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

Tue Apr 29 21:35:05 PDT 2008

The connection with capital punishment is that since executions are  
not reversible, it is a good thing the guy was not on death row and  
previously executed.

It makes one wonder, if guy A spent 27 years in prison for a crime he  
didn't commit, did guy B die in prison after 26 years for a crime he  
didn't commit, and did guy C wind up being executed for a crime he  
didn't commit?  In the famous words of Donald Rumsfeld, there are the  
known unknowns ...........   We know that we don't know how many Bs  
and Cs there are, but as the number of As grow it makes the  
probability of C that much higher.

On Apr 29, 2008, at 9:06 PM, Steven wrote:

> While the story is quite sad. What is the connection with capital
> punishment? I didn't read in the article that he was on death row.
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet- 
> bounces at rdrop.com]On
> Behalf Of Bob Browning
>   Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:54 PM
>   To: Grovenet
>   Subject: [Grovenet] Capital punishment? I don't need no stinkin'  
> capital
> punishment . . . .
>
>
>
>   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!
>
>
>
>     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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