For those of you who watched 60 Minutes last night, I hope you are as outraged as I am

[politicaljunkie41910]

about the guy who spent 30 years on Death Row in the sorry state of Louisiana. The guy who prosecuted him, and the current prosecutor are indicative of a corrupt system of justice in Louisiana. Bobby Jindal should be ashamed of that corrupt system that he governs over. Not only was the guy who was the subject of the story "not guilty" of the crime he was convicted of but according to the current POS prosecutor, there have been 10 more Death Row inmates who have been exonerated. Eleven people on Louisiana's Death Row, exonerated in the recent past is an indictment of a corrupt system that doesn't give a damn about someone's guilt or innocence, but only cares about winning. If you appoint two dirtbag attorneys whose sole legal experience is handling business transactions and wills, in a capital murder case in which the defendant is facing the death penalty, you are a scumbag.

[marym625]

1. I didn't see the show but any governor of any state that has the death penalty

Should abolish it.

George Ryan, a republican governor of Illinois, took the brave step of clearing out death row back when a Northwestern university professor and his class proved that so many people on death row were innocent.

The best thing any Governor did in that state.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/01/11/687/84573/deathpenalty/Illinois-Governor-George-Ryan-Commutes-all-Death-Row-Sentences


http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/888516

[mopinko]

7. because he had blood on his own hands. only.

sure, he knew he would never be convicted of the fiery death of a six children directly linked to his corruption. but he also knew he had blood on his hands, and by sheer luck and privilege he was not in the dock for those deaths.
more deserving of the death penalty than the majority of those on death row at the time.

fuck george ryan. may he burn in hell.

[marym625]

12. you're correct.

My father knew him. Pretty well. My father was the President of the Mayor's and Manager's association when Ryan was the Mayor of Kankakee. He was always corrupt and a bigot/racist. Ryan, not my dad.

But, I'm still going to give him this one. Regardless of what else he did or didn't so, was guilty of, etc., this was a bold, brave move.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. You mean he personally sold the license to the immigrant

driving a badly maintained vehicle and he personally caused a part to fall off on a highway and cause the deaths of little kids in a van? Did he also steer the broken part into the van?

Ryan did a lot of bad things, but to say he murdered someone or to even claim he has blood on his hands? Come on. That is simply absurd.

He did belong in jail for the actual corruption he was personally involved in, but your statement is way over the top.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

18. Ryan can be linked to the children's death, albeit indirectly

For those of you unfamiliar with the Ryan case, before Ryan became Governor, he was Illinois Secretary of State, in charge of (among other things), the Department of Motor Vehicles.

In 1994, a Baptist minister from Chicago was going with his wife and their six children to Milwaukee on Interstate 94. The van they were in was rear-ended by a semi and all the children were killed. During the investigation, it was discovered that the truck driver had a valid Illinois license, but could only speak Spanish. This was odd because the written test to get an Illinois truck driver's license is only given in English. So how did the man get his license?

An investigation was started, and it was quickly discovered that examiners in the DMV were accepting bribes in exchange for giving licenses to unqualified drivers. What infuriated people especially was that the reason the DMV examiners were taking the bribes was that they were expected to contribute very generously to Ryan's political war chest -- up to 10% of their salaries. So they were taking these bribes in large part to give (forced) campaign contributions to Ryan.

When Jesse White became Secretary of State, one of the first things he said was that he would not accept any campaign contributions from anyone who worked for him.

[mopinko]

24. the driver of the ill maintained truck bought his license.

the money went to the ryan campaign.
he sold his office, which is one of public safety and 6 children burned to death in front of their parents.
straight line.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I felt bad for the original prosecutor

who obviously is (now) a good man suffering greatly from his guilt. His eyes were haunting. The other asshole can go to hell. "Oh, yeah, the system worked because he finally got released." Right...

I told my husband it seemed like the original prosecutor could have been a Democrat and the current one a Republican, just by the attitudes they were displaying.

That was a really, really sad report.

[moondust]

3. "The system worked"

according to that second prosecutor (or whatever he was) who said he's not in the business of compassion. That asshat has no sense of fairness or justice and no business working anywhere near such a system. I imagine he's another soulless product of a corrupt good ol' boys network/a life of family connections and privilege. I was yelling at the TV and I seldom do that.

Glenn Ford.

[WIProgressive88]

4. It was absolutely infuriating.

The current prosecutor is an absolute sociopath. Knowing that somebody so completely devoid of compassion for another human being is in such a position of power is truly chilling. Fuck that asshole.

[iandhr]

5. It was a disgusting story.

And though I am by no means a fan of Bobby Jindal the problems of corruption and injustice of you which you speak about are not unique to LA.

[LiberalElite]

6. I posted the script in GD and in Good Reads this eve. eom

[kelliekat44]

8. VOTE!!! STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS...if you don't, don't complain...you are part of the problem!

