Comments on: DNA Exonerates Man In Prison For 26 Years

Convicted Of Rape In 1981, Texas Inmate Freed After DNA Test Proves His Innocence

[scottyusa]

What is 27 years of someone''s life worth? The attitude that Chatman has about all this amazes me and I salute him. Hopefully, Texas will give him some real compensation for what he has lost.

[knyghtwolf]

Dowjones20k, yes, PLEASE blame ONE FRIGGIN'' state, texass is the home of genetic ignorance, in texass, STUPIDITY is the real religion & IGNORANCE the way of life!!! I lived there while my son was in prison for a crime he did not commit, and this goes on ALL THE TIME there. Even when they KNEW he was not guilty, the real perp was hauled in, his family was in the oil business, they posted his bond, and he fled, AFTER the judge was warned he was a flight risk!!! The judge was friends with the family and he stated that "no one was gonna tell him how to run his show" and allowed bail. My son sat at home with me for two years waiting for this punk piece of shiit to be caught AGAIN, and the judge was going to allow bail to be posted AGAIN!!!! If the state court had not stepped in on an emergencey injunction, the punk would have gotten bail again. It took us three years to do what should have been done in less than six months and about $10,000 later. Most texans I ever met were about the same level as talking monkeys. The lawyer for the defendent said that "god must have wanted my son punished for sumtin, ta let him be in jail for at least six months" I really wanted to see if his god would protect him from a good old fashioned YANKEE AZZ WHIPPING but he got into an accident shortly after the trial and got busted for DUI & involuntary vehicular homicide, karma does work.

[usakousagi]

So... this is comforting the state that put an "express lane" on their death row has the most innocent people convicted for over 20 years. That makes me sleep better.

[zappom]

They say that ""everyone"" says they are innocent. Thats not true. Most convicts accept their guilt, even if they sometimes ""qualify"" it. But what if 25-30% of all convicts are actually not guilty? Thats not an unreasonable number given how many have in fact been proven innocent over the years.

The real trouble here lies with an over-zealous system bent on extracting revenge from offenders, revenge in the form of decades long sentences of enduring misery. While inside very little of value and quite a lot of negative energy (hatred, anger, pain, etc)is produced. If instead we placed a higher emphasis on restorative justice and on making our communities whole, and actually valuing the offender as a human being, treating them with dignity and, yes, respect we might find that we could tear down 9 out of 10 prisons built in the last 30 years and America could quit being the nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world.

A great many of the guilty are people just like you and me. Simply locking people up doesn''t solve the problem of crime. What most need is some serious treatment and not the lip service sessions that pass for it today in our penal institutions. For as long as we fail to adopt a proactive treatment-based stance to corrections and justice thats how long we will all suffer the consequences.

[zappom]

Imagine too what the real perpetrator in Chapman''''s case has been doing for the past 26 years.

[zappom]

It happens ALL THE TIME! Only now do we live at a time where some lucky few can find relief via DNA technology. Imagine how many have perished inside the walls and how many innocent people are still there today for whom DNA is not relevant or available.

[denn034]

It''s unfortunate that this woman wasn''t more careful. She hurt all rape victims by that false identification.

[Krazcarl]

I know Bush is from Texas and that explains a little but this is just plain stupid were in a rigged police state theres is no other explanation!!!

[displeased]

America is not perfect and to blame one state is preposterous ...
Posted by Dowjones20k

I don''t think people are blaming one state. It just comes easy to criticize Texas because of their reputation of stern convictions.

[chevygrl1]

sjw1253, you need to work on your reading skills. The defendant mentioned at the end of the article in the murder case is NOT the same man as the one who was just exonerated in the rape case.

It''s wonderful to see an innocent man freed, although it''s horrible that he had to wait so long for it to happen. I wish him all the best in his new life!

[jshmks]

It''s a shame, that''s 26 years you can never get back. And for something you NEVER did.

[dowjones20k]

Some opinions posted are laughable ...

Some folks seem to forget how far this country has come in the past decade with technology and science ... in 1982 there was very litte of either, but at least they had enough fortitude to save DNA samples albeit slim. Let''s not forget that a JURY of peers convicted this man .. so hopefully it was based on the evidence .... or not.

Seems only the young and naive think rape or murder is a simple little crime that warrants a few years in prison, I would say let these simple criminals stay at your house with your daughters or sisters ...

America is not perfect and to blame one state is preposterous ... the system continues to better itself, however the politcians continue to slide into the gutter ....

I am relieved this man was exonerated by DNA and hopefully after he gets his few million dollars he will be able to move on .....

[sjw1253]

From the last sentence in the article "but prosecutors say DNA testing did not exonerate Chabot in the murder."...

I do not understand - not once in the article does it mention he was convicted of a murder or that a murder occurred...

I do not understand that sentence and it should either have been omitted or it should be better explained. The woman clearly survived as she id''ed the guy...

[taddles-2009]

27 people on death row have been exonerated by retesting DNA evidence since Texas started allowing this testing in the last 10 years.

Wonder how many innocent people were killed by the state of Texas before that time.

[bigsk8fan]

it is cases like this that create my greatest misgivings about capital punishment. i am not against capital punishment per se. but so many innocent people are convicted, like this poor guy. if he had been sentenced to death, he may have already been executed within the past 27 years.

[inventagod]

Funny, a Republican was governor in 1981 for the first time since Reconstitution. Bill Clements was an oilman, and his last job was working for Donald Rumsfeld.
While Clements was governor, Charlie Brooks, Jr., was the first inmate ever to be executed by lethal injection (December 1982).
Ahhh, Texass...

[lochlan-2009]

How can there be no crime commited against this man who lost his entire adult life because of the opinion of the prosecutor and witness? It''s illegal to walk across the street in the wrong place in this country, but to point a finger, without proof, and destroy an innocent citizens life, that''s perfectly fine.

[displeased]

It''s a shame that before DNA, our justice system would convict some people based on the victim choosing from a lineup. I''ve experimented with psychology tests that prove people''s memory of details become quickly distorted, especially with stressful situations. I can''t help but wonder how many other innocents are locked up based on subjective testimonies.

[fornicario]

Has anything good come out of Texas in the past twenty years? So far Texas has given us the Enron scandal, which spread into the energy market at large, more and more horror stories about how Texans execute and jail the innocent, and let us not forget the perennial immigration problem. Maybe it is time to start reexamining what exactly Texas legislatures have done for itself, plus what troubles it has caused this country to bail the state out of.

[jstarrj]

What is wrong with our system? 99 years for rape? If he had murdered someone he would have gotten 25 years with time off for good behavior. Someone needs to look into this problem and clean up these stupid sentences.