Wrongfully convicted

“60 Minutes” to Feature Michael Morton on Sunday

In a long-awaited segment, the CBS news program 60 Minutes will air its story this Sunday on the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton. 

The former grocery store manager was convicted in 1987 of murdering his wife, Christine Morton. Morton was sentenced to life in prison and served 25 years before DNA tests last year proved his innocence and connected another man to the brutal crime. Morton was freed in October and officially exonerated in December.

The man whose DNA was connected to Christine Morton’s murder was also found at the scene of another Austin murder in 1988. Mark Norwood, a 57-year-old Bastrop dishwasher, has been indicted for Christine Morton’s murder and is considered a suspect in the death of Debra Masters Baker.

Following Morton’s exoneration, Bexar County State District Judge Sid Harle authorized a court of inquiry to examine whether the prosecutor who oversaw Morton’s conviction commtited criminal misconduct in his handling of the case. Morton’s lawyers argue that former district attorney Ken Anderson, who is now a state district judge, deliberately hid evidence that pointed to his innocence during the original trial. That evidence includes a transcript of a phone conversation between a sheriff’s investigator and Morton’s mother-in-law in which she tells the officer that the couple’s 3-year-old son described watching a “monster” — who was not his father — beat his mother. The judge and jury also never saw police reports in which neighbors reported that they saw a man in a green van who appeared to be casing the home. They also didn’t see reports from a store owner in San Antonio who said someone tried to fraudulently use Christine Morton’s credit card after she died.

Anderson, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Rick Perry, has vociferously denied that he did anything wrong in the prosecution, and he has said that he regrets that the justice system failed Morton. His lawyers have said that Anderson is looking forward to the court of inquiry as an opportunity to clear his name.

Tarrant County Judge Luis Sturns has been appointed to oversee the unusual process of investigating allegations of misconduct against a sitting official. And last week, Sturns appointedhigh-profile Houston defense lawyer Rusty Hardin to act as special prosecutor in the case.

Click here to watch a preview of the 60 Minutes episode.

In 2000 Illinois discovered we had 13 innocent men on death row waiting to be executed

And when I say innocent I don’t mean they got off because of a technicality or something like that. I mean they were truly innocent of the crimes they were scheduled to be put to death for. Think Illinois is the only state this kind of stuff happens in ?

Don 

source : http://www.democraticunderground.com

from Innocence Project, u can find exonerations by state (289)

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/StateView.php

Full episode on CBS about Anthony Graves Wrongfully convicted

watch on CBS the full episode about Antony’s Case :http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121760n&tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesArea.0

Wrongfully convicted Franky Carillo free after 20 years behind bars

march 16, 2012

After 20 years in jail for a murder he dont commit. Franky Carillo is celebrating a milestone on friday : the one- year

anniversary of being a free once again .

watch the video on NBC southern California

Anthony Graves Story on 48 Hours Saturday

The CBS news show 48 Hours Mystery will air a segment this Saturday with an update on former death row inmate Anthony Graves‘ story.

Graves was exonerated in 2010 after spending 18 years in prison, most of them on death row. He was wrongfully convicted in 1994 of six counts of capital murder and spent the better part of two decades fighting to prove his innocence. The state paid him $1.45 million last year for the time he was imprisoned, but getting the money he was owed required Graves to take on another fight with the state.

Texas law allows exonerees like Graves to apply for compensation for the time they spent wrongfully incarcerated. It provides exonerees $80,000 per year of incarceration in a lump sum and then another $80,000 per year of incarceration in a monthly annuity.

But Texas Comptroller Susan Combs initially denied Graves’ application for compensation because the court documents that freed him from prison did not declare his “actual innocence,” as the law required. Last year, 48 Hours reported, along with many other news outlets, on the state’s denial of compensation to Graves.

In response to the controversy over Graves’ case, state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston filed a bill that changed the law to make him and other similar wrongfully convicted ex-inmates eligible for state compensation while still weeding out weaker innocence claims. The measure also makes exonerees eligible for the same health benefits given to Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees for a period of time equal to the time they spent in prison. And it restricts fees lawyers for exonerees can charge their clients.

“If it hadn’t been for 48 Hours Mystery, I don’t think I would be getting my compensation,” Graves said in a CBS press release.

