Rewards explored in death row case
Lawyers seek cause for retrial
Barbara Taylor was a key witness at death row inmate Guy LeGrande's 1996 trial: She testified that LeGrande confessed to her about killing his co-worker's wife.
LeGrande's lawyers, who are trying to stop his Friday execution, wonder whether prosecutors withheld information about plans to pay Taylor several thousand dollars for her testimony. They say LeGrande had a right to know there was $5,000 to be doled out to witnesses who testified against him so the jury could consider that when evaluating the witnesses' motive for testifying.
Instead, LeGrande's lawyers say, prosecutors revealed before trial that Taylor received $200. Based on recently obtained documents, it appears she may have been paid $3,500.
"I think jurors would have viewed Barbara Taylor differently if they knew she was going to receive several thousands of dollars in payment," said Durham lawyer Jay Ferguson, who along with Duke University law professor Jim Coleman, represents LeGrande.
The two lawyers are handling LeGrande's last-minute appeals and clemency petition without his consent. LeGrande, described by his lawyers and others as psychotic and delusional, insisted on representing himself at his trial, during which he urged the jury to sentence him to death. While acting as his own appellate lawyer, he has not fully pursued his appeals.
A former Stanly County assistant district attorney who helped prosecute LeGrande denies hiding any information about any deals or payments to witnesses.
This is the latest argument from LeGrande's lawyers about why his execution should not go forward. All of their arguments boil down to this: LeGrande did not get a fair trial, and he deserves a new one or a lesser sentence.
LeGrande, 47, was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder-for-hire of Ellen Munford in Stanly County, east of Charlotte. Munford's estranged husband, Tommy, recruited LeGrande to do the killing for a $6,500 share of a $50,000 life insurance policy. Prosecutors dispute the claim that LeGrande is mentally ill, instead describing him as an intelligent, manipulative killer.
Files LeGrande missed
LeGrande's lawyers' latest appeal is complicated by the fact that while acting as his own appellate lawyer, LeGrande did not request copies of the prosecutors' and investigators' entire files -- files that all death row inmates are entitled to obtain.
Ferguson did not get access until Oct. 30 to more than 6,000 pages of records and documents in LeGrande's case that had not previously been reviewed. Typically, appellate lawyers take up to nine months to read such material, figure out what was known before trial and what was not, and evaluate what might be the basis for an appeal, said Thomas Maher, executive director of the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, a nonprofit law firm that handles appeals for death row inmates.
"To do it under time pressure, if not impossible, it is extremely difficult," Maher said.
Based on his review so far, Ferguson believes prosecutors may have withheld information about payments to witnesses. But Ferguson acknowledges that he does not know whether Taylor actually received $3,500, because he is still tracking down payment records.
What Ferguson does know is that former Stanly County Sheriff Joe Lowder sent a letter in 1994 asking the Governor's Office for $5,000 in reward money to help capture Ellen Munford's killer. After Taylor came forward with information, LeGrande was arrested and charged with murder in 1995.
Before LeGrande's April 1996 trial, a judge ordered prosecutors to reveal whether any witnesses received money. In August 1996 -- four months after LeGrande was convicted -- the sheriff wrote to the governor that the $5,000 should be split among four witnesses, including $3,500 to Taylor.
There were three other witnesses that Lowder suggested be paid a total of $1,500 for their assistance. But Ferguson said prosecutors only disclosed one had been paid $100 before trial.
Taylor's testimony was key to prosecutors securing a murder conviction against LeGrande. The only other witness to connect LeGrande to the killing was Tommy Munford, who had a deal with prosecutors to plead to a lesser charge, avoid the death penalty and testify against LeGrande. Munford is eligible for a parole hearing next year.
Beyond Taylor, Ferguson questions whether prosecutors had a deal with another witness that they failed to disclose. Greg Laton, who knew about Munford's plans to have his wife killed, testified against LeGrande but was never charged for providing the murder weapon to Tommy Munford. Ferguson also notes that Laton had two pending felony charges at the time of his testimony. After Laton testified, Ferguson said, he saw one charge dismissed and got probation on the other.
Prosecution's view
The N.C. Attorney General's Office, which is arguing for LeGrande's execution to go forward, had not filed a response to Ferguson's motion before the holiday break.
Michael Parker, the current district attorney in Stanly, Anson, Union and Richmond counties, who did not prosecute LeGrande, said his office has turned over all its records on the case to Ferguson.
"It's my understanding that LeGrande was given information about reward payments prior to the trial," Parker said. "It's my understanding that the other payments were made after the trial -- as much as six months after the fact."
Ferguson counters that prosecutors should have disclosed the existence of the $5,000 in reward money and that witnesses could receive some portion.
The prosecutors who handled LeGrande's case were Kenneth Honeycutt, Parker's predecessor, and David Graham, now an assistant district attorney in Mecklenburg County.
In an e-mail message to The News & Observer, Graham wrote that the legal ethics rules prohibit him from talking about pending cases. "However," he wrote, "I can tell you that I would never have participated in hiding from either the court or the jury any information concerning any reward for, or any 'deal' with, a prosecution witness."
Honeycutt, who is now in private practice in Monroe, could not be reached for comment.
Honeycutt's other case
This is not the first time a death row inmate has claimed Honeycutt withheld information about deals with and money paid to a key witness.
