China: Mother's Fight to Exonerate Executed Son Highlights Gaping Holes in Justice System

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLUWJ0LaUXyNfudRN0WUsZs2KhVuafr-fTEuSwiX4wl1cvrYswlyYsLuCi9n9S7gkmOQT2BXV-cBxa3SKHz_AIAfYpN0BHWMmK4P83JzsryTr27ikqkXvA7xKhytfrUP3jXsWqnrRtM/s1600/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxLUWJ0LaUXyNfudRN0WUsZs2KhVuafr-fTEuSwiX4wl1cvrYswlyYsLuCi9n9S7gkmOQT2BXV-cBxa3SKHz_AIAfYpN0BHWMmK4P83JzsryTr27ikqkXvA7xKhytfrUP3jXsWqnrRtM/s400/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" title="Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20" width="372" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Invisible forces" in police have delayed a retrial for Nie Shubin after fresh evidence, suggesting his innocence, emerged, says former journalist</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 2 decades after a young man in the northern province of Hebei was executed for the alleged rape and murder of a woman, his mother is anxiously awaiting a retrial to clear his name.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang Huanzhi's only son, <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">Nie Shubin</a>, was executed in 1995 - when he was 20 - for raping and killing a woman in a cornfield near Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital. A decade later, another man arrested for a separate crime, confessed to the murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang had fought for years after this fresh evidence emerged to exonerate her son, but she kept on hitting a wall. The case is back in the public spotlight after the country's highest court, the Supreme People's Court, on June 6 ordered a court in the eastern province of Shandong to review the 1995 ruling, saying evidence that lead to his death sentence were "unreliable and incomplete."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zhang's dogged pursuit, lodging repeated appeals at courts in her home province Hebei and in Beijing, has helped turn Nie's case into an example of the flaws in the Chinese criminal justice system, including the use of torture, lack of due process and lax review of death sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Nie's is not the only incident of a possible miscarriage of justice reported in recent years. In February, a man from the eastern province of Zhejiang, Chen Man, convicted of arson and murder, was allowed to walk free after languishing in prison for 23 years when his sentence was overturned due to lack of evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In late 2014, a court in Inner Mongolia said an 18-year-old killed by firing squad in 1996 for alleged rape and murder, was innocent. The Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court said the defendant, Huugjilt, was wrongfully convicted after being tortured into making a confession.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie's case had also galvanized the legal community, media and the public to scrutinize the gaping holes in the country's justice system. "There is no doubt Nie will be exonerated soon," said Ma Yulong, a former reporter at Dahe Daily, a newspaper in the central province of Henan, who has followed Nie's case starting in 2005.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie's retrial can help in some measure to restore public faith in China's legal system, said Li Shuting, the lawyer representing his family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Quest for Justice</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Shandong High Court in-charge of reviewing the case said the evidence on which the original verdict was based was incomplete because many questions have gone unanswered, such as the exact time the crime was committed and the weapon used for the murder. However, the court has not announced a date for a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was sentenced for premeditated rape and murder on March 15, 1995 by the intermediate court in Shijiazhuang, after a closed-door trial, state media reports show. He was executed a month later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2005, another suspect named Wang Shujin, arrested for a similar crime, confessed to raping and killing several women, one of whom turned out to be the victim in Nie's case. Ma was the 1st to break the news, which attracted wide public attention to the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After this fresh evidence emerged, Liu Jinguo, the head of the party's provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee at the time, who oversaw the security and legal systems in Hebei, set up a special team to reopen Nie's case and ordered the results to be published within one month, Ma told Caixin on June 14.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHdORZ6-js4-Iinb2s_c374KhN5jWym715boa1OqIFwQdClNE00Uc1zUq1F3ZegEZEGTffjz5vJkaQ28VSkWPPDGCmRUpr_Q6b3Z_3s0Jy5ZtWRYItjWwI3YzP99MnRCI0aeD7bdohsVS/s1600/execution+china.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last cigarette minutes before his execution." border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHdORZ6-js4-Iinb2s_c374KhN5jWym715boa1OqIFwQdClNE00Uc1zUq1F3ZegEZEGTffjz5vJkaQ28VSkWPPDGCmRUpr_Q6b3Z_3s0Jy5ZtWRYItjWwI3YzP99MnRCI0aeD7bdohsVS/s400/execution+china.jpg" title="A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last cigarette minutes before his execution." width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Chinese police officer lights an inmate's last<br />cigarette minutes before his execution.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Liu's order gave Nie's family a glimmer of hope, but it vanished quickly. The investigation stalled when Liu was promoted shortly afterwards to vice minister of public security in Beijing, said Ma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From then on, Zhang Huanzhi has made countless trips to courts in Hebei and Beijing, to appeal her son's case, but she was turned down by officials who said her documents were incomplete.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It wasn't until July 2007, when the Supreme Court in Beijing accepted Zhang's appeal and ordered the Hebei High Court to review the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But this court never carried out the review. "We tried every means possible to get a retrial, but they were all in vain," said Li.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In March 2007, the other suspect, Wang, received the death penalty for 4 counts of murder and rape. But this did not include the victim in Nie's case, although Wang admitted to the crime. In a twist of fate, Wang even appealed his verdict and insisted that he had killed the woman Nie was charged with murdering. But his appeal was turned down by the Hebei court in 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wang is now on death row, waiting for the Supreme Court to review his sentence, but the process has been delayed due to his connection to Nie's case, Li said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ma said he had learned from sources in the Hebei public security system that officials had tortured Wang, forcing him to recant his confession connected to the 1994 murder in Shijiazhuang before the 2nd trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are "invisible" forces in Hebei's police and legal system that have resisted the reopening of Nie's case, said Ma.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fresh Hope</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In December 2014, the Supreme Court ordered a high court in another province Shandong to re-examine the files of Nie's case. The Supreme Court's June decision for a retrial, which comes after four delays, had rekindled the family's hopes to have Nie exonerated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Li told Caixin that there were many holes in the evidence presented including Nie's testimony, the murder weapon used and even the exact date of his execution. He has been collecting evidence that show Nie was tortured while in custody and highlight deficiencies in due process when handling the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The case "is obviously a wrongful conviction with little complexity, but it has taken more than ten years to get a retrial due to delays by officials in Hebei," said Li.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police offices' over reliance on harsh interrogation techniques to elicit confessions from suspects in criminal investigation cases have led to many wrongful convictions, said Li. Some investigators and officials rush to close a case to secure bonuses and promotion, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fundamentally, "the lack of independence of the judicial system had led to the miscarriage of justice," said the former journalist Ma. "Without further legal reform, there will be other cases like this in future."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: caixin.com, June 18, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

