"The commission has reviewed the history of the case, which seems to include tips on other suspects that were not followed up, tests that were never done, lab work that was not seen by Kagonyera's lawyer, and a candid acknowledgment on the part of that lawyer that he encouraged a plea because he feared for his client's life and he now believes, "I let an innocent kid plead guilty to murder." The district attorney who prosecuted the case says he can't explain why the defense never received a copy of a key lab report........."
"There is a statistic that is not irrelevant to this case, and to others the commission may consider: In the United States, 25 percent of defendants who were later cleared by DNA evidence pleaded guilty, confessed or made what seemed to be incriminating statements to police at the time of their crimes. What prosecutors want to do in barring access to the commission seems to ignore that."
EDITORIAL: NEWS AND OBSERVER;
REMINDER: EXECUTION BY FIRE Friday, May 13, 10PM (9PM Manitoba/Sask.)
(In 1991 three little girls died in a fire that gutted their home in a small Texas town. Sympathy turned to rage when their father was charged with murder by arson. After a thirteen-year battle to prove his innocence and despite new evidence casting doubt over the conviction, Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in 2004. Since Willingham’s death, leading fire scientists have challenged the underpinnings of the case, concluding it was an accidental fire. Today, Willingham’s family is still battling to clear his name and for the first time Texas may be forced to admit to executing an innocent man. Another documentary by renowned Canadian journalist Julian Sher. “What can be more crushing than the nightmare of losing your child,” asks Sher. “And then the nightmare gets unimaginably worse when the police accuse you of the murder and you know you’re innocent? These were compelling human dramas and trials that grabbed the headlines. We tried to look at the toll these cases took not only on the accused but also on their families—their loved ones, the other children. It’s also about how communities turn against the guilty suspect in our midst – how we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions.”)
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Shame on the North Carolina prosecutors who would like to restrict potential victims of wrongful convictions from having access to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission because they pleaded guilty to the offence. As the News And Observer puts it, "In other words, plead guilty and you're stuck. Too bad. Even if your lawyer missed some evidence or the prosecution didn't play by the rules or you were coerced to take a plea because you thought your life might be on the line." There is considerable proof of that assertion in the all too many Charles Smith cases where what we know now to be utterly innocent people pleaded guilty to lesser and included offences after their lawyers told them they would likely be convicted of murdering their children because of the seemingly unchallengeable testimony of the then renowned Crown expert - Dr. Charles Randal Smith. That prosecutors are displaying such a callous attitude to possible miscarriages of justice is reason enough to open the Commission's door to people who have pleaded guilty. Hopefully the General Assembly will bury this anal issue quickly and support the Commission as it carries on its important work.
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
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"The very creation of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission in 2006 in effect acknowledged that there are times when the justice system fails, when innocent people go to prison," the News and Observer editorial published earlier today begins, under the heading, "Imperfect Pleas."
"Evidence might have been withheld or skewed by overeager prosecutors or police. Defense attorneys might encourage clients to make a plea deal because they think the odds are against them, and in capital cases, the client's life might be at risk of the death penalty," the editorial continues.
"Prosecutors have never warmed to the idea of an innocence commission, and now they're pushing in the General Assembly for a preposterous law to deny any inmate who has pleaded guilty to a crime the right to take that case to the innocence group.
In other words, plead guilty and you're stuck. Too bad. Even if your lawyer missed some evidence or the prosecution didn't play by the rules or you were coerced to take a plea because you thought your life might be on the line.
Getting it right
Those district attorneys who favor the limit say that without it, the commission would be bombarded by everyone in prison who saw a chance to get out. They point to the overburdened justice system, and the importance of having it work efficiently, with plea bargains being crucial to that. Debunking that first notion is the fact that the commission has gotten more than 800 requests to pursue cases, but just four have made it to a final formal review.
And justice is more important than efficiency. Prosecutors come to cases armed with considerable resources behind them, from police to the State Bureau of Investigation crime lab, which still is reeling from cases going back years in which lab evidence was manipulated to help prosecutors.
What harm does it do for those who may have been wrongly convicted to seek a review of their cases?
Certainly the review process worked last year, when a three-judge panel acting on the commission's recommendation examined the case of Gregory Taylor of Cary, who served 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, a murder. He was freed. Now the commission is considering the cases of two men, Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson, who were charged in a murder connected to a home invasion in Buncombe County in 2000.
A case's flaws
The commission has reviewed the history of the case, which seems to include tips on other suspects that were not followed up, tests that were never done, lab work that was not seen by Kagonyera's lawyer, and a candid acknowledgment on the part of that lawyer that he encouraged a plea because he feared for his client's life and he now believes, "I let an innocent kid plead guilty to murder." The district attorney who prosecuted the case says he can't explain why the defense never received a copy of a key lab report.
There is a statistic that is not irrelevant to this case, and to others the commission may consider: In the United States, 25 percent of defendants who were later cleared by DNA evidence pleaded guilty, confessed or made what seemed to be incriminating statements to police at the time of their crimes. What prosecutors want to do in barring access to the commission seems to ignore that.
The commission's reviews are thorough, time-consuming and for those prisoners making a case for the commission to look at their circumstances and hoping for exoneration, not easy. The eight members of the commission include a cross-section of citizens, from a prosecutor to a defense attorney, an advocate for victims and a sheriff. The odds, when a case does make it to the point of being considered, are not stacked in favor of or against the prisoner. This is a good process, a worthy safety net. It does not need further limits or alteration."
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The editorial can be found at:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/10/1186830/imperfect-pleas.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 found 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;