In 2004, Jonathan Hoffman was awarded a new trial because he and his lawyers were not told that his cousin -- the prosecution's star witness -- got a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid further prosecution on the opening day of Hoffman's trial. Hoffman's lawyers also argued Honeycutt failed to reveal that the cousin received immunity from other state charges, help reducing his South Carolina sentence and several thousand dollars in reward money.
Honeycutt and his assistant, Scott Brewer, now a District Court judge, were charged with prosecutorial misconduct by the N.C. State Bar, the state agency that disciplines lawyers. The state Bar accused the pair of committing 23 violations of the rules that govern lawyers in their prosecution of Hoffman. The charges were dismissed on technical grounds.
If Honeycutt was involved, Michael Howell, one of Hoffman's lawyers, said the courts should closely scrutinize such a claim.
"Anything he has touched, I believe should have special consideration," Howell said.
Wrongfully convicted of a crime thread
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Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Study: Fewer inmates on death row in '05
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 9, 2:05 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Fewer prison inmates were moved to death row in 2005, according to a federal study that shows one more person was executed than in the year before.
Four states ¢¢¬¢‚¬ California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania ¢¢¬¢‚¬ held half of the 3,254 inmates awaiting execution at the end of 2005, the study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed. There were 37 death row inmates in federal prisons at that time.
Sixteen states executed 60 prisoners last year, one more inmate than in 2004
Overall, however, the number of inmates on death row on Dec. 31, 2005, or the number of inmates moved there during the year dipped.
Among the findings by the Justice Department agency:
128 inmates were moved to death row in 2005, the third consecutive year with a decline in yearlong totals. It was the lowest number of prisoners put on death row since 1973.
_Sixty-six fewer inmates were on death row at the end of 2005 than in 2004. That was a decrease for the fifth straight year and about a 10 percent drop since Dec. 31, 2000, when there were 3,601 death row prisoners nationwide.
The Justice Department data, the most recent available, confirmed similar trends over the past five years as identified by Amnesty International USA, which opposes the death penalty.
Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of the group's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the drop in part reflects the public's squeamishness in approving executions for people who ultimately may be found innocent.
Since 1973, when watchdog groups began keeping track, 123 death row inmates have been cleared of crimes that had earned them death sentences.
Juries "don't want to be culpable for possibly putting an innocent person to death," Gunawardena-Vaughn said.
Moreover, because of lengthy trials and inevitable years of appeals in capital murder cases, the death penalty is expensive and "dilutes very, very crucial resources ¢¢¬¢‚¬ many of which could be put toward more policing or mental health programs," she said.
As of the beginning of this month, 52 inmates have been executed so far in 2006, according to data provided by the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
Thirty-eight states and the federal government allow juries to consider the death penalty in the most heinous criminal cases. All states except Nebraska allow lethal injection in executions. Inmates in Nebraska and eight other states can be electrocuted. Additionally, three states allow death by hanging, another three by firing squad and four by lethal gas.
At the end of last year, 56 percent of death row inmates were white and 42 percent were black, the Justice Department study reported. Women accounted for 2 percent of those people facing execution.
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 9, 2:05 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Fewer prison inmates were moved to death row in 2005, according to a federal study that shows one more person was executed than in the year before.
Four states ¢¢¬¢‚¬ California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania ¢¢¬¢‚¬ held half of the 3,254 inmates awaiting execution at the end of 2005, the study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed. There were 37 death row inmates in federal prisons at that time.
Sixteen states executed 60 prisoners last year, one more inmate than in 2004
Overall, however, the number of inmates on death row on Dec. 31, 2005, or the number of inmates moved there during the year dipped.
Among the findings by the Justice Department agency:
128 inmates were moved to death row in 2005, the third consecutive year with a decline in yearlong totals. It was the lowest number of prisoners put on death row since 1973.
_Sixty-six fewer inmates were on death row at the end of 2005 than in 2004. That was a decrease for the fifth straight year and about a 10 percent drop since Dec. 31, 2000, when there were 3,601 death row prisoners nationwide.
The Justice Department data, the most recent available, confirmed similar trends over the past five years as identified by Amnesty International USA, which opposes the death penalty.
Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of the group's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the drop in part reflects the public's squeamishness in approving executions for people who ultimately may be found innocent.
Since 1973, when watchdog groups began keeping track, 123 death row inmates have been cleared of crimes that had earned them death sentences.
Juries "don't want to be culpable for possibly putting an innocent person to death," Gunawardena-Vaughn said.
Moreover, because of lengthy trials and inevitable years of appeals in capital murder cases, the death penalty is expensive and "dilutes very, very crucial resources ¢¢¬¢‚¬ many of which could be put toward more policing or mental health programs," she said.
As of the beginning of this month, 52 inmates have been executed so far in 2006, according to data provided by the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
Thirty-eight states and the federal government allow juries to consider the death penalty in the most heinous criminal cases. All states except Nebraska allow lethal injection in executions. Inmates in Nebraska and eight other states can be electrocuted. Additionally, three states allow death by hanging, another three by firing squad and four by lethal gas.
At the end of last year, 56 percent of death row inmates were white and 42 percent were black, the Justice Department study reported. Women accounted for 2 percent of those people facing execution.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Dallas County Records 12th DNA Case
Friday, January 19, 2007
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press Writer
DALLAS ¢‚¬ In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence.
That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states _ a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment."