China Exoneration False confessions Innocence Nie Shubin Police Posthumous Torture China: Mother's Fight to Exonerate Executed Son Highlights Gaping Holes in Justice System

Nie Shubin, wrongfully executed at age 20 "Invisible forces" in police have delayed a retrial for Nie Shubin after fresh evidence,...

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Texas judge voices doubts on death penalty

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1TJmDWuHkKnKJYtXRoll3FcRQnCDsvHqIBU0edq0p-VH-vL12SY-Kqa6muJpnYMH6tHUt84eV5sRkiqSNloE61Mmi-ewdeGaO8IHEY9Ppohxhk2diDIFL6DBV78tBAizoJxm-hVwaMw/s1600/Judge+Elsa+Alcala+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Judge Elsa Alcala " border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1TJmDWuHkKnKJYtXRoll3FcRQnCDsvHqIBU0edq0p-VH-vL12SY-Kqa6muJpnYMH6tHUt84eV5sRkiqSNloE61Mmi-ewdeGaO8IHEY9Ppohxhk2diDIFL6DBV78tBAizoJxm-hVwaMw/s320/Judge+Elsa+Alcala+TX.jpg" title="Judge Elsa Alcala " width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judge Elsa Alcala</td></tr></tbody></table>A judge on the state’s highest criminal court, which has the last word on Texas death penalty cases, believes it’s time to reassess whether capital punishment should be allowed to continue in the nation’s most prolific state for executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judge Elsa Alcala, a five-year member of the Court of Criminal Appeals, this week <a href="http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=28e86897-160b-4910-b60c-6d9a750a07e3&coa=coscca&DT=OTHER&MediaID=e489a338-086f-4d7d-8159-18fe43ef10b9">filed an opinion saying</a> she has “great concern” over the way Texas implements the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death row inmates, the Republican judge wrote, have raised compelling arguments about falling support for the death penalty, noting that a majority of states now decline to execute inmates either by law or by practice — a change from 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions after a four-year hiatus based in part on support for executing convicted murderers shown by 36 states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, Alcala wrote, Texas courts should study whether the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is arbitrarily imposed by race, disproportionately affecting minorities, and whether excessive delays in imposing the ultimate sentence results in cruel and unusual punishment because inmates are held in solitary confinement for years, if not decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I think there are, as I said in that opinion, significant problems with the death penalty,” Alcala told the American-Statesman. “There are lots of problems, and I think the public is not aware of the problems.”<br /><br />“If you ask me how good is Texas at carrying out the death penalty, I am unconvinced,” Alcala said in an interview. “We see cases over and over again where 10, 20 years later you find problems,” including mistaken witness testimony, exonerations based on previously unavailable DNA tests and scientific advancements that call earlier expert testimony into question.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-judge-voices-doubts-on-death-penalty/nrh4r/"><b>Click here to read the full article</b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: My Statesman, Chuck Lindell, June 17, 2016</div><br /><div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div>

Abolition DNA Ethnic minorities Exoneration Innocence Inordinate delay Race Texas USA Texas judge voices doubts on death penalty

Judge Elsa Alcala A judge on the state’s highest criminal court, which has the last word on Texas death penalty cases, believes it’s time to...

