Innocence Project

[The Biscuit Queen]

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2010-10-01/feature2.php

Anthony Graves, falsely accused by a murderer to try to shift blame, freed after 18 years in prison. This is an article about his story.

[outdoors]

 thats really sad-what a wasted life

[BRIAN]

All these stories comming out of innocent MEN being released from
Prison in Texas. The state of Texas must have the most incompetent law enforcement and crime labs in the world.

[neoteny]

All these stories comming out of innocent MEN being released from
Prison in Texas. The state of Texas must have the most incompetent law enforcement and crime labs in the world.

I'm not sure of that. One possible explanation is that (most) death penalty cases get the scrutiny they deserve; and thanks due to the Innocence Project and similar efforts, (some of) the railroaded cases actually get exposed. Maybe there are lots of people sitting in prison in other states where there's no DP and their protestations of innocence don't get the same attention as there's no execution date set for them.

Another aspect is being perceived as a "winner" by the prosecutor; if you read through the story, the prosecutor in this case intimidated at least one witness, possibly an -- admittedly inexperienced -- appellate lawyer and failed to disclose information beneficial for the defense. As long as prosecutors make their career by a simple scorecard which states in how many capital cases they got a DP conviction and in how many cases they got a guilty plea or verdict, they'll be sorely tempted to stack the deck... instead of trying to figure out what went down. Maybe Texans like their prosecutors hard-boiled; of course they never expect themselves to be pursued by such a bloodhound.

[Pacman7331]

It's amazing that humans could even have the audacity to alter the fates of men's lives with such impunity. Humans are so flawed - how can we suppose we have the truth to such an extent to do such a brazen thing?

This is calamity.

Yet, there must be some sort of measures to curb evil and promote the good. But sad that when society has become as decadent as ours, the only thing these measures do is pretty much the opposite. It's pathetic.

[Galt]

There was another case in Texas of a man wrongly convicted with even more of a twist.

A janitor in a school named Clarence Brandley was convicted of killing a girl in the school

He was on death row for nine years and was finally freed from prison in 1990.

Unfortunately, he had been divorced before he was convicted of murder and had been ordered to pay his ex-wife $190 / month in child support payments.

Being on death row kind of put a crimp in his earning ability, so he simply didn't make the payments.

When he was finally released from prison, the state came after him for about $50,000 in back payments, interest and penalties.

Kind of bizarre.

[The Biscuit Queen]

 

[K9]

There was another case in Texas of a man wrongly convicted with even more of a twist.

A janitor in a school named Clarence Brandley was convicted of killing a girl in the school

He was on death row for nine years and was finally freed from prison in 1990.

Unfortunately, he had been divorced before he was convicted of murder and had been ordered to pay his ex-wife $190 / month in child support payments.

Being on death row kind of put a crimp in his earning ability, so he simply didn't make the payments.

When he was finally released from prison, the state came after him for about $50,000 in back payments, interest and penalties.

Kind of bizarre.

The State is so interested in punishing males they will even go after juveniles, forcing them to pay child support to their rapists. Ironic?: Men get 20 years for sex with a minor, women get cash.