James Waller, 50, was exonerated by a judge earlier this week and received an apology from the district attorney's office after a new type of DNA testing on hair and semen showed he was not the rapist who attacked a 12-year-old a boy living in Waller's apartment building in 1983. The boy had been the chief witness against him.
"It's been a long, horrible road," said Waller, who has been out on parole since 1993.
Only New York, Illinois and Texas have had more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, which has a population of 2.3 million, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
"These are appalling mistakes, and in the case of Dallas County, there have been so many," said Democratic state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, who is sponsoring a bill to create Texas Innocence Commission to scrutinize the state's criminal justice system. Ellis serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Innocence Project.
A similar bill failed to reach the floor in the past two legislative sessions. But "my colleagues in the Senate, in particular, are beginning to see these are human lives we are talking about," Ellis said. "There are times when we make mistakes, and when we do, we ought to be big enough to admit it."
Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, 26 defendants have been cleared in Illinois, including 11 in Chicago's Cook County, according to the Innocence Project. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida, the organization said.
In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners have filed applications to receive DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.
Nine were confirmed guilty, six tests were inconclusive and six more are still in progress, said Lori Ordiway, the chief of the appellate division for the Dallas County district attorney. The rest had their applications for DNA testing rejected.
"DNA testing is to make sure innocent folks are not in jail," said new District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago. "If you are not guilty, we want to get you out of jail. We're not going to be the DA that stands in the way."
Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, said the number of exonerations in Dallas County "demands a closer look and statewide action." He said there is no clear reason there have been so many wrongful convictions in Dallas, but "many of the cases have to do with eyewitness identification."
That was true with Waller. A day after the rape, the boy was at a convenience store when he heard Waller's voice and became convinced Waller was the man who attacked him in his apartment.
Earlier, the boy had told police that he never saw the attacker face-to-face and that the man had worn a bandanna covering most of his face. Waller was also heavier and taller than the man described by the youngster.
Waller and his family were the only black residents of the apartment complex, according to the Innocence Project.
He began seeking DNA testing in 1989. Since his parole, he has had to register as a sex offender, but his lawyers are trying to get that requirement lifted.
Friday, January 19, 2007
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press Writer
DALLAS ¢‚¬ In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence.
That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states _ a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment."
James Waller, 50, was exonerated by a judge earlier this week and received an apology from the district attorney's office after a new type of DNA testing on hair and semen showed he was not the rapist who attacked a 12-year-old a boy living in Waller's apartment building in 1983. The boy had been the chief witness against him.
"It's been a long, horrible road," said Waller, who has been out on parole since 1993.
Only New York, Illinois and Texas have had more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, which has a population of 2.3 million, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
"These are appalling mistakes, and in the case of Dallas County, there have been so many," said Democratic state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, who is sponsoring a bill to create Texas Innocence Commission to scrutinize the state's criminal justice system. Ellis serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Innocence Project.
A similar bill failed to reach the floor in the past two legislative sessions. But "my colleagues in the Senate, in particular, are beginning to see these are human lives we are talking about," Ellis said. "There are times when we make mistakes, and when we do, we ought to be big enough to admit it."
Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, 26 defendants have been cleared in Illinois, including 11 in Chicago's Cook County, according to the Innocence Project. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida, the organization said.
In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners have filed applications to receive DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.
Nine were confirmed guilty, six tests were inconclusive and six more are still in progress, said Lori Ordiway, the chief of the appellate division for the Dallas County district attorney. The rest had their applications for DNA testing rejected.
"DNA testing is to make sure innocent folks are not in jail," said new District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago. "If you are not guilty, we want to get you out of jail. We're not going to be the DA that stands in the way."
Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, said the number of exonerations in Dallas County "demands a closer look and statewide action." He said there is no clear reason there have been so many wrongful convictions in Dallas, but "many of the cases have to do with eyewitness identification."
That was true with Waller. A day after the rape, the boy was at a convenience store when he heard Waller's voice and became convinced Waller was the man who attacked him in his apartment.
Earlier, the boy had told police that he never saw the attacker face-to-face and that the man had worn a bandanna covering most of his face. Waller was also heavier and taller than the man described by the youngster.
Waller and his family were the only black residents of the apartment complex, according to the Innocence Project.
He began seeking DNA testing in 1989. Since his parole, he has had to register as a sex offender, but his lawyers are trying to get that requirement lifted.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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DNA Tests Clear Men in Georgia, New York
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
AUBURN, N.Y. ¢‚¬ Two inmates _ a convicted rapist in Georgia and a man who was unjustly convicted of murder in New York but helped find the real killer from his prison cell _ were granted their freedom Tuesday after DNA tests proved their innocence.
Innocence Project co-director Peter Neufeld said he had never seen a case like that of Roy Brown, whose 1992 murder conviction was thrown out by a judge.
"Armed only with a notebook, stamps and a copy of the state's Freedom of Information Law, Roy Brown identified the true perpetrator from a prison cell," said Nina Morrison, an attorney at the Innocence Project.
Frail from severe liver disease, Brown said bitterly at a news conference after his release: "This was an abortion, an abortion of justice. They could have saved me all this hell."
Brown, 46, was convicted of stabbing and strangling Sabina Kulakowski. He was found guilty mostly on the strength of bite marks on her nude body that a prosecution witness linked to Brown.
