QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Some prosecutors say these types of offers are inherently coercive when the alternative is staying in prison. “It flies in the face of our most basic concepts of an accurate and just system: Simply put, I think the whole thing is despicable,” Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s district attorney and a former defense lawyer, said when asked to comment on Mr. Dennis’s case and another similar deal arranged by his predecessor. When Mr. Dennis was offered the deal, his mother was sick and his father had already died. His daughters, one born after he was jailed, were in their 20s.“When your mother doesn’t ask you for anything your entire life and she says, ‘You’ve proven your innocence, and what else do you need to prove?’” He trailed off, his voice cracking. “To this day, sometimes I hate the fact that I let these people off the hook,” he said."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Twenty-five years on death row can do that to a man.Since being arrested for a 1991 murder in Philadelphia, Mr. Dennis has maintained his alibi — that he was on a bus — and his innocence. But not until 2016 did a federal appeals court tell the state to start a new trial or release Mr. Dennis. Neither happened. Instead, prosecutors offered Mr. Dennis a deal: sign a plea of no contest to third-degree murder and he could leave prison instantly. If he declined, a new trial would most likely take years. The deal gave the city a potential out. Without an affirmative finding that he was innocent, the city would later argue, Mr. Dennis should not be able to bring a civil suit seeking payment for his years in prison. “The whole thing was they didn’t want me to sue,” Mr. Dennis said. “That’s what it all comes down to.” Mr. Dennis’s deal is one of several nationally that federal judges are taking a close look at, weighing their fairness and whether they stand up under legal precedent. The deals suggest an emerging strategy in potentially costly wrongful conviction cases: Set people free, but pay them nothing. Governments are fielding huge bills as the number of overturned convictions mounts. Since 1989, municipalities have paid $2.5 billion to exonerees, who can seek money under compensation statutes in more than 30 states or via civil lawsuits, according to research from Jeffrey S. Gutman, a law professor at George Washington University. Some jurisdictions are having trouble paying."
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STORY: "Wrongly Convicted, They Had to Choose: Freedom or Restitution," by reporter Stephanie Clifford, published by The New York Times on September 30, 2019.
SUB-HEADING: "Prosecutors are adopting strategies to keep from having to pay for mistakes."
GIST: "Outside of Jimmy Dennis’s house, on a quiet block, it was one of those perfect summer days. But Mr. Dennis preferred to stay inside, behind drawn shades, where there was little risk anyone would misinterpret what he was up to. Twenty-five years on death row can do that to a man.
Since
being arrested for a 1991 murder in Philadelphia, Mr. Dennis has
maintained his alibi — that he was on a bus — and his innocence. But not until 2016 did a federal appeals court tell the state to start a new trial or release Mr. Dennis. Neither
happened. Instead, prosecutors offered Mr. Dennis a deal: sign a plea
of no contest to third-degree murder and he could leave prison
instantly. If he declined, a new trial would most likely take years. The
deal gave the city a potential out. Without an affirmative finding that
he was innocent, the city would later argue, Mr. Dennis should not be
able to bring a civil suit seeking payment for his years in prison. “The whole thing was they didn’t want me to sue,” Mr. Dennis said. “That’s what it all comes down to.” Mr.
Dennis’s deal is one of several nationally that federal judges are
taking a close look at, weighing their fairness and whether they stand
up under legal precedent. The deals suggest an emerging strategy in
potentially costly wrongful conviction cases: Set people free, but pay them nothing. Governments are fielding huge bills as the number of overturned convictions mounts.
Since 1989, municipalities have paid $2.5 billion to exonerees, who can
seek money under compensation statutes in more than 30 states or via
civil lawsuits, according to research from Jeffrey S. Gutman, a law
professor at George Washington University. Some
jurisdictions are having trouble paying. Michigan this year had to pass
legislation to replenish its wrongful conviction claim funds after it
almost ran out of money, while tiny Gage County, Neb., which has been ordered to pay $28 million to six exonerees, has considered raising property taxes and declaring bankruptcy. In
order to bring a civil rights claim, defendants must have a favorable
termination of their criminal case, according to the Supreme Court’s
ruling in the 1994 decision Heck v. Humphrey. In
the prevailing interpretation of that ruling, favorable termination
means an affirmative finding of innocence. But such findings are rare.
If a conviction is vacated, the defendant is typically granted a new trial rather than declared innocent outright. Prosecutors
may then retry the case, or they may drop it — either because so much
time has passed that the case would be too difficult to retry, or as a
de facto acknowledgment that the person probably did not commit the
crime. Or, as in Mr. Dennis’s case, they may strike a deal requiring the
defendant to forgo seeking civil damages. Some prosecutors say these types of offers are inherently coercive when the alternative is staying in prison. “It
flies in the face of our most basic concepts of an accurate and just
system: Simply put, I think the whole thing is despicable,” Larry
Krasner, Philadelphia’s district attorney and a former defense lawyer, said when asked to comment on Mr. Dennis’s case and another similar deal arranged by his predecessor. When
Mr. Dennis was offered the deal, his mother was sick and his father had
already died. His daughters, one born after he was jailed, were in
their 20s. “When your mother doesn’t
ask you for anything your entire life and she says, ‘You’ve proven your
innocence, and what else do you need to prove?’” He trailed off, his
voice cracking. “To this day, sometimes I hate the fact that I let these people off the hook,” he said. Out for Christmas:.....................................................In
another case, in Pima County, Ariz., Louis Taylor was a teenager when
he was arrested near a Tucson hotel in 1970 after it caught fire. He was
convicted of 28 arson-related counts of murder, but decades later, after advances in fire investigation techniques showed that cases may have been misclassified as arson, Mr. Taylor’s lawyers pushed for a new trial. Instead, prosecutors offered Mr. Taylor, now in his 60s, a “no contest” plea to lesser charges and time served, which he took. A
federal appeals court decided this year that Mr. Taylor could not sue
for damages, but one judge dissented. “He was convicted on the basis of
little more than that proximity and trial evidence that ‘black boys’
like to set fires,” Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote.
She found it troubling that “his plea agreement somehow validates or
justifies the original sentence that deprived Taylor of a meaningful
life.?""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/us/wrongful-convictions-civil-lawsuits.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;
