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Posts Tagged ‘Innocence’

Legal question RE: Texas V. Henry "Hank" Skinner?

November 16th, 2011 2 comments

Ok, I have been following this case lately and basically this man was arrested in 1993 and brought up on three homicide charges in the deaths of his then-live-in girlfriend and her two adult-age sons. From day one, Skinner has shouted from the roof-tops that he is innocent, but he was convicted and received The Death Penalty. Originally, his death sentence was scheduled to be carried out on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 (so in just a couple of days from this posting.) However, there was a petition circulated on Change.org, and some former attorneys, judges, and politicians from Texas wrote letters to the present-day Governor of Texas asking they (at least temporarily) forego this execution while the fight to save this potentially innocent man’s life continues. Apparently, the prosecutor from the DA’s Office assigned to this case did NOT request DNA testing on every piece of evidence (s)he could have, which included a victim’s RAPE KIT for God’s Sake! Now, I won’t pretend to be a legal expert, or a cop or anything, but I’ve seen far too many episodes of Law & Order: SVU to know that’s one of the FIRST THINGS you take to the crime lab for DNA testing so you make sure you’re busting the right "perp." Now, for the last TEN YEARS OR MORE, Skinner and his attorney have been submitting official requests to the DA’s Office asking that they go through the evidence and whatever wasn’t DNA tested before or during the trial, be DNA tested now because it very well could prove Skinner’s oft-repeated claim of innocence is true. The DA’s Office keeps denying the requests, saying something to the effect that if they wanted EVERYTHING that could have been DNA tested to be DNA tested, they should have asked that it all be DNA tested either before the case went to trial, or at the latest during the trial, but after the trial is over and the defendant is sentenced is too late. Now, again, I’m no lawyer or judge, or legal expert – far from it, actually, but this SCREAMS of Prosecutorial Misconduct to me. To me, this is the equivalent of denial of a fair trial AND denial of Due Process of Law. IMO, they need to hold off on the execution until EVERYTHING is DNA tested, and while waiting, Skinner should be in Gen Pop, or even P.C. not Death Row. If he’s wrong about the DNA vindicating him, or knowingly, flat-out lied about it and he really was the murderer of these three, then don’t delay the execution any further – proceed IMMEDIATELY as soon as the DNA results are in, IMO. However, if he’s right and the DNA shows it wasn’t him, he’s been in prison far too long for an innocent man, so he would deserve to be released right then and there as soon as the DNA cleared him. So, am I right though? Does this sound like a case of Prosecutorial Misconduct? Does a DA/Prosecutor have the right to decide which evidence does or does NOT get DNA tested or which evidence they have that will/won’t be presented during a trial? Does a DA/Prosecutor have the right to tell a potentially innocent Prison Inmate asking for evidence DNA tests, "Sorry man you should have asked for these DNA tests before the trial."? I just want to smack the crap out of this Prosecuting Attorney – it sounds a lot like he cares more about his win/loss record than whether or not he’s got the correct "bad guy" in prison.
Susan S: Thanks. I agree. Someone needs to step in and b**ch smack the Prosecuting Attorney and Judge for letting this farce go on. There is NO harm in running the DNA tests even after the trial. If it proves him innocent, he goes home, if it proves him guilty, he’s dead in 3 days as planned. Just test the damn DNA! I would think it would be worth it to make sure they don’t bump off an innocent man. These people standing in the way of justice need to be dis-barred and jailed for being so stubborn and refusing to process all of the evidence!
@dudleysharp: you raise a few valid points and a compelling argument. I wonder though, if you’re right, why they wait now until about a week before his scheduled execution to go public on Change.org (supposedly falsely) claiming all of this and saying they’ve been practically BEGGING for this other evidence to be tested when apparently they asked for it NOT to be tested before the trial started? And why is it that the information I’m reading on this is saying that when the family asked for the rest of it to be tested after the trial the prosecution said no, making the prosecutor look bad, rather than saying the defendant asked for it not to be tested, making the defendant look more and more suspicious and more and more guilty? Something’s not adding up here. I wish I knew the truth – a potentially innocent man’s life is at stake.

Apparently the same local court where he was originally tried has turned down the latest request to test DNA. If he is executed this week (as scheduled) we will never know if Texas got the right person. I believe this is indefensible- and that even death penalty supporters would want to know for sure.

While I’m Waiting – America, the land of the free?

July 27th, 2011 No comments

Wrongful conviction isn’t an epidemic that is new to our country. But through DNA evidence we’re learning how prevalent it is. From the University of Miami Innocent Project: Florida has one of the highest rates for wrongful convictions in the nation. Since 1973, over 24 Florida death row prisoners have been exonerated through the use of DNA and other scientific practices not available at the time they were convicted. But lack of DNA is not the only reason for wrongful convictions, false confidence in eye witness identification, improper police procedures and ineffective counsel can all add to a wrongful conviction.