Understand how these people get to make those decisions...

[duhneece]

14. AND RUN!

I will for sure if I can't get others to run. Reasons to run and one not to run:
1. To give other Democrats someone to vote for; Lord, I hate unopposed races so fucking much.
2. To be an example for others (younger or not, female or not) to run in the years to come
3. To garner more votes for other Democrats, at local, state and federal levels (apparently there have been studies and research but what do they know? ha)
4. If not us, who?
5. If not now, when?

Reasons not to run:
1. If you’re going to be butt-hurt if you don’t win

[Victor_c3]

9. I used to be pro death penalty until I heard a startling statistic a few years back

I don't have a source other than some TED Talk I watched on Netflix, but it was reported that if you look at people who were given life sentences for crimes that would also be given death sentences that roughly 5% of those people sentenced eventually have their sentences overturned.

realizing that approximately 1 in 20 people executed are probably wrongfully convicted doesn't sit well with me at all. Any possible benefit to society is greatly outweighed by the number of people it is wrongfully administered to.

[Darb]

10. What a colossal, racist prick that prosecutor was while defending

the State from paying any damages. I wanted to go down south and look his ass up.

[IHateTheGOP]

11. About the prosecutor who said the man should not be compensated

Is typical of the right wing mind. No empathy, no compassion, no sense of fairness. To them, life is all a game to be played on an uneven field.

[OldRedneck]

13. I have a good friend in Louisiana . . .

I lived for some time in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.

One of my friends spent 3 years in federal prison in LA for bank fraud.

He had brushes with the law in LA for over 20 years, mainly because of his shady business dealings. I once asked him how he stayed out of trouble with LA law.

His reply: "It's cheaper to pay a judge than to pay an attorney."

To paraphrase Walsh in the movie "Chinatown:" "Forget it, Jake. It's Louisiana."

[LuvNewcastle]

16. I live in Biloxi.

We know how things are in South Louisiana and South Mississippi. They don't call it the Dirty South for nothing. I'm from here, and I still don't understand how people are able to shrugg off that kind of shit and still think of these bastards as pillars of the community. It's galling.

[erpowers]

15. The New Prosecutor

The main thing that upset me was the new prosecutor who saw nothing wrong with what happened. The prosecutor also felt the man needed to prove he had not knowledge of the crime that he had been wrongly convicted of in order to get the money the state owed him.

I do not think the first prosecutor is indicative of the system. Most of the prosecutors who I have seen on TV swear up and down, regardless of the evidence, including DNA evidence, that the first verdict was accurate and the now free person is getting away with a crime. That was the first time I had ever seen a prosecutor that was sorry about a wrongful conviction. The second prosecutor is indeed indicative of the way things usually work.

The people of Louisiana need to not only get rid of politicians like Bobby Jindal they also need to get rid of politicians like the second prosecutor. I think it is unlikely they will get rid of the prosecutor even if there is a chance they will elect a Democratic governor.

[cab67]

19. This is, thankfully, starting to change.

Slowly but surely, prosecutors are coming around to the reality that wrongful convictions occur. For some, it's decency. For others, it's electoral reality - voters are starting to take note of how prosecutors respond to miscarriages of justice. Look up what happened to John Bradley in Texas as an example.

[markpkessinger]

20. The new prosecutor basically said the man had to prove a negative . . .

. . . i.e., prove that he didn't do it. As I watched, I thought to myself that proving a negative is almost impossible under the best of circumstances, let alone proving you didn't do something 30 years ago!

[Aerows]

21. I grew up in Jefferson Parish

If you are looking for corruption, New Orleans is, hands down, the place to start.

Did you know that a group of cockroaches is called an "intrusion of cockroaches"? They have some real intrusions there from the DA, the police and everywhere else related to Law Enforcement.

[NJCher]

22. I was appalled

My jaw was on the floor almost the entire time, and when the second prosecutor said he had prior knowledge of the crime and couldn't get the paltry 300k something (sheer nothing for the time he did), I just about lost it. I thought, "You ignorant SOB. Ignorant. How does any one person get so ignorant?"

For those who didn't get to see it, here's the write-up with pictures at the 60" page:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/30-years-on-death-row-exoneration-60-minutes/

The expression on the second prosecutor's face is exactly how it looked when he answered about why he wouldn't let Ford get the $300k.

Read the comments at the 60" page (there are 300+). The recent one by vyper is particularly good.

After watching this, I told myself that I was going to write this prosecutor a letter telling him what I thought of him. I looked up this address and am posting it in case anyone else would like to do so, too. I will be sending mine snail mail, though, as they sound like they delete a lot of emails.

I will be sending to:

Dale Cox
Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office
525 Marshall St.
Shreveport, LA 71101


Cher

[KamaAina]

23. That case goes back many years before Booby

His predecessor, Mary Landrieu (DINO), among others, could have worked for justice, but did not.