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Former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fires lawyers, threatens to undo exoneration deal

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7-LRf_9ehrCnJcNs96Ovuqta-wWTtMWEajD1pxh5UnWkQpgRvXkjsRU_kWtOnH_D7Vion796Axn74X_5tw94Sg07Q1LHLUNw78xED6Ka8k8qYoSivwhBOtgXaYLSp1ygKDiNthd6NfeU/s1600/Kerry+Cook+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kerry Max Cook (center) and his team of lawyers" border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7-LRf_9ehrCnJcNs96Ovuqta-wWTtMWEajD1pxh5UnWkQpgRvXkjsRU_kWtOnH_D7Vion796Axn74X_5tw94Sg07Q1LHLUNw78xED6Ka8k8qYoSivwhBOtgXaYLSp1ygKDiNthd6NfeU/s400/Kerry+Cook+TX.jpg" title="Kerry Max Cook (center) and his team of lawyers" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kerry Max Cook (center) and his team of lawyers</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Two days after his legal team secured <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/06/texan-spent-20-years-on-death-row-and.html" target="_blank">an agreement that could lead to his exoneration in a high-profile 40-year-old murder case</a>, former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fired the very lawyers who set him on a path that could finally clear his name.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a series of Facebook missives and incensed email screeds, Cook accused lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Texas of betraying him by accepting a deal with Smith County prosecutors that he never agreed to. Cook maintains that the deal lets prosecutors escape accountability for years of repeated misconduct that kept him behind bars and nearly resulted in his death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, the 60-year-old former inmate says he plans to represent himself in court and prove to both the judge and Smith County prosecutors that he didn't brutally kill Linda Jo Edwards in 1977.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am completely devastated by what has been done wirh [sic] my 40 year struggle for truth & justice," Cook wrote in an email to his former lawyers. "This corporate take-over of the truth of my story has left me still publicly convicted and the district attorneys office exonerated."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's the latest strange twist in a case that has been marked by continued oddities over 4 decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Edwards, a 22-year-old who was found beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her Tyler apartment bedroom. Through 3 trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since his release in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence. DNA tests also have revealed the DNA of another man - Edwards' married lover - on the panties she wore the night of her death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Smith County prosecutors, however, remain resolute that Cook is guilty. Last week, they agreed to drop the murder charges only after a key witness admitted he lied during Cook's trials. Cook's lawyers struck a deal with Matt Bingham, the Smith County district attorney, in which they agreed to drop claims of misconduct by previous prosecutors in exchange for the state dismissing the long-standing murder charges. Bingham, however, said he would continue to oppose Cook's claims of actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the 2 decades he spent on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A hearing on the actual innocence claim is scheduled for June 29.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In court last week, Cook told the judge that he had agreed to the deal, which would require final approval from the state's highest criminal court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in dramatic emails and Facebook posts in the days after the hearing, Cook said that agreement "exonerated" the prosecutors who helped secure his wrongful conviction. He accused his lawyers of bullying him into taking the deal and said he would rather die than accept it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cook ordered Innocence Project lawyers who have helped exonerate hundreds of inmates in Texas and across the country to withdraw from the case. He wants the agreement he signed with Smith County prosecutors nullified. And he has vowed to represent himself going forward, a move many equate with legal suicide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This stress may kill me," Cook wrote in an email Saturday to his former lawyers. "But as I have told you repeatedly during the course of your representation if [sic] me, some things are worth dying for and the truth about how I wound up on Texas death row completely innocent in a case that has become known as the worst case in America, is one of them."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if a court were to rule that prosecutors engaged in misconduct in Cook's case - a move that is rare - it's unclear what consequences, if any, the former state lawyers might face.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In unusual, high-profile cases like those of Michael Morton and Anthony Graves, the prosecutors who oversaw their wrongful convictions were punished by the State Bar of Texas. But under state law, complaints like those must be filed within 4 years of an innocent person's release from prison. Cook was released in 1999.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Innocence Project lawyers said they made the agreement with Cook's best interests in mind and an eye toward securing his exoneration. Nonetheless, they agreed to withdraw from the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is our firm belief that Kerry is innocent of this murder and that he has finally received justice and a recognition from Smith County that his prosecution was based on false testimony and he never had a fair trial," Innocence Project lawyers said in an emailed statement. "The attorneys who have worked on Kerry's behalf for many years hope that whatever course of action he ultimately pursues will end in his complete exoneration."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bingham declined to comment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">George Kendall, a defense lawyer who has represented inmates who spent decades behind bars, including former Texas death row inmate Delma Banks, said it's not unusual for those who've spent years in prison to have rocky relationships with their lawyers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Having gone through what he's gone through," Kendall said, "it would surely be understandable for him to have some real problems trusting people connected with the criminal justice system."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But, he said, Cook should reconsider his plan to represent himself in court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our legal system makes resolution of the kind of case Kerry has much more difficult than it needs to be," Kendall said. "The issues involved in his case are complicated and they are tricky."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Dallas Morning News, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

DNA Exoneration Facebook Innocence Prosecution misconduct Texas USA Former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fires lawyers, threatens to undo exoneration deal

Kerry Max Cook (center) and his team of lawyers Two days after his legal team secured an agreement that could lead to his exoneration in a h...