Check out a sneak preview of Saturday’s show here.

source : texas tribune and CBS News

TEXAS – Appeal of Death Row Case Is More Than a Matter of Guilt or Innocence

No one saw Rob Will shoot and kill Harris County Deputy Sheriff Barrett Hill in the still-black morning hours in a Houston bayou on Dec. 4, 2000. No physical evidence linked him to the murder.

http://www.freerobwill.org/

Mr. Will, now on death row, said that he is innocent, but that he has been represented by ineffective lawyers. He has a new lawyer who faces the daunting challenge of representing Mr. Will at this late stage in his appeals.

Witnesses have testified that another man confessed to Deputy Hill’s murder. But in a January ruling, Judge Keith Ellison of United States District Court lamented that even though he was concerned Mr. Will could be innocent, he had to deny his motion for a new trial.

“The questions raised during post-judgment factual development about Will’s actual innocence create disturbing uncertainties,” he wrote. “Federal law does not recognize actual innocence as a mechanism to overturn an otherwise valid conviction.”

Mr. Will’s best chance for a new trial may lie with an Arizona case that the United States Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on. States across the country are anxiously awaiting the ruling, which could establish that defendants have a constitutional right to adequate appellate lawyers. For some states, that could require major spending on court-appointed lawyers for thousands of convicts.

full article

source : New York times.march 10,2012

Texas Tribune

US – Wrongful convictions should bring maximum compensation, judge rules

Wrongful convictions should bring maximum compensation, judge rules.

Three men who were wrongfully convicted of murdering an alleged crack dealer near Westwego in 1992 are entitled to the maximum $250,000 in compensation allowed by law for the years they spent in prison, a state judge ruled Thursday. Glenn Davis of Marrero, Larry Delmore Jr. of New Orleans and Terrence Meyers of Avondale, all about 40 years old, spent up to almost 16 years in prison for their second-degree murder convictions in the Aug. 3, 1992, death of Samuel George, 34, who was gunned down while standing at Cabildo Lane and East Claiborne Parkway.

Davis would be entitled to $344,792 for the 13 years and 9 1/2 months he spent in prison, Murphy found. Delmore and Meyers were imprisoned 15 years and two months, for a total of $379,167, Murphy ruled.

I ask you: does 250’00 dollars can they make up 13 years of life lost? I do not think money can give 13 years of a life, you can not buy a ”miscarriage of justice”. They can not redeem the pain of being an innocent man in prison, and scars inside that person will keep forever

Ray Krone – off death row, man shares experiences

A York County, Pa., man who was wrongly convicted of murder is now off death row and Monday night he talked about his experience with the students of Albright College.

Ray Krone spent a decade in prison and when he was released he said maybe it’s not about the 10 years he lost but what he does with the next 10 years.

“I’m just thankful they didn’t execute me before I had a chance and my family had a chance to bring me home again,” said Krone.

Ray Krone said prior to being convicted in 1992 for murdering a bar manager in Phoenix, Ariz., he didn’t have a criminal record and never questioned the criminal justice system.

Read more : wfmz.com 

Related articles

The Wrongful Conviction of David Thorne

David Thorne is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for allegedly hiring an acquaintance to kill the mother of his son, however, he never hired anyone nor did the acquaintance do the crime.
Sometime between the evening hours on March 31, 1999 and 12:00 p.m. on April 1, 1999, Yvonne Layne, a mother of 5, was murdered in her home with one solid and steady slit to her throat. 
David Thorne was convicted of complicity to aggravated murder/murder for hire on January 25, 2000 by a 12 person jury.
The police investigating the crime had tunnel vision throughout their investigation, narrowing in on David from the beginning. The investigators were unable to get David to confess, so instead they went after his acquaintance, Joseph Wilkes, who was barely 18 years of age and a high school dropout.  After a lengthy interrogation, during which they told Joseph that David was “next door ratting him out”, he confessed, utilizing the story that the police had fed to him to what the police were telling him happened. Joe took a plea deal and David went to trial.  Despite the lack of physical evidence of either Joe or David being at the scene and a poor police investigation, with very weak circumstantial evidence, an innocent man was convicted. (Read on – click to jump to Case Summary)

Antony Graves – wrongfully convicted

Anthony Graves, who was sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit, and after over 18 years in prison was finally released and totally exonerated in October 2010.

Hey fb go to my website: AnthonyBelieves.com and sign up to keep up with my travels as I speak around the world about the barbaric practice known as the death penalty. I will be speaking in Dallas Monday-stay tune.