PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "I spent 10 years in Arizona prisons, including nearly three years on death row. It took a decade to finally get DNA testing — testing that was objected to by the prosecutor’s office — which not only exonerated me but actually identified the true perpetrator. After the court vacated my conviction, the Maricopa County prosecutors dropped the charges, and in 2002, I became the 100th person in the country to be exonerated from death row. Since that time, the number of death row exonerees nationwide has nearly doubled."
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COMMENTARY: “The death penalty does nothing to keep us safe. Let’s end it now,” by Ray Krone, published by AZMirror, on February 13, 2023. (Ray Krone is the co-founder of Witness to Innocence, a national organization of death row exonerates advocating for the abolition of the death penalty.)
GIST: “I was a 35-year-old military veteran working for the U.S. Postal Service in Phoenix when my life was turned upside down. I was arrested and charged for a crime I knew nothing about.
My trial only lasted four days and the jury convicted me after deliberating for only four hours. A Maricopa County judge sentenced me to death in 1992 because I did not show remorse.
I was innocent. How could I show remorse for something I didn’t do?
I spent 10 years in Arizona prisons, including nearly three years on death row. It took a decade to finally get DNA testing — testing that was objected to by the prosecutor’s office — which not only exonerated me but actually identified the true perpetrator.
After the court vacated my conviction, the Maricopa County prosecutors dropped the charges, and in 2002, I became the 100th person in the country to be exonerated from death row. Since that time, the number of death row exonerees nationwide has nearly doubled.
This week, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 1475, which would end the death penalty in the state. This bill is lifesaving legislation. Not only would it mean that no innocent person could be executed, but it would also improve the safety of all Arizonans.
By not spending exorbitant amounts of money on a system that does nothing to deter crime, greater resources would be available for other areas of public safety, such as cases currently uninvestigated and unprosecuted, evidence based community crime prevention programs, and even conviction integrity measures.
Taking just my case as an example, if law enforcement had more resources for the initial investigation, it may have been longer than two days and may have found the actual perpetrator.
At the time of the murder for which I was convicted, the actual perpetrator was on probation for a violent offense.
He matched the description of a man seen near the location of the murder and it was later determined that shoe prints, palm prints and blood found at the scene matched him as well.
But I was mistakenly arrested and, three weeks later, he committed another violent crime.
Think about the pain that could have been prevented if the money wasted pursuing my death sentence had been spent more wisely.
Nationally, DNA is only recovered in roughly 12% of murder cases.
Most wrongful convictions are a result of mistaken eyewitness testimony, false confessions, prosecutor misconduct and the use of junk science.
In the majority of cases where DNA is not available, there is often no scientific evidence to check the accuracy of human beings.
In my case, bite mark testimony was admitted that was later established to have no scientific foundation and led to many other wrongful convictions nationwide.
When violence impacts a community, law enforcement feels pressure to offer an answer, and this can lead to them developing tunnel vision and not investigating crimes to their fullest. For some, it leads them to malfeasance or hiding exculpatory evidence.
The bottom line is that a system run by human beings can never be perfect. It can be influenced by passion, bias and ambition.
Growing up, I believed in our justice system, believed juries got it right, and I was fine with the death penalty.
But today, I know the horrible injustice that can happen to anyone.
We cannot continue to uphold a system that wrongfully sentences innocent people to death.
We cannot continue to uphold a system that does nothing to keep us safe.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.azmirror.com/2023/02/14/the-death-penalty-does-nothing-to-keep-us-safe-lets-end-it-now/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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