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West Texas Lightning Storm (Photo credit: jeffk)
Death row inmate Hank Skinner’s decade-long fight for DNA testing, which he hopes will prove his innocence in a grisly West Texas triple murder, will take center stage this morning in the state’s highest criminal court….
Who is able to pray for him, please, do this! Let the light shine about this innocent man!
Contact: Alana Salzberg; asalzberg@innocenceproject.org; 212-364-983
(NEW YORK, NY; June 8, 2009) – A report released today by the Innocence Project shows that New York outpaces almost every other state in the number of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, and there is an urgent need to enact policy reforms to prevent wrongful convictions before the legislative session ends later this month.
The 124-page report, titled “Lessons Not Learned,” details 24 wrongful convictions in New York that have been overturned through DNA testing, analyzes each case to identify the causes of wrongful convictions and outlines reforms that can improve the state’s criminal justice system. Download the full report here (124 pages, sure to get at InnocenceProject)
“The causes of wrongful convictions in New York State are well known and thoroughly documented. What we need now is legislative action to adopt reforms that are proven to make the criminal justice system more fair, accurate and reliable,” said Stephen Saloom, Policy Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law. “This report outlines how New York’s criminal justice system has fallen short and how it can be fixed.”
Please, read more there: Innocence Project org.
On Saturday, the UK’s Guardian published an obituary for Troy Davis written by his 17-year-old nephew, Antone De’Jaun Davis Correia.
Up until shortly before Davis will executed, his nephew visited him every other week from the day he was born. Only July 17, 2007, a then-13-year-old De’Jaun sat in a courtroom and listened to a judge announce his uncle’s first execution date. “We went to go see him, and he wasn’t really worrying about himself. He was mostly worried about his family. About us. I was looking at my grandmother. She was praying, praying, praying. It was a lot of people constantly praying, constantly praying,” De’Jaun told Colorlines.com earlier this year. He says he remembers that court date vividly.
In the obituary, De’Jaun says Davis “became a father figure to me” until his execution in September.
It’s been an unimaginably difficult year for the boy. In May, De’Jaun lost his grandmother. Then, earlier this month, his mother Martina Davis Correia lost her courageous battle with breast cancer.
The obituary was written days before his mother passed away on December 1, 2011. Here’s an excerpt:
My uncle, Troy Davis, was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to death in 1991, three years before I was born. He was in jail my whole life, but I knew him very well. I visited him with my mother – his sister – on death row in the Georgia state prison every other week until his execution in September and he became a father figure to me.
Troy was wise, respectful, motivated and a great listener. He didn’t like the position he was in but said he had to learn from it, and used that experience to give me advice. He told me to pick the right friends and not to run away when things got rough; to keep my head up in school and take criticism positively. My uncle was a good family man before he went to prison. My grandma used to tell me that when he got a paycheck he’d give half to her to help pay the bills at home. He was responsible and respectful from a young age.
On 19 August 1989 a police officer called Mark MacPhail was shot dead in a car park in Savannah. My uncle was there at the time and, based on eyewitness testimony, the police decided he’d done it – but they had the wrong person from the get-go. Later we got lawyers to go through the case. They did very rigorous investigations and found there was no evidence to prove my uncle committed the crime – no DNA, no gunpowder residue, nothing at all. Most of the witnesses withdrew their original statements, and another man was implicated in the murder. We appealed, and the execution was stayed three times over the past four years, but on 21 September 2011 Troy was killed by lethal injection.
It was a tough time for my family. My grandma had died in May, so we lost two important parts of the family in the space of five months, but I think we coped pretty well. You’ve just got to learn from things and keep moving. My uncle’s death opened a big can of worms for Georgia and all the other death-row states. The case provoked a huge amount of debate in the US, and we received support from people all over the world.
“He told me, just continue to do good in school, do what’s right, pick the right friends, watch over the family, and just respect the family. Respect my mom, my grandmother, my aunties,” De’Jaun said about his uncle to Colorlines earlier this year. “Do what you love and have a good profession.”
“What Troy did for me in my life will never be forgotten,” De’Jaun said in Saturday’s obituary.
De’Jaun hopes to go to Georgia Tech to study robotic engineering.
The Crime
On January 3, 1996, in Rochester, New York, police found the victim lying on his back with puncture wounds to his neck and chest. He had been stabbed 19 times and exhibited defensive wounds on his left hand. A bloodstained knife, a bloodstained towel, and several bloody tissues were in the clothing hamper in his bathroom.
The Confession
Douglas Warney, a man with a history of mental health issues, an eighth-grade education, and advanced AIDS, called the police stating that he had information about a homicide. He knew the victim: he had cleaned the victim’s house and shoveled snow from his driveway just two years before the murder. Warney was interrogated for 12 hours by police, he confessed and provided details that only the killer could know – that the victim was wearing a nightgown, that he had been cooking chicken, and that the killer cut himself with a knife and wiped it with a tissue in the bathroom. He also mentioned a second man, who was later found to have been confined to a clinic at the time of the murder. Warney’s confession contained other inconsistencies, such as the location of the murder and the disposal of clothing after the crime.
