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Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana: (Part 1); (Too broken: Fair Punishment Project); A series of posts in anticipation of his up-coming appeal - Wednesday September 7, 2016; Part (1): Harvard University's Fair Punishment Project places Caddo Parish - where Rodicus Crawford had the misfortune of being tried, convicted and sentenced to death at the hands of notorious prosecutor Dale Cox, on the basis of a disputed medical examiner's report - on its list of eight 'outlier counties responsible for a disproportionate number of death sentences.'..."Dale Cox, who served as Caddo Parish’s acting District Attorney, personally prosecuted one-third of Louisiana’s death sentences between 2010 and 2015. When Maya Lau, a local reporter, questioned Cox about the release of Glenn Ford, a man with Stage 4 lung cancer who spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime he did not commit, Cox said: “I think we need to kill more people.” Cox later clarified his enthusiasm for the death penalty: “Revenge is important for society as a whole,” and it “brings to us a visceral satisfaction.” In 2014, Cox obtained a death sentence against a father, Rodricus Crawford, convicted of killing his infant son, despite the medical examiner’s uncertainty that the death was a homicide. At trial, Cox told the jury that Jesus demanded his disciples kill any child abuser and quoted a Bible verse: “You shall have a millstone cast around your neck and you will be thrown into the sea.”
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: 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. This first post focuses on a report of Harvard Law Schools 'Fair Punishment Project' entitled,""Too broken: An in-depth look at America's outlier death penalty counties."
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
REPORT: 'Too broken: An in-depth look at America's outlier death penalty counties' published by the Fair Punishment Project; August, 2016.
GIST: "Caddo Parish has sentenced five people to die since 2010.382 This means that while Caddo has only five percent of Louisiana’s population, it has 38 percent of the state’s death sentences. Caddo’s death sentencing rate per 100 homicides was nearly eight times higher than that of the rest of the state between 2006 and 2015. "Overzealous prosecutors: Dale Cox, who served as Caddo Parish’s acting District Attorney, personally prosecuted one-third of Louisiana’s death sentences between 2010 and 2015. When Maya Lau, a local reporter, questioned Cox about the release of Glenn Ford, a man with Stage 4 lung cancer who spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime he did not commit, Cox said: “I think we need to kill more people.” Cox later clarified his enthusiasm for the death penalty: “Revenge is important for society as a whole,” and it “brings to us a visceral satisfaction.” In 2014, Cox obtained a death sentence against a father, Rodricus Crawford, convicted of killing his infant son, despite the medical examiner’s uncertainty that the death was a homicide. At trial, Cox told the jury that Jesus demanded his disciples kill any child abuser and quoted a Bible verse: “You shall have a millstone cast around your neck and you will be thrown into the sea.” In a 2015 death penalty trial, Cox threatened opposing counsel, saying: “I want to kill everyone in here. I want to cut their fucking throats. I’m just being honest, and if any of them want to go outside we can do it right now.” Cox, along with two other former Caddo Parish prosecutors, Hugo Holland and Lea
Hall, account for 75 percent of all Louisiana death sentences since 2010."
The entire report can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
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
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
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;
