JOHN EDWARD GREEN: DALLAS MORNING NEWS SAYS JUDGE FINE'S ABORTED HEARING DID NOT PROVIDE NECESSARY FORUM FOR TEXAS DEATH PENALTY DEBATE;

"Green's lawyers maintain executions should be held unconstitutional in a state with our long list of documented miscarriages of justice, including in capital convictions. Nowhere are faulty convictions more evident than in Dallas County, where 20 men have left prison after DNA tests cleared them. The county and state both are tops nationally in DNA exonerations.........

Regardless of what the appeals court rules, a responsible, comprehensive debate needs to take place among the state's best legal minds, lawmakers and thought leaders. This newspaper has consistently called on the Legislature to impose a moratorium on executions to allow for that rigorous analysis. The call for a moratorium has been joined by Texas Monthly magazine, whose senior editor Pamela Colloff has documented the detestable fraud in the Graves case.

Texans should stand mute no longer on this madness."

"Use of evidence stemming from junk science posing as modern forensic work," is cited by the paper in a list of weaknesses of capital cases which accompanies the editorial.


EDITORIAL: THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BACKGROUND: Texas State District Judge Kevin Fine caused an uproar when he was perceived as ruling that the way the death penalty is currently administered is unconstitutional. Critics are screaming judicial activism, seen as a judicial faux pas and usually a pejorative term; supporters say Fine is a "brave jurist" who has called out death penalty administration on its current merits, or apparent lack thereof. The defendant in this case, John Edward Green, Jr, is charged with capital murder in the 2008 slaying of one of two sisters he allegedly shot during a robbery. Witnessed by the victim's two children, Huong Nguyen, 34, was killed in her own driveway. The case has victims' right advocates calling for justice. In Texas generally, and in Harris County in particular, justice for a capital murder charge is exactly what the law allows for: the death penalty.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did the right thing when it put a stop to a Houston court's flawed effort to evaluate the death penalty last week," the Dallas Morning News editorial published on January 10, 2011 begins, under the heading, " Editorial: Death penalty debate needs forum."

"A sober and thorough public examination of the death penalty is overdue in this state. But the forum must be one that people of good faith can respect," the editorial continues.

"Breakdowns in the justice system have been exposed with such regularity in recent years that it's impossible not to question, or at least be willing to debate, the wisdom and justice of operating the nation's busiest death chamber.

This newspaper believes the state's use of capital punishment is unjustifiable today.

That very position was to be argued before a Houston trial judge last week by defense attorneys in a capital murder trial. The defendant, John Edward Green, 25, is accused in the 2008 robbery-slaying of Huong Thien Nguyen, 34, in her driveway.

Green's lawyers maintain executions should be held unconstitutional in a state with our long list of documented miscarriages of justice, including in capital convictions. Nowhere are faulty convictions more evident than in Dallas County, where 20 men have left prison after DNA tests cleared them. The county and state both are tops nationally in DNA exonerations.

The latest, most spectacular Texas exoneration involved Anthony Graves, who walked free from death row in October after 18 years caged up. The DA's office concluded the case was a bogus prosecution of an innocent man; a special prosecutor who reinvestigated it called the case a "travesty."

Be it indifference, malice, human error or blind spots, be it ignorance of science or misuse of technology, Texas courts get it horribly wrong too often to justify using irrevocable punishment.

If only that argument could have been put before an objective judge in Houston last week. Unfortunately, State District Judge Kevin Fine showed his bias in March, ruling the death penalty unconstitutional based on his belief that innocent people have likely been executed. Ruling by gut feeling was an awful way to decide a deadly serious, emotional question, and it could only breed contempt toward fair criticism.

Five days after his ruling, Fine rescinded it and called a hearing to get expert testimony, albeit belatedly. Fine's spectacle finally got under way last week – with objecting prosecutors "standing mute" – but it was halted after two days so the appeals court could consider its legality.

Regardless of what the appeals court rules, a responsible, comprehensive debate needs to take place among the state's best legal minds, lawmakers and thought leaders. This newspaper has consistently called on the Legislature to impose a moratorium on executions to allow for that rigorous analysis. The call for a moratorium has been joined by Texas Monthly magazine, whose senior editor Pamela Colloff has documented the detestable fraud in the Graves case.

Texans should stand mute no longer on this madness."

Weaknesses cited in capital cases

Defense lawyers challenging the Texas death penalty sought to assert these flaws in capital prosecutions:
• No safeguards against witness identification procedures used by police agencies
• No safeguards against false confessions
• Use of faulty informant testimony
• Use of evidence stemming from junk science posing as modern forensic work
• Prosecutorial misconduct
• Racially biased jury selection


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The editorial can be found at:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-death_12edi.State.Edition1.e27.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;