After appeals were rejected, Brown filed a Freedom of Information request four years ago and paid $28.50 for copies of all the documents in his case. He found four affidavits relating to Barry Bench, the brother of Kulakowski's ex-boyfriend.
Neither Brown nor his lawyers had previously seen the affidavits, which convinced Brown that Bench was the killer. Brown sent a letter from prison to Bench in 2003, accusing him of the murder. Several days later, Bench committed suicide by stepping in front of a train.
Cayuga County District Attorney James B. Vargason ordered Bench's body exhumed to extract DNA, and said new tests showed that Bench's DNA was on the red T-shirt investigators believe Kulakowski was wearing the night she was killed in 1991.
In Georgia, Willie O. "Pete" Williams, 44, became a free man Tuesday night after spending nearly nearly half his life in prison for rape.
Williams was convicted in a 1985 attack on a woman at an apartment complex parking lot. The woman identified him as her attacker, but DNA tests on genetic material from a rape kit examination cleared Williams.
"We are convinced today Mr. Williams was not responsible for this," Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.
His attorney said he plans to take Williams and his family out for a steak dinner.
"I just think it's absolutely phenomenal for Pete," Bruce Harvey said. "It's redemption for him, and a continuing indictment of a system that relies almost entirely, in these kinds of cases, on evidence that we now know is the least reliable type of evidence available: eyewitness identification."
After being taken to Atlanta from a south Georgia prison, he emerged from the Fulton County jail about 10 p.m., saying he was looking forward to eating steak and potatoes and "just living the rest of my life."
"I can't even explain," he said when asked how it felt to be free.
Williams and Brown become the 193rd and 194th convicts nationwide exonerated through DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project.
"Changes got to be made in the justice system," Brown said before leaving to eat a lasagna dinner with his family. "The wheels are flat. There's more innocent people like me.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
AUBURN, N.Y. ¢‚¬ Two inmates _ a convicted rapist in Georgia and a man who was unjustly convicted of murder in New York but helped find the real killer from his prison cell _ were granted their freedom Tuesday after DNA tests proved their innocence.
Innocence Project co-director Peter Neufeld said he had never seen a case like that of Roy Brown, whose 1992 murder conviction was thrown out by a judge.
"Armed only with a notebook, stamps and a copy of the state's Freedom of Information Law, Roy Brown identified the true perpetrator from a prison cell," said Nina Morrison, an attorney at the Innocence Project.
Frail from severe liver disease, Brown said bitterly at a news conference after his release: "This was an abortion, an abortion of justice. They could have saved me all this hell."
Brown, 46, was convicted of stabbing and strangling Sabina Kulakowski. He was found guilty mostly on the strength of bite marks on her nude body that a prosecution witness linked to Brown.
After appeals were rejected, Brown filed a Freedom of Information request four years ago and paid $28.50 for copies of all the documents in his case. He found four affidavits relating to Barry Bench, the brother of Kulakowski's ex-boyfriend.
Neither Brown nor his lawyers had previously seen the affidavits, which convinced Brown that Bench was the killer. Brown sent a letter from prison to Bench in 2003, accusing him of the murder. Several days later, Bench committed suicide by stepping in front of a train.
Cayuga County District Attorney James B. Vargason ordered Bench's body exhumed to extract DNA, and said new tests showed that Bench's DNA was on the red T-shirt investigators believe Kulakowski was wearing the night she was killed in 1991.
In Georgia, Willie O. "Pete" Williams, 44, became a free man Tuesday night after spending nearly nearly half his life in prison for rape.
Williams was convicted in a 1985 attack on a woman at an apartment complex parking lot. The woman identified him as her attacker, but DNA tests on genetic material from a rape kit examination cleared Williams.
"We are convinced today Mr. Williams was not responsible for this," Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.
His attorney said he plans to take Williams and his family out for a steak dinner.
"I just think it's absolutely phenomenal for Pete," Bruce Harvey said. "It's redemption for him, and a continuing indictment of a system that relies almost entirely, in these kinds of cases, on evidence that we now know is the least reliable type of evidence available: eyewitness identification."
After being taken to Atlanta from a south Georgia prison, he emerged from the Fulton County jail about 10 p.m., saying he was looking forward to eating steak and potatoes and "just living the rest of my life."
"I can't even explain," he said when asked how it felt to be free.
Williams and Brown become the 193rd and 194th convicts nationwide exonerated through DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project.
"Changes got to be made in the justice system," Brown said before leaving to eat a lasagna dinner with his family. "The wheels are flat. There's more innocent people like me.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Suspect cleared by DNA in rape case of 11-year-old Wash. girl
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ” DNA taken from a child rape victim cleared a 23-year-old man charged in the case, prompting prosecutors to ask Wednesday for the charges to be dismissed.
David Lukas Lynch, who police said had been living in an elaborate underground bunker, was arrested Feb. 6 a few blocks from the home where an 11-year-old girl was raped at knifepoint the previous day.
Lynch is currently at Western State Hospital under a civil commitment that is separate from the criminal case.
"What we found out today is that there was male DNA found on the victim's body in numerous locations, and that DNA all belonged to a specific person. And that person was not David Lukas Lynch," prosecutor John Skinder said.
On Feb. 8, Lynch was charged with three counts of first-degree child rape while armed with a deadly weapon, one count of burglary and one count of second-degree child assault.
The prosecutor's office filed for dismissal of all counts after the DNA results were returned Wednesday from a private lab.
