Okay, maybe we can't all agree on the ACLU issue, but here's one organization I hope we can all get behind.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

I was reading this article about a man freed after being convicted and spending 26 years behind barshttp://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/03/rape.exoneration.ap/index.htmland found it incredibly depressing that we aren't testing ALL DNA evidence, especially if the person convicted mantains his innocence.


And here's another article about a man freed just a few days earlier after similar circumstances (19+ years in jail). He was even denied parole numerous times because he wouldn't "admit" to what he had done.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05211/546262.stm

what do you all think?

I have a funny feeling that someone on RM will find a problem with this organization.

That's okay. If we're gonna support the ACLU for protecting the right to free speech, I guess we better try to appreciate differing viewpoints on this board, we wouldn't want anyone to become Estranged from RM, now would we?

If they hadn't been doing shady shit, they wouldn't have been in a position to be arrested in the first place. I say leave them in jail, they deserve what they got.

Beebs?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=7565610

Dallas DA to Review Decades of Convictions

by Wade Goodwyn

Morning Edition, February 23, 2007 · Dallas' new district attorney, Craig Watkins, says he will open his files to the Innocence Project and work with the group to examine hundreds of cases over the past 30 years. The goal is to see whether DNA tests might reveal wrongful convictions.

The move reflects the magnitude of the change that has occurred in the Dallas DA's office over the last six weeks. Watkins was elected the first black district attorney in Texas.

"It's a whole different world in the Dallas criminal justice system," says defense attorney Gary Udashen. "It is a world where if a client of ours is innocent, we feel like there's openness in the District Attorney's office to hear what we have say, to look at what we have to show them, where we don't anticipate resistance every step of the way."

Udashen's firm alone has had seven Dallas clients who were convicted, sent to prison, exhausted their appeals and then ultimately — with the pro bono help of Udashen and his colleagues — were found to be innocent.

Udashen says Dallas used to be like many other cities in Texas when it came to the DA's office. If it got a conviction, it defended that conviction to the bitter end, even if strong scientific evidence was later uncovered that the convicted was wrongly convicted.

This occurs most often in cases that are brought to trial built solely on the testimony of a single eyewitness, often the victim. But Udashen says that Watkins has decided that defending wrongful convictions is not going to be part of the job.

"Well, he has taken a completely different approach to questions of innocence... where he is going to cooperate with these innocence projects reviews of these cases, give them the information they need," he says. "And that active involvement in proving people innocent is something I've never seen a district attorney do before."

Watkins puts it this way: "I am cut from a different cloth."

At 39, he says he's seen both sides of the criminal justice system in Dallas, good and the bad. Dallas has already released 12 men convicted of sexual assault, and that was with the previous DA fighting it every step of the way. That's more than any other county in the nation, and more than all but two states.

"And when you tested 36 people and 12 of them came up to be not guilty as a result of DNA testing, then, yes, a red flag is raised," Watkins says. "So we need to look at what we've been doing in the past and try to right those wrongs."

So Watkins is opening his files to the Texas Innocence Project. North Texas law students supervised by seven veteran former prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers will begin deciding which cases merit further investigation.

"In a state that is a national hotspot, Dallas is the hottest of the hotspots in state right now," says Jeff Blackburn, the Innocence Project's Texas director. "What'd happened in Dallas is that a lot of samples, unlike other any other parts of the state, were preserved, and they're still there."

In a twist of irony, Dallas has long outsourced its lab work. And instead of destroying evidence post-conviction like many law enforcement labs, the private labs preserved all the evidence. Blackburn says as a result, Dallas has a treasure trove of potentially exonerating DNA evidence.

"It would be safe to say that right now Dallas is on the edge of opening up in a very revealing way what the system in Texas is really all about," Blackburn says.

Barry Scheck played a big role in getting OJ acquitted. How's that?

i've followed this outfit for years, always liked their mission and cause. every year there is something called the "national day of reason," this year on may 7, which is a response to the "national day of prayer." on this day, secular organizations try to provide benefit to society in some way. this year, i'm trying to put together a fundraiser for the innocence project hosted by my organization and two other local organizations. just spoke to the people there and they seem really enthused.

for bumping my ex-wife's thread ceebs.

wat?

i also agree with thodoks

sorry for being an asshole to meatwad, but after watching Witch Hunt I figured I'd give this topic a bump. Tragic fucking stuff... I highly recommend viewing it whenever it's on next for anyone who wants to be a little more depressed or whose interested in the topic whenever it comes on (or viewing some of the excerpts on the site).

Anyway, did that fundraiser ever pan out cb?

Well this is just adorable. The points you lost by referring to Paris Hilton as attractive have been won back.

I downloaded and watched that documentary last night. Wow. That DA was some piece of work, I'm not sure how he was reelected so many times or how he's not in jail himself.

I think the saddest part of the whole thing is how many innocent children's lives were destroyed under the guise of being protected by these overzealous idiots in law enforcement.

The event we created for them was great. They provided two speakers: a lawyer at the Project, and Barry Gibbs, a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years. He was framed by a mod-tied cop who authorities later found out killed the person Gibbs was alleged to murder. That officer, with other charges of guilt, is serving consecutive life sentences now or something like that. The story of 19 years lost like that are heartbreaking.

The weather wasn't good and we're in an economic downswing, but I recall raising nearly $1,000.

I'm glad to hear Mr. Gibbs is out of prison, you could say his career is really staying alive.

Come on guys, this was worth quoting at least once.

This project looks fascinating and I'm hoping to take part in my second year of university. It highlights the shortcomings of many of the justice systems worldwide which need to be looked at and adapted to try and prevent such a huge number of false imprisonments and miscarriages of justice.