The Biological Evidence
The Monroe County Public Safety Laboratory conducted blood and enzyme testing on the crime scene evidence. The victim was type O, and Warney was found to be type A. The blood on the knife was consistent with the victim’s blood and enzyme types. Bloodstains on the towel and bloody tissues could not have come from either the victim or Warney. Blood was also found under the victim’s fingernail scrapings, but there was an insufficient amount of material for testing.
Post-Conviction
Warney was initially charged with capital murder, though he was ultimately convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
The Innocence Project and Donald M. Thompson began working on Warney’s case in 2004 and sought DNA testing of blood from the fingernail clippings, knife, towel, and tissues. The prosecution opposed testing, and Warney lost his motion for DNA testing in 2004.
While the case was being appealed, Rochester prosecutors, without notifying Warney, Thompson, or the Innocence Project, arranged for DNA testing on the blood splatter and fingernail scrapings. The Monroe County Public Safety Laboratory conducted STR based DNA testing on the victim’s left fingernail scrapings, blood flecks from around the crime scene, bloodstains on the towel, and bloodstains on tissues in the bathroom. Warney was excluded from this evidence and the profile was compared against the national DNA profile database. The DNA profile matched Eldred Johnson, Jr., a New York state inmate already serving a life sentence for other crimes. When he was interviewed by prosecutors, Johnson stated that he had killed the victim, had committed the crime alone, and he did not know Douglas Warney.
On May 16, 2006, Douglas Warney’s conviction was vacated and he was released from prison.
Image by Mark Cummins via Flickr
Texas’ highest criminal court this month stayed an impending execution date for Hank Skinner, who is seeking DNA tests on evidence that could prove his innocence.
Thousands of Innocence Project supporters spoke up for Skinner by calling on prosecutors to grant DNA tests. Stay tuned to the Innocence Blog for updates on the case.
And thousands of people in Germany & Europe spoke up for Hank Skinner.
And ….
www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/thema/Hank_Skinner
Image via Wikipedia
| Chicago Judge Overturns Murder Convictionsof Four MenPosted: 16 Nov 2011 03:11 PM PST / I read this: InnocenceProject.org
A Cook County circuit court judge today vacated the convictions of four Illinois men of a 1994 rape and murder – six months after DNA testresults pointed to their innocence and implicated the real perpetrator.The judge set bail for Michael Saunders and Harold Richardson, who have both served 17 years-more than half of their lives – in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. Prosecutors must decide whether to dismiss the charges against them. Also cleared today are Terrill Swift, who is on parole, and Vincent Thames, who completed his sentence and was released recently.
Teenagers at the time, all men were interrogated without a family member or guardian present and were coerced into confessing to the crime. Earlier this year, DNA testing on semen recovered from the victim matched a man who was convicted of a nearly identical murder and whom the prosecution believes committed another murder and additional assaults with the same modus operandi. The Cook County State’s Attorney has consistently opposed vacating the men’s convictions, arguing that the DNA match alone is not enough to prove innocence. Mr. Swift, now 34, said his confession came out of fear and exhaustion. After being questioned for hours by police, he was told he could go home if he signed the confession. “I was 17, I’d never been in any type of trouble like that,” Swift told a New York Times reporter. “I didn’t know the weight or the magnitude of what a confession could do. It cost me 17 years of my life.” |
| Delay in Exonerations for Two Illinois Men
Posted: 15 Nov 2011 01:12 PM PST 
Earlier this month, we reported on the triple exoneration of three Illinois men when a judge tossed out their rape and murder convictions after DNA tests proved their innocence and implicated another man in the crime. Two other juveniles were wrongfully convicted of the same crime, but have yet to see their convictions vacated, reported the Associated Press. Robert Taylor and brothers Jonathan Barr (above, right, with Innocence Project Staff Attorney Craig Cooley) and James Harden were released over the past two weeks, but since Robert Veal and Shainne Sharp signed confessions in exchange for shorter sentences, their road to exoneration could take longer, Veal’s attorney Stuart Chanen said.
Cook County prosecutors have said they expect all the sentences to be vacated. |
| Four More Illinois Men Still Seeking Freedom
Posted: 15 Nov 2011 01:15 PM PST Cook County Judge Paul Biebel will issue a decision Wednesday at 2 p.m. CST in the case of four men who have filed motions to vacate their convictions of the 1994 murder of Nina Glover in the Englewood neighborhood.