The test results give prosecutors a DNA profile of the rapist, Skinder said. Police likely will run the profile through a nationwide DNA database of felons, he said.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ” DNA taken from a child rape victim cleared a 23-year-old man charged in the case, prompting prosecutors to ask Wednesday for the charges to be dismissed.
David Lukas Lynch, who police said had been living in an elaborate underground bunker, was arrested Feb. 6 a few blocks from the home where an 11-year-old girl was raped at knifepoint the previous day.
Lynch is currently at Western State Hospital under a civil commitment that is separate from the criminal case.
"What we found out today is that there was male DNA found on the victim's body in numerous locations, and that DNA all belonged to a specific person. And that person was not David Lukas Lynch," prosecutor John Skinder said.
On Feb. 8, Lynch was charged with three counts of first-degree child rape while armed with a deadly weapon, one count of burglary and one count of second-degree child assault.
The prosecutor's office filed for dismissal of all counts after the DNA results were returned Wednesday from a private lab.
The test results give prosecutors a DNA profile of the rapist, Skinder said. Police likely will run the profile through a nationwide DNA database of felons, he said.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Man Cleared After 22 Years in Prison
Monday, April 02, 2007
By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. ” Rape convictions that put a man in prison for 22 years were erased Monday because of recently found DNA evidence that tied the crimes to another man.
A prosecutor last week declared Anthony Capozzi, 50, exonerated. He is expected to be freed from custody this week.
"There is a big load lifted off," said his lawyer, Thomas D'Agostino.
Capozzi was not in court for the seven-minute hearing when Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman threw out the two 1987 rape convictions. Capozzi, who has schizophrenia, was transferred from a prison last month to the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy.
Prosecutors had supported D'Agostino's request that the conviction be lifted.
"I truly regret that this had to happen, everybody trying to do the right thing and going through all the right steps and coming out with the wrong result," said District Attorney Frank Clark. "I think a simple 'I'm sorry' would never be enough," the prosecutor said.
D'Agostino has said he is prepared to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment as a way to ensure Capozzi is taken care of.
Capozzi was found guilty of the rapes Feb. 6, 1987, and sentenced to a term of 11 to 35 years.
He had been denied parole five times since becoming eligible in 1997. His refusal to admit the crimes made it impossible to complete a mandatory sex offender program, his defense said.
"It's the biggest Catch-22," D'Agostino said.
The break in his case came with the Jan. 15 arrest of Altemio Sanchez, 49, after DNA evidence allegedly identified him as a serial criminal known as the Bike Path Rapist.
After linking Sanchez to three murders and several rapes dating to 1981, investigators questioned whether the 1983 and 1984 attacks for which Capozzi was convicted _ which occurred in the same park as two of the rapes linked to Sanchez _ might also have been committed by the Bike Path Rapist.
Tests were conducted on DNA evidence collected after those two rapes and recently found at the Erie County Medical Center, and Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark announced last week that the DNA matched Sanchez, not Capozzi.
Capozzi resembled Sanchez at the time of the rapes, and the victims identified him in lineups.
Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering two women in the early 1990s and one woman last fall. He is not charged in any of the rapes because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.
Monday, April 02, 2007
By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. ” Rape convictions that put a man in prison for 22 years were erased Monday because of recently found DNA evidence that tied the crimes to another man.
A prosecutor last week declared Anthony Capozzi, 50, exonerated. He is expected to be freed from custody this week.
"There is a big load lifted off," said his lawyer, Thomas D'Agostino.
Capozzi was not in court for the seven-minute hearing when Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman threw out the two 1987 rape convictions. Capozzi, who has schizophrenia, was transferred from a prison last month to the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy.
Prosecutors had supported D'Agostino's request that the conviction be lifted.
"I truly regret that this had to happen, everybody trying to do the right thing and going through all the right steps and coming out with the wrong result," said District Attorney Frank Clark. "I think a simple 'I'm sorry' would never be enough," the prosecutor said.
D'Agostino has said he is prepared to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment as a way to ensure Capozzi is taken care of.
Capozzi was found guilty of the rapes Feb. 6, 1987, and sentenced to a term of 11 to 35 years.
He had been denied parole five times since becoming eligible in 1997. His refusal to admit the crimes made it impossible to complete a mandatory sex offender program, his defense said.
"It's the biggest Catch-22," D'Agostino said.
The break in his case came with the Jan. 15 arrest of Altemio Sanchez, 49, after DNA evidence allegedly identified him as a serial criminal known as the Bike Path Rapist.
After linking Sanchez to three murders and several rapes dating to 1981, investigators questioned whether the 1983 and 1984 attacks for which Capozzi was convicted _ which occurred in the same park as two of the rapes linked to Sanchez _ might also have been committed by the Bike Path Rapist.
Tests were conducted on DNA evidence collected after those two rapes and recently found at the Erie County Medical Center, and Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark announced last week that the DNA matched Sanchez, not Capozzi.
Capozzi resembled Sanchez at the time of the rapes, and the victims identified him in lineups.
Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering two women in the early 1990s and one woman last fall. He is not charged in any of the rapes because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
- Posts: 3570
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DNA exonerates man after 25 years in prison
On parole since March 2006, he is now freed of 'sex offender' label
April 23, 2007
CHICAGO - After spending 25 years in an Illinois prison for rape, Jerry Miller was found innocent Monday after DNA evidence showed he was not responsible for the 1981 attack.
