POST: "Velez hearing Day 4: Plight of victim's family shows that death penalty is the wrong priority," by Brian Stull, published on the ACLU Blog of Rights, on December 17, 2012.
GIST: "Day 4 of the Manuel Velez innocence hearing on Friday in Brownsville, Texas, brought into focus the plight of the poor, depressed, and overwhelmed young mother of the child victim who died -- a mother who desperately needed help but never found it. At a 2008 trial, Manuel was convicted and sentenced to death for killing 11-month-old Angel Moreno. Before Friday’s testimony, most of this hearing’s evidence has been the testimony of experts who showed that the child’s injuries were caused at a time when Manuel was not involved with the family and had no access to the child.
Witnesses Friday described the months leading up to the boy’s death, and the struggles his mother, Acela Moreno, faced.........Authorities only compounded this tragedy when they then charged Manuel with capital murder and sought his death sentence – as a direct result of Moreno moving in with him as she fled domestic violence. The resources spent to convict Velez and to obtain his death sentence were considerable. Three prosecutors, three experts, and two appointed defense counsel participated in the 2008 trial, not to mention the judge and court staff. Even more resources have now gone into challenging Manuel’s death sentence – the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed it – and in challenging his conviction as false and unsupported.........The hearing will conclude today."
The entire post can be found at:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/velez-hearing-day-4-plight-victims-family-shows-death-penalty-wrong-priority
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
