Comments on: DNA Helps Free Inmate After 27 Years
60 Minutes: James Woodard Owes His Freedom To Project Started By Dallas County D.A.
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- This was the sadest story I''ve heard in a long time. I want to believe this can not happen, there are safeguards against it. Life is short, losing one day is a disaster, I cried for these men.
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- The next place to investigate is Tampa, Florida. My husband is in prison for 11 years, 4 months for something he didn''t do just because he would not plea. The prosecutor told him he would be sorry if he didn''t plea and they would destroy our lives. My husband told them he couldn''t stand up in front of a judge and admit to something he didn''t do. The prosecutor lied and cheated but it was only for a conviction to get a feather in the cap to climb up the civil service ladder. When they have to face God in the end, he will know the truth. The judge told my husband at sentencing that he made it through 13 months in Vietnam that he would get through this AND he is a smart business man so he can educate himself in prison. Well, he got a certificate in "Fundamentals of Basketball" and "Diabetic knowledge" Good grief. Well, maybe my 5'' 9" husband can get a job in the NBA when he gets out. Yeah, right.
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- This is despicable. Any prosecutor that with holds evidence should go to prison for the sentence he is dishing out. We each get only one short life to live. If one man thinks he can deal with another persons life so frivolously it should come back on him.
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- When the prosecuting (persecuting) attorneys office is proven to have withheld vital information, the offending slimebucket attorney should have to serve out the remaining sentence...
It''s pathetic that innocent people are imprisoned everyday just so a maggot persecuting attorney can stick another feather on his cap... - Reply to this comment
- I missed it; was Geo Bush the Governor at that time, and didn''t he reject the initial investigation into
the DNA quality control into the Justice System of
Texas...?
A Loyal Viewer of 60 - Reply to this comment
- Welcome to Texas justice. It runs rampart over the entire state with ''elected'' DAs and judges. They run on conviction rates and sentences rather than compassion and justice.
Dallas county may have been tough back when, but drive carefully through Williamson county, just north of Austin. They will put you in jail if your fishing license is in the truck rather than in your pocket.
One more in jail, more votes. - Reply to this comment
- The most disturbing aspect of these cases is the inability to send the district attorneys to prison for their crimes.
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- Now what''s he supposed to do to take care of himself? The state of Texas owes this man, BIG!
Texas Society owes a debt to him.
At the very least, he should be immediately provided for: a nice new house and nice new car (median or better for his area) and a check every month for the next 30 years and counselling so he has someone to talke to as he adapts and comes to terms with all the loss he''s experienced (not to mention the hardship he surely endured and suffered at the hands of inmates while in wrongfully prisoned).
What''s done can''t be undone, but it can be cushioned somewhat by helping him now. It''s the least that''s owed to him. God Bless him. - Reply to this comment
- Shameless!!! Just shameless. Makes you wonder how many other DAs there are out there just like Wade. How many other innocent men are in jail for crimes they didn''t commit.
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- the case ot the two lawyers holding evidence ..b easy..had nothing to do with this type of case, what that had to do with is the attorney/client privilege and they could not bring forth that evidence. anyone who thinks this is a waste of time needs to check themselves as many a man who should be free to be with his family was not and the real criminal was out raping, robbing and more.
Posted by JackKnows at 09:32 AM : May 05, 2008
It doesn''t matter what the case had to do with. The POINT is that the system is NOT set up for justice or to convict the right person--it is set up for the two sides to play a game with the lives of the people in the case and to WIN. To that end, DA will/may lie, cheat, with hold evidence, frame, pin cases on, people just to win or close a case and Lawyers may bribe judges, call in favors, sell out their clients or let other clients go to jail for what they KNOW their clients have done.
Decency, Truth and right have very little to do with our justice system and many lawyers are morally bankrupt. Then we wonder how they can lie and be so corrupt right in our faces. What exactly do we think their careers as lawyers and judges actually train them to be? - Reply to this comment
- We Natives wish we never were forced to signed over any treaties and remain in the White way. We were one with the land, and there is no higher power than that. There is an awakening coming...and as I understand it, your people are already seeing it. Welcome to the Native land...where we all helped each other with our weaknesses and strengths...and in that, we honor each other.
Posted by pocahontis at 08:44 PM : May 04, 2008
Never forget that the sell out of any people often takes the complicity of those from your own groups.
Nigerians (also known as Yorubans) sold many Africans into slavery, and many Native Americans aided an abetted whites in stealing land and convincing other Native Americans to give up land or sign treaties.
It is the nature of the Western European to defeat an enemy or victim by making them undermine and defeat themselves from within. Many people will betray their own for wealth, power and money. The sell out flaw is in all cultures. Iraq has its Al Maliki, Africa had its Nigeria--and when/if you celebrate Thanksgiving--Native Americans have their Squanto and Pocohantas--each aided the whites to destroy themselves. So when you look to blame and lament--don''t forget the part your own people played in bringing about events. There are no halos here. (and I am part Cherokee) - Reply to this comment
- It is the "serf" mentality. We and most of the world is set up to bestow the "god complex" on those who have more money or power. We believe the "the Laird" must be right and just--because he is over us. WEll there are no more Lairds or lords or rulers like that--we now have Presidents and judges and the Church etc--and in each instance, people are trained like Pavlovs dog to respond in a certain way.