After a judge vacated his conviction, Miller smiled, and a courtroom of his family and friends cheered.
"I will get on with my life, start a life, have a life," Miller said at a news conference after the court hearing. "I'm just thankful for this day."
The exoneration is the United States' 200th based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project in New York, a nonprofit group that works to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates.
Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery. He was paroled in March 2006 and now works two jobs and lives with a family member in a Chicago suburb.
He no longer has to register as a sex offender.
He had been arrested after a 44-year-old woman was attacked as she got into her car at a Chicago parking garage in September 1981.
The attacker raped the woman, put her in her car's trunk and ran away after two parking attendants approached him.
The garage workers later picked Miller out of a police lineup of suspects.
At the trial, Miller testified he was home watching a championship boxing match at the time of the crime. Still, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 45 years.
Last year, the Innocence Project persuaded Cook County prosecutors to conduct new DNA tests on a semen sample taken from the woman's clothes.
On parole since March 2006, he is now freed of 'sex offender' label
April 23, 2007
CHICAGO - After spending 25 years in an Illinois prison for rape, Jerry Miller was found innocent Monday after DNA evidence showed he was not responsible for the 1981 attack.
After a judge vacated his conviction, Miller smiled, and a courtroom of his family and friends cheered.
"I will get on with my life, start a life, have a life," Miller said at a news conference after the court hearing. "I'm just thankful for this day."
The exoneration is the United States' 200th based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project in New York, a nonprofit group that works to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates.
Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery. He was paroled in March 2006 and now works two jobs and lives with a family member in a Chicago suburb.
He no longer has to register as a sex offender.
He had been arrested after a 44-year-old woman was attacked as she got into her car at a Chicago parking garage in September 1981.
The attacker raped the woman, put her in her car's trunk and ran away after two parking attendants approached him.
The garage workers later picked Miller out of a police lineup of suspects.
At the trial, Miller testified he was home watching a championship boxing match at the time of the crime. Still, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 45 years.
Last year, the Innocence Project persuaded Cook County prosecutors to conduct new DNA tests on a semen sample taken from the woman's clothes.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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trashtalkr
- Sports Guru
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Damn, 25 years in jail? How do you make up for those? Jeez....
"If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?"
Soren Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard
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Buffmaster
- Posts: 3570
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Woman's plea from death row: I'm innocent
May 9, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Sitting on Iraq's death row is a 25-year-old woman convicted in the slayings of three relatives. She says her husband carried out the killings and fled. She confessed to being an accomplice, she says, only after being tortured in police custody.
Despite lingering questions about the case, the fate of Samar Saed Abdullah remains the gallows.
"I am innocent," she told CNN from inside the al-Kadhimiya Women's Prison in Baghdad. "The judge did not hear me out. He refused to hear anything I have to say. He just sentenced me." (Watch Abdullah cry as she tells her story )
According to Amnesty International, such claims are not uncommon in Iraq, which has the fourth-highest execution rate in the world.
Amnesty issued a report last month that concluded sentences in Iraq increasingly follow flawed trials and coerced confessions.
"In many cases, death sentences have been issued following proceedings which failed to meet international fair trial standards," the report said. "This represents a profoundly retrograde step."
The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority abolished capital punishment in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. But shortly after the government was handed over to Iraqis, the death penalty was reinstated in August 2004.
Since that time, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death, and at least 100 people -- including Hussein -- have been executed, according to Amnesty. Four women are currently on death row. Two of the women have their young children, ages 1 and 3, with them on death row, Amnesty says.
Tried and convicted in 1 day
She is accused of being an accessory to the murder of her uncle, aunt and cousin -- slayings that allegedly were carried out at their family home by her husband.
In the court documents from her trial, she admitted to confessing she had gone to her uncle's house with her husband with the intent to steal, but she says she made that confession as a result of being tortured.
In reaching its verdict, the court disregarded her testimony on the grounds that her confession was closer to the date of the crime.
She was tried and convicted in a single day, August 15, 2005.
"She didn't confess," her mother, Hana'a Abdul Hakim, told CNN. "It was from the beating they gave her. She was bleeding. She finally said write what you want, just stop."
Under Iraqi law, her claim to confessing under torture should have been investigated, but it wasn't. CNN's repeated queries to the Higher Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice went unanswered.
"The judiciary is no longer involved, and nothing can be done unless new evidence comes to light, which is unlikely," her appeals lawyer, Ali Azzawi, said.
Father: I wouldn't see her if she was guilty
Inside the prison, Abdullah's voice trembles with fear, her large brown eyes fill with tears and her hands nervously clench.
"Give me life in prison, 20 years. Anything but this," she said from the prison's "sewing room."
She holds out hope for an appeal, but she doesn't know that the appeal has already been rejected. No one -- not even her own family -- has the heart to tell her the appeals court upheld her death sentence three months ago.
"I couldn't tell her," her mother said. "I was afraid that she would do something to herself."
Through her tears, the mother's agony is palpable. At this point, she says she'll take anything for her daughter: life in prison, a lesser sentence. Anything but the death sentence.
The family says their daughter met her husband, Saif Ali Nur, in the winter of 2004. They didn't approve of him at first, but eventually gave the couple their blessing.
Three months later, the mother says, the couple was driving to get gas when Nur suggested they stop at the uncle's house. They did just that.