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For 50 Years, You've Had "The Right to Remain Silent"

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVmFCt7PAgeu2hgUBVMfBd0VGk1JlbDYYPDagm2068K11g4skJNevhnx7grENhBCDYWgRaAbVjtTgVZbqRjHe1UAryGv0rfWzxAZBi2Yvef3wZLV1Z588ypKKyg_7r0LJNvTT9uUVBKo/s1600/Police+interrogation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVmFCt7PAgeu2hgUBVMfBd0VGk1JlbDYYPDagm2068K11g4skJNevhnx7grENhBCDYWgRaAbVjtTgVZbqRjHe1UAryGv0rfWzxAZBi2Yvef3wZLV1Z588ypKKyg_7r0LJNvTT9uUVBKo/s400/Police+interrogation.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>So why do so many suspects confess to crimes they didn't commit?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You have the right to remain silent."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you've ever watched any of the tens of thousands of hours of television devoted to crime dramas, you know the 1st warning given to suspects who are arrested and questioned. And the 2nd: "Anything you say can and will be used against you." The Miranda warnings - named for<i> Miranda v. Arizona</i>, the 1966 Supreme Court decision that required them - celebrate their 50th anniversary on June 13. In that period, they have become so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget their origin and purpose.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Miranda </i>was the culmination of 30 years of Supreme Court cases that were designed to protect criminal suspects from abuse in police interrogations. The earliest of these decisions prohibited violence and torture. The 1st concern was to prevent confessions that are "unreliable"- that is, false.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1966, false confessions seemed like a rare problem. 50 years later, we have seen hundreds of exonerations of innocent defendants who confessed to terrible crimes after they received Miranda warnings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a good time to take stock.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do innocent people really confess without torture?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why would an innocent person ever confess to a murder or some other terrible violent crime?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Torture would explain it. That was the issue in <i>Brown v. Mississippi</i> in 1936, the 1st case in which the Supreme Court excluded a confession from a state court prosecution. 3 suspects had been tortured for days. Asked how severely one defendant was whipped, the deputy in charge testified: "Not too much for a Negro; not as much as I would have done if it were left to me."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 1936 and 1966 the use of torture to extract confessions declined greatly, a major accomplishment by American courts and criminal justice reformers. When <i>Miranda </i>was written, a shift was underway to more "modern" methods of interrogation: isolation, deception, manipulation and exhaustion rather than beating. Without torture or threats of death or violence, it seems implausible that an innocent suspect would confess to a serious crime. That is precisely why confessions are such powerful evidence of guilt. But we know it happens, time and again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The National Registry of Exonerations has collected data on 1,810 exonerations in the United States since 1989 (as of June 7, 2016). They include 227 cases of innocent men and women who confessed, 13 % of the total, all after receiving Miranda warnings (at least according to the police). Nearly 3/4 of those false confessions were homicide cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But these exonerations deeply understate the extent of the problem.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, most suspects who falsely confess - probably the great majority - are never convicted at all. In a classic 2004 study, Steven Drizin and Richard Leo identified 125 proven false confessions in the United States from 1971 through 2002. Only about 1/3 were cases of exoneration after conviction. In most, charges were dismissed before trial or never filed at all because of indisputable proof of innocence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2nd, few convictions based on false confessions are cleared by exoneration. That's true for all wrongful convictions, but especially for those based on confessions. It's very hard to convince people that a defendant who confessed is innocent. We see this in the cases: Exonerations of defendants who confessed are more likely to depend on the most unassailable evidence, DNA, to overcome the weight of a confession. 42 % of exonerated defendants who had confessed were cleared by DNA tests, compared to only 21 percent of exonerees who had not confessed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In some cases, even exculpatory DNA evidence doesn't help. In October 1992, after a grueling four-day interrogation, 19-year-old Juan Rivera falsely confessed to the rape-murder of an 11-year-old girl in Lake County, Illinois. In fact, he confessed twice. His 1st confession was so riddled with factual errors that the detectives made him do it again to "clear up" the inconsistencies, even though Rivera was plainly in a state of mental collapse.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rivera was convicted of murder in 1993, and again in 1996 after his 1st conviction was reversed for a host of legal errors. In 2005, DNA tests proved that a different man was the source of semen recovered from the body of the victim. Rivera's conviction was vacated but the prosecution took him to trial again, and in 2009, despite the DNA evidence, Rivera was convicted a 3rd time. Finally, in 2011, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that River's conviction was "unjustified and cannot stand" and dismissed the charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Juan Rivera barely overcame his false confession even with conclusive DNA evidence of innocence. Without it, he'd be in prison today - together with other innocent defendants who confessed but did not have DNA tests to rescue them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>False confessions by co-defendants</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In many cases, innocent suspects who confess implicate others who are also innocent. Some do it because that's the story their interrogators want to hear. John Kogut, for example, not only falsely confessed to his own involvement in murder, he also said he did it with 2 friends Dennis Halsted and John Restivo, both of whom (like Kogut) spent 20 years in prison before they were exonerated in 2005.