[Grovenet] Capital punishment? I don't need no stinkin' capital punishment . . . .

Tue Apr 29 15:25:09 PDT 2008

As a general rule I think that capital punishment is wrong 99.99999%  
of the time but I would leave the door open in cases where the guilt  
is clear, acknowledged by the criminal, and the crime was  
particularly heinous with consideration given if the defendant/ 
criminal requests it as an alternative to life in prison. Timothy  
McVeigh comes to mind. But I would agree with you absolutely if the  
defendant claims they did not commit the crime.  This case was a  
tragedy that happens too frequently when, as the current DA said,  
convictions were the goal as opposed to justice.

27 years is a long time to spend in jail for a crime you did not  
commit, especially when the prosecutor had evidence that you did not  
commit it.

Hats off to the Innocence Project and who ever started the  
'conviction integrity unit' in the DA's office.

Katie

On Apr 29, 2008, at 2:54 PM, Bob Browning wrote:

> This is why I don't believe in capital punishment, what ever the  
> Supreme Court may say ! ! ! !
>
> Here, the guy can go free. But, with capital punishment nobody goes  
> home free!
>
> bob "hang 'em high??" browning
>
>> <logo_printerfriendly.jpg>
>> DNA evidence frees man imprisoned 27 years in Dallas County
>>
>> 03:35 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
>>
>> By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
>
>> James Lee Woodard was released Tuesday morning by state District  
>> Judge Mark Stoltz and became the 17th man exonerated by DNA in  
>> Dallas County, which has more DNA exonerations than any other  
>> county in the nation.
>> Mr. Woodard, 55, was convicted of murder in the strangulation of  
>> his 21-year-old girlfriend, Beverly Ann Jones, who was also raped.
>>
>> "I thank God for letting me live through the experience," said Mr.  
>> Woodard.
>>
>> Mr. Woodard said he had no immediate plans except to "breathe  
>> fresh, free air" and perhaps eat a hamburger. He has little  
>> family, and his mother died while he was in prison.
>>
>> District Attorney Craig Watkins and Judge Mark Stoltz, who  
>> released Mr. Woodard, apologized to him for his wrongful conviction.
>>
>> "Unfortunately, you're not getting justice today," Judge Stoltz  
>> said. "You're getting the end of injustice."
>>
>> Mr. Woodard could have been paroled, but he refused to admit to a  
>> crime he did not commit. Judge Stoltz said that "spoke volumes"  
>> about Mr. Woodard's character because he considered the truth to  
>> be more important than his freedom.
>>
>> Mr. Woodard spent more time behind bars than anyone in the country  
>> cleared by DNA evidence, the Dallas County district attorney's  
>> office and the Innocence Project of Texas said.
>>
>> But information that Ms. Jones was with three men – including two  
>> later convicted of unrelated sexual assaults – around the time of  
>> her death was not disclosed to the defense nor was it thoroughly  
>> investigated, said prosecutor Mike Ware, who oversees the Dallas  
>> County district attorney's office conviction integrity unit.
>>
>> Evidence that could benefit a defendant is required by law to be  
>> turned over to a defendant, though there is no criminal punishment  
>> for not doing so.
>>
>> Mr. Ware said Mr. Woodard received a "fundamentally unfair" trial.  
>> He said he believes the evidence is something that prosecutors at  
>> the time should have investigated, "or at least turn it over so  
>> the defense could investigate."
>>
>> Before the district attorney's office agreed that the DNA that  
>> exonerated Mr. Woodard of the rape also exonerated him of the  
>> murder – in itself an unusual step – a forensic pathologist  
>> examined the file and concluded that Ms. Jones was killed about  
>> the same time she was raped.
>>
>> Her body was found New Year's Eve 1980 near the Trinity River in a  
>> wooded area near South Loop 12. The night Ms. Jones was killed,  
>> she was with Theodore Blaylock, who was convicted of an aggravated  
>> rape committed three weeks after Ms. Jones' death, according to  
>> Mr. Ware and testimony from a 1981 post-conviction hearing.
>>
>> Mr. Blaylock testified at the hearing that he was drinking with  
>> Ms. Jones, Edward Mosley and Eddie Woodard, who is not related to  
>> James Lee Woodard, one morning in late December 1980.
>>
>> Mr. Blaylock said he and Mr. Mosley went with Ms. Jones to a South  
>> Dallas convenience store where Ms. Jones left and got in another  
>> car with three other men. Mr. Blaylock could not provide  
>> descriptions.
>>
>> In 1982, Mr. Blaylock was shot and killed when he tried to rape  
>> another woman in her car. She pulled a gun from under the seat and  
>> shot him several times, Mr. Ware said.
>>
>> Eddie Woodard is now a registered sex offender involved in a  
>> brutal sexual assault, who the district attorney's office said has  
>> absconded from probation. Mr. Mosley's whereabouts were unclear  
>> late Monday.
>>
>> Prosecutors want to compare DNA from the men to the genetic  
>> evidence from the rape to find the true culprit.
>>
>> James Lee Woodard was seeking a new trial at the 1981 hearing,  
>> alleging that prosecutors did not fully disclose information about  
>> Ms. Jones' whereabouts the night she was killed. The judge, John  
>> Ovard, who was also the trial judge, denied the new trial and  
>> formally sentenced him.
>>
>> The judge and the district attorney's office could have righted  
>> Mr. Woodard's wrongful conviction in 1981, just months later, said  
>> Natalie Roetzel, executive director of the Innocence Project of  
>> Texas.
>>
>> "It's one of the most disturbing things about this case," she  
>> said. "Essentially, that was ignored because the investigators had  
>> the suspect they wanted."
>>
>> Also, a prosecution witness changed his testimony since the  
>> Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit independent legal clinic,  
>> began investigating Mr. Woodard's conviction. Ms. Jones'  
>> stepfather testified that on the night she was killed, Mr. Woodard  
>> came to the apartment in the middle of the night looking for her.
>>
>> Oscar Edwards now says he believes Mr. Woodard was not the person  
>> who came to his door and did not kill his daughter, Mr. Ware said.
>>
>> Mr. Woodard, who has a record for nonviolent crimes, is the second  
>> man cleared by DNA during a review of 350 defendants' requests for  
>> DNA tests that were denied under previous District Attorney Bill  
>> Hill.
>>
>> Like many in Dallas County exonerated by DNA, Mr. Woodard was  
>> convicted during the era of District Attorney Henry Wade. Current  
>> District Attorney Craig Watkins has repeatedly said he believes  
>> that during this time, prosecutors were more focused on  
>> convictions than justice.
>>
>> In several handwritten letters, Mr. Woodard begged Mr. Wade to  
>> reinvestigate his case and always maintained his innocence. He  
>> said that his letters were always answered by a prosecutor saying  
>> nothing could be done because a jury convicted him.
>>
>> In a March 1985 letter, Mr. Woodard wrote to Mr. Wade: "If you  
>> found out for yourself that I was innocent, would you let me go?"
>>
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