Their daughter was in the kitchen washing dishes when, according to the mother, her husband locked the kitchen door and gunshots rang out. Nur is alleged to have killed her uncle, aunt and cousin.
Then, the mother says, he held Abdullah at gunpoint demanding to know where the uncle kept money and gold.
"He dragged her," the mother said. "Samar kept telling him she didn't know where the money was."
The husband left with less than $1,000 and some jewelry. The next day, he dumped his wife at the end of her street and threatened to kill her and the rest of her family if she told authorities, the family said.
Abdullah was arrested by Iraqi police that same day.
The court testimony from her trial mirrors the account the mother told CNN.
"If I thought she was guilty, I swear, I wouldn't go see her. She would get the punishment she deserves, but this is such a severe sentence," her father, Saed Abdul Majid, said.
Every Wednesday is gallows day
Amnesty International has appealed Iraqi authorities on behalf of Abdullah and the other three women on Iraq's death row. Another group inside Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, is also seeking to save them.
The group's head, Dalal Rubaie, says they have successfully appealed cases of two women, including one on death row who, she says, confessed after extensive torture.
"She had her fingernails pulled; she was hung from the ceiling; they took pictures of her naked while she was hanging; they cuffed her to a bed and raped her," Rubaie says.
Rubaie's organization delivered a letter from the woman that detailed her allegations to the government and made it public on the Internet. She is now awaiting a retrial while her claim is being investigated.
As for Abdullah, she dreads every Wednesday, never knowing if it will be her last day alive. Wednesday is execution day in Iraq, when inmates are led unannounced to the gallows.
"I don't sleep at all on Wednesdays," she said. "I stay scared all day."
She survived today, but there's always next Wednesday.
May 9, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Sitting on Iraq's death row is a 25-year-old woman convicted in the slayings of three relatives. She says her husband carried out the killings and fled. She confessed to being an accomplice, she says, only after being tortured in police custody.
Despite lingering questions about the case, the fate of Samar Saed Abdullah remains the gallows.
"I am innocent," she told CNN from inside the al-Kadhimiya Women's Prison in Baghdad. "The judge did not hear me out. He refused to hear anything I have to say. He just sentenced me." (Watch Abdullah cry as she tells her story )
According to Amnesty International, such claims are not uncommon in Iraq, which has the fourth-highest execution rate in the world.
Amnesty issued a report last month that concluded sentences in Iraq increasingly follow flawed trials and coerced confessions.
"In many cases, death sentences have been issued following proceedings which failed to meet international fair trial standards," the report said. "This represents a profoundly retrograde step."
The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority abolished capital punishment in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. But shortly after the government was handed over to Iraqis, the death penalty was reinstated in August 2004.
Since that time, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death, and at least 100 people -- including Hussein -- have been executed, according to Amnesty. Four women are currently on death row. Two of the women have their young children, ages 1 and 3, with them on death row, Amnesty says.
Tried and convicted in 1 day
She is accused of being an accessory to the murder of her uncle, aunt and cousin -- slayings that allegedly were carried out at their family home by her husband.
In the court documents from her trial, she admitted to confessing she had gone to her uncle's house with her husband with the intent to steal, but she says she made that confession as a result of being tortured.
In reaching its verdict, the court disregarded her testimony on the grounds that her confession was closer to the date of the crime.
She was tried and convicted in a single day, August 15, 2005.
"She didn't confess," her mother, Hana'a Abdul Hakim, told CNN. "It was from the beating they gave her. She was bleeding. She finally said write what you want, just stop."
Under Iraqi law, her claim to confessing under torture should have been investigated, but it wasn't. CNN's repeated queries to the Higher Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice went unanswered.
"The judiciary is no longer involved, and nothing can be done unless new evidence comes to light, which is unlikely," her appeals lawyer, Ali Azzawi, said.
Father: I wouldn't see her if she was guilty
Inside the prison, Abdullah's voice trembles with fear, her large brown eyes fill with tears and her hands nervously clench.
"Give me life in prison, 20 years. Anything but this," she said from the prison's "sewing room."
She holds out hope for an appeal, but she doesn't know that the appeal has already been rejected. No one -- not even her own family -- has the heart to tell her the appeals court upheld her death sentence three months ago.
"I couldn't tell her," her mother said. "I was afraid that she would do something to herself."
Through her tears, the mother's agony is palpable. At this point, she says she'll take anything for her daughter: life in prison, a lesser sentence. Anything but the death sentence.
The family says their daughter met her husband, Saif Ali Nur, in the winter of 2004. They didn't approve of him at first, but eventually gave the couple their blessing.
Three months later, the mother says, the couple was driving to get gas when Nur suggested they stop at the uncle's house. They did just that.
Their daughter was in the kitchen washing dishes when, according to the mother, her husband locked the kitchen door and gunshots rang out. Nur is alleged to have killed her uncle, aunt and cousin.
Then, the mother says, he held Abdullah at gunpoint demanding to know where the uncle kept money and gold.
"He dragged her," the mother said. "Samar kept telling him she didn't know where the money was."
The husband left with less than $1,000 and some jewelry. The next day, he dumped his wife at the end of her street and threatened to kill her and the rest of her family if she told authorities, the family said.
Abdullah was arrested by Iraqi police that same day.
The court testimony from her trial mirrors the account the mother told CNN.
"If I thought she was guilty, I swear, I wouldn't go see her. She would get the punishment she deserves, but this is such a severe sentence," her father, Saed Abdul Majid, said.
