2. Look at the list of nations that allow the death penalty and look at the list of nations that do not. Which one do you align the USA with?
 
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