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And some innocent suspects who confess blame others to deflect responsibility and reduce their punishment. Richard Ochoa, for example, was facing the death penalty for the murder of Nancy DePriest in Austin, Texas in 1988. He confessed, named his roommate Richard Danziger as the actual killer and agreed to plead guilty and testify against Danziger. Both were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Both were exonerated by DNA in 2002.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Registry includes 195 exonerations with confessions by co-defendants who implicated the exonerees, 11 % of all exonerations. The net result is that in 19 % of all exonerations in the United States - and in 34 % of homicide exonerations - the innocent defendant confessed or was implicated by a false confession of a co-defendant, or both.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who falsely confesses?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All sorts of people falsely confess, but two groups are particularly vulnerable: young suspects and those with mental disabilities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1983, for example, Earl Washington, a 22-year-old black man with an IQ of about 69, was arrested in Culpeper, Virginia, for burglary and malicious wounding. Over 2 days of questioning, Washington "confessed" to 5 separate crimes, 4 of which were not pursued because his confessions did not match the actual crimes and the victims could not identify Washington as the criminal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Washington's 5th confession, however, was to a murder, that of Rebecca Lynn Williams. His initial version - before police officers cleaned it up - was riddled with errors. He did not know the race of the victim (white), the address where she was killed, or that she was raped. Nonetheless, Washington was convicted and sentenced to death in January 1984. He was exonerated by DNA 16 years later, in 2000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Overall, of exonerees with reported mental illness or intellectual disability, 72 % had confessed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Young suspects fared almost as badly. 40 % of exonerees who were under 18 at the time of the crime falsely confessed, including 53 % of 14- and 15-year olds, and 86 % of the few who were 13 years old or younger. By comparison, only 7 % of adult exonerees without reported mental disabilities falsely confessed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why do all these innocent defendants confess?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Innocent suspects confess because they are terrified and confused and exhausted; because they are deceived or tricked; because they don't understand what they are doing; because they feel hopeless and helpless and isolated. But what leads to this desperate predicament? <i>Miranda </i>sets the stage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In part, <i>Miranda </i>was a step in the Supreme Court's campaign to eliminate violence in interrogations. But <i>Miranda </i>also ratified the "modern practice of in-custody interrogation [which] is psychologically, rather than physically, oriented." <i>Miranda </i>described how this is done:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The officers who conduct "modern" interrogations may lie about the evidence and tell the suspect that his fingerprints were found at the scene; that a codefendant already confessed and put the blame on him; that he was seen by an eyewitness. They routinely say that they already have him dead to rights and that this is his only chance to tell his side of the story and help his cause; that the victim must have provoked him; that what he did is understandable. They may describe dire consequences if he does not come clean, perhaps the death penalty, and imply leniency if he does. This can go on for days, in isolation, with police officers constantly repeating that they know the suspect is guilty, that the evidence is overwhelming, that this is his only chance to help himself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court recognized that this process "exacts a heavy toll on individual liberty, and trades on the weakness of individuals," but it did not forbid any of these practices. As a result, <i>Miranda </i>is regularly cited as authority for the legality of all of these coercive techniques.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead of regulating the process of non-violent interrogation, the court required police to give warnings before they start, and then only continue if the suspect waives his right to silence. But most do waive their rights at the outset of the ordeal; it's hard to tell an officer who has you under arrest that you won't talk to him. After that, the issue almost never comes up again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the time they confess, <i>Miranda </i>is a distant memory, if not entirely forgotten. The process works. Many suspects confess after <i>Miranda </i>warnings and most are guilty; that's why these techniques are used and trusted. But some are innocent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Can we do better? Here again, <i>Miranda </i>is a good starting point.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court noted that it's difficult to regulate interrogations because we don't know what goes on: "Interrogation still takes place in privacy. Privacy results in secrecy, and this, in turn, results in a gap in our knowledge as to what, in fact, goes on in the interrogation rooms."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's changing. 50 years ago almost no interrogations were electronically recorded. The FBI, for example, prohibited recording. Now the FBI requires it, as do 23 states and many local police forces, at least in homicide cases. It should be universal. Recording greatly helps us evaluate any claim that a confession was false, and it has taught us how to improve the conduct of interrogations. It's a good start.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Marshall Project, Commentary, June 2016. Samuel Gross is the editor and co-founder of the National Registry of Exonerations and a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Maurice Possley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and senior researcher at the registry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