Every Wednesday is gallows day
Amnesty International has appealed Iraqi authorities on behalf of Abdullah and the other three women on Iraq's death row. Another group inside Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, is also seeking to save them.
The group's head, Dalal Rubaie, says they have successfully appealed cases of two women, including one on death row who, she says, confessed after extensive torture.
"She had her fingernails pulled; she was hung from the ceiling; they took pictures of her naked while she was hanging; they cuffed her to a bed and raped her," Rubaie says.
Rubaie's organization delivered a letter from the woman that detailed her allegations to the government and made it public on the Internet. She is now awaiting a retrial while her claim is being investigated.
As for Abdullah, she dreads every Wednesday, never knowing if it will be her last day alive. Wednesday is execution day in Iraq, when inmates are led unannounced to the gallows.
"I don't sleep at all on Wednesdays," she said. "I stay scared all day."
She survived today, but there's always next Wednesday.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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Buffmaster
- Posts: 3570
- Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:37 am
- Location: The Alamo
DNA test frees man convicted of 2 child slayings
New Jersey resident exonerated after 22 years behind bars
May 15, 2007
ELIZABETH, N.J. - A judge threw out convictions Tuesday against a man who served more than two decades in prison for the rape and murder of two children after a DNA test showed a neighbor may have committed the crimes.
The new DNA evidence would probably have changed the verdict against Byron Halsey, said Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim, who vacated the verdict and granted a new trial.
œI just want to thank Jesus, Halsey said after walking out of the Union County Jail. He gave a quick embrace to one of his lawyers, then joined his mother and brother for long hug.
Prosecutors were expected to announce at a July 9 hearing whether they would pursue a new trial or drop the charges. Until then, Halsey was released on $55,000 bail and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.
œToday, we can say with scientific certainty that Byron Halsey is innocent, said Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project, which is representing Halsey. œIt has taken more than two decades, but DNA has finally revealed the truth in this case.
Halsey, 46, was convicted in 1988 of murdering and sexually assaulting Tyrone and Tina Urquhart, the children of his girlfriend, with whom he lived at a Plainfield rooming house.
The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina, 7, were found in the home™s basement in November 1985.
Their mother, Margaret Urquhart, said in a statement issued through the Innocence Project she had doubted Halsey™s guilt.
œI knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina, Urquhart said. œIt didn™t make sense to me that he could have done this. I always had my doubts, but I didn™t know what to do about them.
The new DNA test shows a neighbor, Clifton Hall, 49, was the source of semen found at the scene. Hall, who testified against Halsey at trial, is now in prison for three sex crimes in early 1990s, authorities said.
It was not clear whether he had an attorney, and state corrections officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Hall.
Confession raised questions
Halsey gave a confession after he was interrogated for 30 hours during a 40-hour period, Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck said.
œIt would be a stretch to say that Byron Halsey even confessed to this crime given the state of mind he was in, the length of the interrogation, the tactics police used, and the words he actually said, Scheck said.
Halsey had been sentenced to two life terms, plus 20 years. He has been in custody since 1985.
Halsey can apply for compensation of $25,000 for each year he was in custody, Potkin said.
New Jersey resident exonerated after 22 years behind bars
May 15, 2007
ELIZABETH, N.J. - A judge threw out convictions Tuesday against a man who served more than two decades in prison for the rape and murder of two children after a DNA test showed a neighbor may have committed the crimes.
The new DNA evidence would probably have changed the verdict against Byron Halsey, said Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim, who vacated the verdict and granted a new trial.
œI just want to thank Jesus, Halsey said after walking out of the Union County Jail. He gave a quick embrace to one of his lawyers, then joined his mother and brother for long hug.
Prosecutors were expected to announce at a July 9 hearing whether they would pursue a new trial or drop the charges. Until then, Halsey was released on $55,000 bail and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.
œToday, we can say with scientific certainty that Byron Halsey is innocent, said Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project, which is representing Halsey. œIt has taken more than two decades, but DNA has finally revealed the truth in this case.
Halsey, 46, was convicted in 1988 of murdering and sexually assaulting Tyrone and Tina Urquhart, the children of his girlfriend, with whom he lived at a Plainfield rooming house.
The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina, 7, were found in the home™s basement in November 1985.
Their mother, Margaret Urquhart, said in a statement issued through the Innocence Project she had doubted Halsey™s guilt.
œI knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina, Urquhart said. œIt didn™t make sense to me that he could have done this. I always had my doubts, but I didn™t know what to do about them.
The new DNA test shows a neighbor, Clifton Hall, 49, was the source of semen found at the scene. Hall, who testified against Halsey at trial, is now in prison for three sex crimes in early 1990s, authorities said.
It was not clear whether he had an attorney, and state corrections officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Hall.
Confession raised questions
Halsey gave a confession after he was interrogated for 30 hours during a 40-hour period, Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck said.
œIt would be a stretch to say that Byron Halsey even confessed to this crime given the state of mind he was in, the length of the interrogation, the tactics police used, and the words he actually said, Scheck said.
Halsey had been sentenced to two life terms, plus 20 years. He has been in custody since 1985.
Halsey can apply for compensation of $25,000 for each year he was in custody, Potkin said.
Big Red died 23 NOV 2001
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
You owe your success to your first wife. You owe your second wife to your success---Sean Connery
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