Two of the four – Harold Richardson and Innocence Project client Michael Saunders – are in state prison. Terrill Swift has been released from prison and is currently on parole. The fourth, Vincent Thames, completed his sentence. DNA recovered from Glover’s body was recently checked against CODIS – the national DNA database – and there was a “hit” toJohnny Douglas. Douglas, then 32, was present when Glover’s naked body was recovered from the dumpster. Douglas was later convicted of a very similar 1997 strangulation murder of sex worker Gytonne Marsh. His DNA also matched the semen recovered from the strangulation-murder of sex worker Elaine Martin, but he was found not guilty of that crime. During Martin’s murder trial, the State’s Attorney‘s Office sought to introduce evidence that Douglas was responsible for at least five other violent physical assaults of sex workers between March 1993 and September 1997. Three men recently exonerated in a similar case – Robert Taylor, James Harden and Jonathan Barr — will be in court tomorrow to show their support. The office of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has continued to oppose the release of the four men in Glover’s murder, arguing that the DNA result is not enough to establish the innocence of the four men. Join thousands of Innocence Project supporters around the world in calling on Alvarez to accept that the DNA evidence proves innocence in this case and join us in calling for their exonerations. |
| Four More Illinois Men Still Seeking Freedom
Posted: 15 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST Cook County Judge Paul Biebel will issue a decision Wednesday in the case of four men who have filed motions to vacate their convictions of the 1994 murder of Nina Glover in the Englewood neighborhood.
Two of the four — Harold Richardson and Innocence Project client Michael Saunders — are in state prison. Terrill Swift has been released from prison and is currently on parole. The fourth, Vincent Thames, completed his sentence. DNA recovered from Glover’s body was recently checked against the CODIS — the national DNA database — and there was a “hit” to a man named Johnny Douglas. Douglas, then 32, was present when Glover’s naked body was recovered from the dumpster. Douglas was later convicted of a very similar 1997 strangulation murder of sex worker Gytonne Marsh. His DNA also matched the semen recovered from the strangulation-murder of sex worker Elaine Martin, but he was found not guilty of that crime. During Martin’s murder trial, the State’s Attorney’s Office sought to introduce evidence that Douglas was responsible for at least five other violent physical assaults of sex workers between March 1993 and September 1997. Three men recently exonerated in a similar case — Robert Taylor, James Harden and Jonathan Barr — will be in court tomorrow to show their support. The office of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has continued to oppose the release of the four men in Glover’s murder, arguing that the DNA result is not enough to establish the innocence of the four men. Join thousands of Innocence Project supporters around the world in calling on Alvarez to accept that the DNA evidence proves innocence in this case and join us in calling for their exonerations. |
| Delay in Exonerations for Two Illinois Men
Posted: 15 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST Earlier this month, we reported on triple exoneration of three Illinois men when a judge tossed out their rape and murder convictions after DNA tests proved their innocence and implicated another man in the crime. Two other juveniles were wrongfully convicted of the same crime, but have yet to see their convictions vacated, reported the Associated Press.
Robert Taylor and brothers Jonathan Barr and James Harden were released over the past two weeks, but since Robert Veal and Shainne Sharp signed confessions in exchange for shorter sentences, their road to exoneration could take longer, Veal’s attorney Stuart Chanen said. “It can be solved, we just have to take a slightly different procedural approach,” Chanen said. Read the full article. Source and all rights: InnocentProject.org PLEASE DON´T FORGET HANK SKINNER – PLEASE; WRITE TO HIM; WRITE E-MAILS FOR HIM -
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STAY of EXECUTION GRANTED to #HankSkinner! | SURSIS ACCORDÉ à #HankSkinner ! hankskinner.org THANK YOU ALL|MERCI À TOUS
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Justice4Hank Hank Skinner |
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AFP – vor 19 Stunden
Für den US-Todeskandidaten Hank Skinner geht das Bangen weiter: Zwei Tage vor der Vollstreckung des Todesurteils ordnete ein texanisches Berufungsgericht überraschend an, den Antrag von Skinners Anwälten auf Zulassung von DNA-Proben zu prüfen. Der wegen dreifachen Mordes verurteilte 49-Jährige bestreitet die Tat und bekam schon 2010 einen Aufschub – eine Stunde vor der Hinrichtung.
Skinners Anwälte hatten mehrfach beantragt, am Tatort gefundene Spuren genetisch zu analysieren, um die Unschuld ihres Mandanten zu beweisen. Nachdem erst am Donnerstag ein texanisches Gericht dem Todeskandidaten die Tests erneut verweigerte, legten die Anwälte dagegen Berufung ein. Das Berufungsgericht befand, dass sich die Gesetzgebung zu DNA-Proben in den vergangenen Jahren mehrfach geändert habe, was bisher nicht berücksichtigt worden sei. Deshalb solle der Antrag nun geprüft werden. …
Please, read the whole article there AFP – I am sure, You´ll find it in English, too!
