URGENT PETITION
A petition, set up on 'Color of Change' by supporter Marlene Belliveau on behalf of Rodricus Crawford's family, implores Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart, "to look at the concrete evidence and facts before you. Mr Crawford did not kill his son. You have sworn to justice...it is your duty to exonerate this young man." The petition can be found at the following link. (In view of the rapidly approaching appeal - set for Wednesday September 7 - supporters should get their message to Mr. Stewart as soon as possible. HL);
https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/on-death-row-for-a-murder-that-wasn-t
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: (A): Rodricus Crawford's appeal is set for Wednesday, September 7, 2016. It is imperative that public attention be brought to this appeal as there is a ominous danger that Louisiana will be executing an innocent father whose 1-year-old son died of pneumonia - unless the Louisiana Supreme Court intervenes. (Contrary to the the testimony of the pathologist testifying for the prosecution who dismissed the medical factors as the cause of death without a scientific basis for doing so, also gave his equally unscientific opinion that Rodricus Crawford had smothered Roderius to death - as is demonstrated by forensic evidence (affidavits) filed by his lawyers which will be published later in this series.) As will be seen over the course of the series, it didn't help that Crawford was prosecuted by the notorious Dale Cox in Caddo Parish, which, as the Fair Punishment Project reports, has a disproportionate number of death sentences. I implore whoever reads these posts to share them as widely as possible, to make sure that Louisiana's Supreme Court understands the urgency of stopping this execution in its tracks and put an end to the prosecution. In this ninth post in the series on, journalist Yolanda Young sheds some light on Cecilia Kappel, the extraordinarily motivated lawyer who has mounted Rodricus Crawford's appeal and is pitted against James Stewart, a Black DA.".
URGENT PETITIONA petition, set up on 'Color of Change' by supporter Marlene Belliveau on behalf of Rodricus Crawford's family, implores Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart, "to look at the concrete evidence and facts before you. Mr Crawford did not kill his son. You have sworn to justice...it is your duty to exonerate this young man." The petition can be found at the following link. (In view of the rapidly approaching appeal - set for Wednesday September 7 - supporters should get their message to Mr. Stewart as soon as possible. HL);
https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/on-death-row-for-a-murder-that-wasn-t
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: (A): Rodricus Crawford's appeal is set for Wednesday, September 7, 2016. It is imperative that public attention be brought to this appeal as there is a ominous danger that Louisiana will be executing an innocent father whose 1-year-old son died of pneumonia - unless the Louisiana Supreme Court intervenes. (Contrary to the the testimony of the pathologist testifying for the prosecution who dismissed the medical factors as the cause of death without a scientific basis for doing so, also gave his equally unscientific opinion that Rodricus Crawford had smothered Roderius to death - as is demonstrated by forensic evidence (affidavits) filed by his lawyers which will be published later in this series.) As will be seen over the course of the series, it didn't help that Crawford was prosecuted by the notorious Dale Cox in Caddo Parish, which, as the Fair Punishment Project reports, has a disproportionate number of death sentences. I implore whoever reads these posts to share them as widely as possible, to make sure that Louisiana's Supreme Court understands the urgency of stopping this execution in its tracks and put an end to the prosecution. In this ninth post in the series journalist Yolanda Young's sheds some light on Cecilia Kappel, the extraordinarily motivated lawyer who has mounted Rodricus Crawford's appeal and is pitted against James Stewart, a Black DA.STORY: "Innocent on death row: Cecilia Kappel mounts appeal, faces Black DA, by Yolanda Young, published by Rollingout on August 31, 2016. (Yolanda Young's columns have appeared in The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and Slate. She frequently appears on CNN, NPR, and Huffington Post Live.)
INTRODUCTION: "On September 7, 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear the capital appeal of 25-year-old Rodricus Crawford. I spent three months investigating his case, interviewing 10 people, including the district attorney and Crawford’s appellant attorney, as well as reading all of the appellant briefs and expert affidavits. I concluded Crawford was railroaded. At every turn he was presumed guilty and ultimately convicted of the death of his 1-year-old son who medical experts say died of pneumonia. This is one in a series of articles examining how easy it is for a Black man to end up on death row."
GIST: "The record of Cecelia Kappel, senior attorney with the Capital Appeals Project (CAP), would suggest her exposure to capital cases spans less than a decade; however, her father has been handling death penalty cases her entire life..........“There is a saying ‘it is worse to be poor and innocent than rich and guilty,’” she said addressing Crawford’s predicament. His family is poor..........Baby Roderius didn’t have a doctor or proper vaccination for pneumonia, which is what medical experts say was the cause of the baby’s death. Had Crawford had better representation at trial, he’d likely be a free man today. ........“Rodricus is innocent,” Kappel emphasized. “He is undoubtedly innocent.” When Caddo Parish elected James Stewart, Kappel was hopeful the first black district attorney would take a look at Crawford’s case and “right this injustice…[Stewart] has the power to drop charges, to dismiss an indictment even if the person has already been convicted,” Kappel said. But Stewart has decided to use his power to back the verdict obtained by the previous prosecutor Dale Cox. Widely regarded as racist, Cox wrote in a state memo, “I am sorry that Louisiana has adopted lethal injection as the form of implementing the death penalty … Mr. Crawford deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.”"
The entire story can be found at:
http://rollingout.com/2016/08/31/innocent-death-row-black-d-opposes-white-defender-cecelia-kappel/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