DNA Exoneration False confessions FBI Innocence Mental Illness Mental retardation Miranda Police Torture USA For 50 Years, You've Had "The Right to Remain Silent"

So why do so many suspects confess to crimes they didn't commit? "You have the right to remain silent." If you've ever wat...

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China's SC orders retrial of Nie Shubin, convicted of rape & murder and executed 21 years ago

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv8GbC5OAlUSUiwMu3giO6RmR1pwbZQ-nI7hRf_Hbw79YmHcaw96E8ift4B7UXI3ctEWUaf0H-0xD514blk5_DrNWw14wq7fUpq3FjJowdbMI4hboSr6xVodUXWxOgcgrIGvDrYC7pXk/s1600/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin (file photo)" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv8GbC5OAlUSUiwMu3giO6RmR1pwbZQ-nI7hRf_Hbw79YmHcaw96E8ift4B7UXI3ctEWUaf0H-0xD514blk5_DrNWw14wq7fUpq3FjJowdbMI4hboSr6xVodUXWxOgcgrIGvDrYC7pXk/s320/Nie+Shubin+%2528file+photo%2529.jpg" title="Nie Shubin (file photo)" width="298" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin (file photo)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court has ordered a retrial of a man executed 21 years ago, according to Xinhua News Agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">Nie Shubin</a>, a worker in Shijiazhuang, northern China's Hebei Province, was put to death in April 1995 when he was 20 years old for allegedly raping and killing a woman in a cornfield.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was convicted of intentional rape and murder on March 15, 1995 by the intermediate people’s court in Shijiazhuang. In addition to having all of his political rights taken away for both crimes he was given a death sentence. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In December 2014, the Supreme People’s Court, in accordance with a request from the Higher People's Court of Hebei Province and in the spirit of related laws, appointed the Higher People's Court of Shandong Province to conduct a review of the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Accordingly a panel of five judges conducted in depth document review with other parties along with proper verification of the autopsy of the victim to see whether or not there were bone fractures. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Several trips were made to Hebei etc. to conduct investigations and talk with the appellee and their lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new panel decided that there was not enough evidence to prove Nie Shubin was guilty, with many doubts in the aspects of time and tools used in the crime as well as causes of death. It is not possible to rule out that perhaps another person did the crime. Accordingly, they suggested a re-trial with affiliated parties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court agreed with their opinion and in compliance with article 242 and 243 of the People’s Republic of China criminal procedural law the case is to be brought into reconsideration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme People's Court will organize a collegiate bench and maintain a just attitude and conduct a hearing based on the facts and criterion of law, and a verification letter of the re-hearing was presented to Nie Shubin’s mother. Results will be presented to the public in a timely manner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0608/c98649-9069859.html" target="_blank">People's Daily Online</a>, June 8, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">China orders retrial of murder case of man executed 21 years ago</span></b></div><br />More than 2 decades after a young Chinese man's execution, the country's supreme court on Wednesday informed his mother of a new trial, shining a spotlight on an old murder case viewed by many as a symbol of the fatal flaws in China's criminal justice system.<br /><br />Calling the evidence for the conviction and sentencing in 1995 of 20-year-old Nie Shubin "unreliable and incomplete," the Supreme People's Court ordered the case to be retried "openly and fairly" - but did not give a trial date.<br /><br />The court statement alluded to the biggest twist in the case: Another man later confessed to the crimes -- raping and killing a woman -- that Nie was executed for.<br /><br />"Major questions exist in terms of when and how the defendant allegedly committed the crimes as well as how the victim died," it said. "The possibility that another person may have committed the crimes cannot be ruled out."<br /><br /><b>A mother's fight for her son</b><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvOJILrPpSQ1n_DsjiT5ZtqqHoOo47073SgN8uhwIIcCVavFCRHLPXROGm8PEa6Chiufl3RVVtea_2kLzAuTk9vCvctP8w0X8vTveZzSjtiZyASYogtngizuNxbhIQG5lXmaGll4s7Paw/s1600/Nie+Shubin%25E2%2580%2599s+mother+visits+his+grave+and+makes+offerings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings" border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvOJILrPpSQ1n_DsjiT5ZtqqHoOo47073SgN8uhwIIcCVavFCRHLPXROGm8PEa6Chiufl3RVVtea_2kLzAuTk9vCvctP8w0X8vTveZzSjtiZyASYogtngizuNxbhIQG5lXmaGll4s7Paw/s400/Nie+Shubin%25E2%2580%2599s+mother+visits+his+grave+and+makes+offerings.jpg" title="Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nie Shubin’s mother visits his grave and makes offerings.</td></tr></tbody></table>"I'm very excited about the development," Zhang Huanzhi, Nie's 72-year-old mother, told CNN by phone Thursday. "I'll visit his grave soon to tell him that Mom's efforts all these years weren't in vain -- and justice will prevail in your case."