Please visit www.freekelseysmom.com and http://raye-of-hope.org to find out more about wrongful convictions
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Should I have a problem with being counted as a member of an organization based on the teachings of a lier?

December 21st, 2009 4 comments

The reason I asked this question in the first place was because I watched the movie Emma Smith last week with Shay. The movie only lightly touched on the subject of polygamy which I thought was vary odd because it was the reason she left the church(1). So I did some research on wikipedia and read that she(2) and Joseph(3) never admitted publicly of being polygamists. Also that the RLDS witch was started by Emma and her son Joseph Smith III was based on the book of Mormon minus plural marriage. I’m not going to start copy and pasting a bunch of anti-Mormon junk that will only fall on deaf ears, but I am very troubled by how this commandment by god in the D&C specifically refers to Emma, and that she will be destroyed if she doesn’t comply(4). So how did it go down? Emma catches Joseph cheating(5) so he tells her that if she has a problem with it that god will kill her? The modern day Mormon church has a lot of good things going for it. I don’t think that being baptized or being on the records of any church has any power physically or spiritually over me. Should I have a problem with being counted as a member of an organization based on the teachings of someone who i believe to be a LIAR?

(1) Emma Smith was a tireless public campaigner against polygamy and stated: "We raise our voices and hands against John C. Bennett’s (acted as second in command to Joseph Smith, Jr. for a brief period in the early 1840s) ‘spiritual wife system’, as a scheme of profligates to seduce women; and they that harp upon it, wish to make it popular for the convenience of their own cupidity; wherefore, while the marriage bed, undefiled is honorable, let polygamy, bigamy, fornication, adultery, and prostitution, be frowned out of the hearts of honest men to drop in the gulf of fallen nature". The document The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo, signed by Emma Smith as President of the Ladies’ Relief Society, was published within the article Virtue Will Triumph, Nauvoo Neighbor, March 20, 1844. The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo is also referred to in LDS History of the Church 6:236, 241

(2) Throughout her lifetime Emma publicly denied knowledge of her husband’s involvement in the practice of polygamy and denied on her deathbed that the practice had ever occurred. Emma stated, "No such thing as polygamy, or spiritual wifery, was taught, publicly or privately, before my husband’s death, that I have now, or ever had any knowledge of…He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have.Church History, Volume 3, pp. 355-356

(3) On May 26, just a few weeks before his death, Smith spoke before a large crowd of the Saints in front of the uncompleted temple and once again denied having any more than one wife. Smith stated "I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the Gospel, before it was reported that I had seven wives….I have rattled chains before in a dungeon for truth’s sake. I am innocent of all these charges, and you can bear witness of my innocence, for you know me yourselves….What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers."Address of the Prophet—His Testimony Against the Dissenters at Nauvoo, History of the Church, Period I, 6:408–412.

(4) The Doctrine and Covenants/Section 132 Revelation through Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded on July 12, 1843.
47 And again, verily I say, whomsoever you bless I will bless, and whomsoever you curse I will curse, saith the Lord; for I, the Lord, am thy God.
48 And again, verily I say unto you, my servant Joseph, that whatsoever you give on earth, and to whomsoever you give any one on earth, by my word and according to my law, it shall be visited with blessings and not cursings, and with my power, saith the Lord, and shall be without condemnation on earth and in heaven.
49 For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father.
50 Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.
51 Verily, I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice.
52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and ha
have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God.
53 For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he hath been faithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him.
54 And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.
(5) Alger’s parents were neighbors of the Smiths, and Alger lived with Smith and his wife, Emma. Chauncey and Ann Eliza Webb, ex-Mormons, later recalled that rumors had been whispered while Alger lived with the Smiths about Smith and Alger. Alger stopped living with the Smiths as a result of a fallout with Emma and was dismissed as their housekeeper. The first contemporary reference to the alleged relationship was in a letter dated January 21, 1838. Oliver Cowdery wrote to his brother Warren stating that Smith had inappropriately spent time alone with Alger, referring to it as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair." During this time Cowdery was estranged from Smith and they were disagreeing over leadership issues in the new movement. Fawn Brodie, in her famous work No Man Knows My History, also made the claim that Alger had been an affair of Smith’s.
Layla – As a member of the LDS faith i think i have a right to ask this question.
Rander1049 – You are probably right about that. haha
flora*and*fauna – Actually this is a real question that i think about and I’m really interested in others opinions.
Me – where in the bible is polygamy condoned by god?

I don’t know. But I bet members of the organization know how to spell "liar".