We are trained to respect higher authorities--we are trained to believe and trust that they authorities are "better" than us--smarter, richer, more holy. We might commit crimes--they won''t. WE might lie--they won''t. We might kill or frame or spy or ...they won''t.
We make gods of our doctors, government, leaders, judges--and into this--if they say something or someone is guilty--many believe this. This has been bred into the mental complex of most humans--to look up to another and to believe they know best and to humbly wait for them to help or hurt us--while the rest look on--and proclaim the outcome to be just.
And we keep thinking like this--no matter how many videos of cops beating people or how many wrong cases there are. Humans are animals after all--we have been bred to be subservient. Slavery has not only happened to Africans--its happened to every race--and in every race the slave still exists--FREE OUR MINDS--because THAT slavery ensures we will always bow down and cow down to our betters--who we imagine are somehow superior in every way, to ourselves. - Reply to this comment
- JackKnows,
Not true. The other case also had some similarities as it also included a cop who surpressed evidence because it meant extra work for him. He had someone who was about to go to trial and then a gun was found on another person in another case, but it would have required him to actually work for a living to investigate the new evidence. - Reply to this comment
- the case ot the two lawyers holding evidence ..b easy..had nothing to do with this type of case, what that had to do with is the attorney/client privilege and they could not bring forth that evidence. anyone who thinks this is a waste of time needs to check themselves as many a man who should be free to be with his family was not and the real criminal was out raping, robbing and more.
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- b-easy63,
The sad truth is some will give those who have a badge or wear a robe a carte blanche to do whatever they want to do. Whatever they do is somehow justified, including this case that you explained. - Reply to this comment
- While these stories focus on the inocent inmate, there are 2 points that are typically overlooked:
1) Whomever actually committed the crime, that the prosecutors did NOT put in jail - what crimes were they allowed to commit, and who else were they allowed to hurt?, and
Posted by architeclane at 07:28 PM : May 04, 2008
If you really look at our legal system it is NOT set up for justice--it is set up for the person who plays the game the best, who can quote the most precedents and laws to WIN. Since it is about winning, truth, right, fairness and decency is not in the equation.
We have only to remember the recent case where lawyers knew their client killed a man but still let another man go to jail for over 26 years to know the game is set up NOT for justice--but for one side to win and the other side to lose. With this mentality--Prosecutors often don''t care who pays--as long as they win and defendants don''t care if their client is a murderer as long as they go free and they win. Keep in mind that the majority of our Politicians are these same people. Obama is a lawyer. Hillary is a Lawyer, Clinton was a lawyer....many in congress are lawyers--Edwards--a lawyer--and many have done horrible and perhaps dishonest things to WIN and they are who we trust to make more laws and take care of us. Winning has no morality--they get praised even if they cheat--if they don''t get caught or no one can make the crimes stick. See the Clintons for more on that point. - Reply to this comment
- Dallasite1,
You are looking for any reason to forgive the unforgivable. This guy was interested in his "legacy" and keeping his conviction record at 100%. Nothing, not even justice, would get in the way of it.
Veteran72 is exactly right. We don''t give the Nazis credit for keeping such good records and he shouldn''t get any special thanks either.
As someone els - Reply to this comment
- It is never a case of "Oops, the eyewitness made a mistake" alone, it is a series of things--but if you dig deeper--you might find an ambitious DA determined to clean up unsolved cases or a suspect who is the relative of someone important needing to be replaced with someone no one will care about. You''ll find labs who taint evidence and police who pin crimes on people who don''t inform or perform well as narcs for them. The web is always intricate--if people really had a clue of how the "system" works, there would be total chaos and anarchy. Luckily, most remain oblivious until they are caught up in it. Then they are often unlucky indeed. If you want to avoid getting caught up in stuff like this--don''t do anything to catch the attention of the police or the courts or public officials. Because if the wrong one perceives you as a threat, they will nullify you--either by pinning a crime on you, entangling you in legal stuff or... in short don''t do crimes and don''t hang around those who do and don''t be too radical in your blogging. LOL
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- There is a reason for so much skepticism. In most prisons there is a little saying: "all the men in there are innocent and every single one has been framed. Very few men go to prison proclaiming their guilt. The sad truth is most people ARE guilty of something. To even be caught up in being accused of a crime, many suspects have previous run ins with the law or have been in jail. It takes being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being the wrong color, having a corrupt attorney (yes, some sell out or even set up their clients as favors to the system--particularly public defenders). The fact is, when you try to untangle many cases that turn out to be wrong--you will find a web of lies, deceit, corruption and not just mistakes. Information has to have been withheld, witnesses coached or trained, evidence misplaced or lost or tested incorrectly or lost, circumstances skewed. next post
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- It was 30 years in Texas. Enough said.
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