<br /><br />When CNN last met Zhang in her small village in 2011, the farmer from Hebei Province was still fighting in earnest to exonerate her son, making countless journeys to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang -- some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Beijing.<br /><br />"I bike to the closest bus stop and then take a 2-hour ride to the provincial high court," said Zhang back then. "As long as I can still move, I'm not giving up."<br /><br />Zhang goes to court whenever she catches a break between tending the cornfield and feeding her livestock.<br /><br />Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families from the kind of anguish she has suffered.<br /><br />Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 for raping and killing a woman. A decade later, another man confessed to the same crimes.<br /><br />Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families from the kind of anguish she has suffered.<br /><br />Many have viewed Zhang's plight -- and the case involving her only son -- as an egregious example of widespread police torture, deficient due process and lax review of death sentences.<br /><br />For years, Zhang kept hitting a wall and even the People's Daily -- the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party -- ran a scathing commentary in September 2011 that asked: "In a case where someone was clearly wronged, why has it been so difficult to make it right?"<br /><br />"Rehabilitation means little to the dead, but it means a lot to his surviving family and all other citizens," it said. "We can no longer afford to let Nie's case drag on."<br /><br />Zhang was dealt with a blow in 2013 when the Hebei high court ruled that, despite his confession, a man named Wang Shujin was not the perpetrator in the Nie case.<br /><br />Hopes were rekindled when the supreme court the following year ordered the high court in another province to review the case.<br /><br />Zhang's lawyers were allowed to examine the case files last year, and said they discovered multiple forged signatures, and evidence of provincial authorities in Hebei pressuring Wang to recant his confession through mental and physical abuses.<br /><br />China has long insisted it is ruled by law, stressing that its judicial system bans evidence obtained through torture and increasingly limits the death penalty.<br /><br />Still, it executes more people than all other countries of the world combined. Human rights group Amnesty International estimates the figure -- considered a state secret -- to be in the thousands every year.<br /><br />Many experts also argue that, with the ruling Communist leadership more concerned about maintaining social stability, ordinary citizens and lawyers alike face a repressive legal environment in which criminal suspects do not enjoy the right to silence.<br /><br /><b>Persistence pays off</b><br /><br />Zhang's refusal to stay quiet, fortunately, has finally made a difference in Nie's case.<br /><br />She now seals her most treasured possessions in a plastic bag: 2 old photos and several legal documents.<br /><br />"He was about 19 and it was taken right here in our courtyard," she told CNN 5 years ago, pointing to the fading color prints of her shy stuttering son beaming for the camera.<br /><br />Nie was taken into custody not long after the photos were taken and would never see his mother again.<br /><br />Zhang said local police, during their several visits to question the family and search the house, never told her why they had detained her son. Court documents cited "tips from local residents" but did not elaborate.<br /><br />Authorities tried Nie behind closed doors and barred the parents from the courtroom, but Nie told a lawyer hired by his family that he was beaten into a confession on his 6th day in jail.<br /><br /><b>Lone quest for justice</b><br /><br />7 months after he was first detained, the government executed Nie -- without notifying his parents.<br /><br />After the initial shock, Zhang had to endure more agony to locate her son's remains and deal with a failed suicide attempt and subsequent half-paralysis of her husband, who was devastated by Nie's execution.<br /><br />Living off her husband's meager monthly pension, Zhang has learned to take care of the family by herself.<br /><br />Carefully laying the contents from her plastic bag on a table, Zhang described in 2011 each legal document as she recounted her 6-year lone quest for justice: a copy of the verdict against Nie that detailed his "crimes;" a 2007 letter from the Supreme People's Court in Beijing instructing the Hebei high court to "process" her appeal; and most importantly, a printout of a written statement by Wang's lawyer on his client's confession.<br /><br />"The cold reality doesn't offer us ordinary people much hope -- so why do I keep pursuing?" Zhang asked back then.<br /><br />"I don't want to hold anyone responsible, I don't want government compensation, and I don't want the judge to bring back my son alive -- but one thing I must have is his innocence."<br /><br />Source: CNN, June 9, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Asia China Exoneration Innocence Nie Shubin Posthumous Torture China's SC orders retrial of Nie Shubin, convicted of rape & murder and executed 21 years ago

