There's some hope for Mississippi's innocent

[bronwynrh]

And it's about damn time.

I hope Hayne and Allgood can't snake-talk their way out of this like they have for so long.

Comments

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Innocence Project was doing very well...until
Steven Avery
became their poster boy. Ugh.

[bramey.livejournal.com]

I'll look at Avery's case, but will point out from the beginning that I know (and have known for a long time) that Steven Hayne is the very definition of crooked.

Every conviction he's ever testified for should be revisited - and I'm sure some portion of those convictions are valid and that some of the invalid convictions will be of unsavory characters nonetheless.

The fact remains that the man is a fraud and Mississippi's continued reliance on him is a breach of justice of the highest order.

Read the Innocence Project's letter (http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/Letter_to_Medical_Board.pdf) and you'll start to get an idea. Follow up on some of the footnotes you'll find there and I guarantee you'll be looking for some tar and feathers.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know and support the innocence projects initiatives. Hell, I even thought what Wisconsin's project did for Avery was great until he committed this grisly and sick crime. It's definitely an unfortunate turn for some great work.

[bramey.livejournal.com]

His is certainly a striking case. His proper response to exoneration should have been, "damn! I've been given a second chance at life. I'd better not fuck it up."

Obviously, he didn't do that. I wonder what his motivation could have been?... not that I really want to know, you know?

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

I agree...that psycho is definitely an anomaly.
He Got So Much publicity, as did the innocence project, when he was exonerated. He had the support of so many. And, less than five years later, he's in prison for one of the most grisly cases in Wisconsin history. His nephew was also involved. Total white trash criminal sickos. I was on the train with a lawyer from the WI Innocence Project right after all this happened. It's a shame.

Hope for Mississippi?

[wistfulunicorn.livejournal.com]

Couldn't see your link so not sure what it was about. Like so many places the police are the investigators of crimes. The prosecutor believes what the police tell him as opposed to the TV shows. The prosecutor does not investigate. Sometimes the judge is prejudiced beforehand by either the prosecutor or the police. I know one was heard to say 'they told me he had done it.' DNA has made great strides in proving innocence of some. How many are in jail without having available DNA to prove their innocence. How many have died before DNA testing was available. Oops. A subject I feel strongly about.

Yep, we did just release 2 men for crimes they did not commit. Unfortunately for them Mississippi has no fund to reimburse them for the time they spent in jail. Shame.