Nie Shubin (file photo) The Supreme People's Court has ordered a retrial of a man executed 21 years ago, according to Xinhua News Agency...

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Texan Spent 20 Years On Death Row And Got Cleared After 37 Years

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpLKO5ap3nwsf1-Di4iWEC8Of1fJVfBZ1kRvSWYeYVK5b1ycxlOuic5djOqw0h3RrgmHlFKPTcacVvsFae083KMaG04ptlXuS_qIgP-1ghziH1JfC1pJ9QCkwFZAyW1l5Y9N0Y2Huiucc/s1600/Kerry+Cook+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kerry Max Cook (center)" border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpLKO5ap3nwsf1-Di4iWEC8Of1fJVfBZ1kRvSWYeYVK5b1ycxlOuic5djOqw0h3RrgmHlFKPTcacVvsFae083KMaG04ptlXuS_qIgP-1ghziH1JfC1pJ9QCkwFZAyW1l5Y9N0Y2Huiucc/s400/Kerry+Cook+TX.jpg" title="Kerry Max Cook (center)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kerry Max Cook (center)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A former Texas prisoner who was released in 1999, after serving about 20 years on death row for charges of committing rape and murder of a 21-year-old, was finally cleared Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Officials said that an East Texas state court judge approved of an agreement between prosecutors and attorneys to exonerate Kerry Cook, 60, so that he could overturn the capital murder conviction that accused him of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1977. He had maintained his innocence for 40 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cook has always been an activist protesting the death penalty and speaking against it across the United States as well as Europe.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He has written <i>Chasing Justice</i>, recording his battle. It had been nominated for the Edgar Award, by Mystery Writers of America. Former FBI Director and Federal Judge William S. Sessions noted: "Kerry Max Cook has written a brutal but compelling account of his 22 years on Texas's death row for a murder he did not commit. The book depicts his struggles against all odds to free himself from an inept justice system that would not let go, despite mounting and eventually overwhelming evidence of his innocence. What is perhaps most amazing is the grace with which he now lives his life as a free man, determined to prevent others from suffering the horrors he endured."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new evidence proved his innocence and held another man guilty, said a statement from the Innocence Project of Texas, representing Cook.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though prosecutors have agreed to drop the murder charges, they still continue to oppose his claims of real innocence. On June 27, Cook will appear again in court and clearance from charges would gain him $2 million or more to make up for the traumatic period of imprisonment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cook's case got national attention and stirred a lot of questions regarding the death penalty prosecutions in Texas. The state has sent most prisoners to their death, since the U.S. Supreme Court brought up the death penalty again in 1976.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1999, there was a "no contest" plea to murder, permitting Cook to be released from prison. It however, did not call for any admission of guilt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He had been convicted in 1978. However, his case was appealed and retried. But in 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals put down his conviction and death sentence owing to "prosecutorial misconduct."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 21-year-old bartender had no bad record of violence. It became clear that he lived in exactly the same east Texas apartment complex as Edwards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was only later that DNA tests proved him to be innocent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is long past time for the state of Texas to admit that it got the wrong man and that it prosecuted the wrong man repeatedly and sought the death penalty against the wrong man repeatedly," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is "shameful," Kase said, that prosecutors continue to challenge Cook's efforts to prove his innocence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: newseveryday.com, June 8, 2016<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">After nearly 40 years, murder charges dropped against Kerry Max Cook in East Texas case</span></b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrRDWtolgHPNttVt0hg5XZwVsFkxSQkOGnqUQSem5ZumiEGlw5PiPNj5deECHWR9bNFlo11Zpd7gmDZEbBPBvDTPbfF7G0UTBZ5zzLLVJuZUU0b0ndI3CQkxs3z2GELdioNXL9WqNoXY/s1600/DNA+Testing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrRDWtolgHPNttVt0hg5XZwVsFkxSQkOGnqUQSem5ZumiEGlw5PiPNj5deECHWR9bNFlo11Zpd7gmDZEbBPBvDTPbfF7G0UTBZ5zzLLVJuZUU0b0ndI3CQkxs3z2GELdioNXL9WqNoXY/s320/DNA+Testing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>TYLER – In a shocking reversal, Smith County prosecutors agreed Monday to throw out murder charges against Kerry Max Cook, a man they’ve insisted for nearly 40 years was guilty of one of the small East Texas county’s most notorious killings.<br /><br />Cook and his lawyers declined to speak with reporters after the court hearing. But the former death row inmate, who has been fighting for decades to clear his name, celebrated outside the courthouse, sharing hugs with his wife, Sandy, his legal team and a group of Texas exonerees who came to support him.<br /><br />Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Linda Jo Edwards, a 22-year-old who was found beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her apartment bedroom. From the outset, through three trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since being released in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence.<br /><br />His quest to prove it gained worldwide attention. But his saga is not over. Now, at age 60, he can move toward a full exoneration. Prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges, but they will continue to oppose Cook’s claims of actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the two decades he spent on death row.<br /><br />“Under no standard was Kerry treated fairly,” said Marc McPeak, who represented Cook from 2008 to 2013. “I don’t know if there is justice at this point, but hopefully there is peace.”<br /><br />Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, who declined to comment after the hearing, agreed to drop the murder charges after the latest revelation in the case destroyed one of the few remaining pieces of the state’s case against Cook.<br /><br />James Mayfield, Edwards’ married lover at the time of her death, admitted in an April deposition that he had lied during previous trials when he said that it had been weeks since he had sex with the young woman. He admitted that he and Edwards had sex the day before she was killed – his birthday.<br /><br />Mayfield was at the courthouse Monday. He left the courthouse using a walker and declined to speak with reporters.<br /><br />Mayfield, a former university library dean who worked with Edwards, denied killing her, and prosecutors agreed to give him immunity in exchange for his deposition. But several DNA tests have identified his semen in the panties Edwards wore the night of her death.<br /><br />In addition, Edwards’ roommate, Paula Rudolph, initially told police that it was Mayfield, a man with medium-length silver hair, whom she saw in their apartment the night of the murder. She changed her story at trial and implicated Cook, though he had longer, dark hair at the time.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/06/murder-charges-dropped-against-east-texas-man-after-nearly-40-years.html/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Dallas Morning News, Brandi Grissom, June 6, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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Kerry Max Cook (center) A former Texas prisoner who was released in 1999, after serving about 20 years on death row for charges of committin...

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