Michael Ray Graham and Albert Ronnie Burrell just walked out of Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, with a $10 check and a denim jacket and couple of manila envelopes with all that is left of their worldly possessions.
At least they are alive. And that's good, because, after waiting 14 years to be executed, they have been declared innocent of murder by the State of Louisiana.
Let's see. That is eight this year alone. That is 92 since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973 in the U.S., according to the New York Times.
Wait for it. Come on, I know it's there. Let me read a little further... aha! "With no physical evidence linking either to the crime, the two men were convicted largely on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch, Olan Wayne Brantley, who a law enforcement official acknowledged was known as Lyin' Wayne."
The old jailhouse snitch! Again! From Guy Paul Morin to Michael Ray Graham, the jailhouse snitch has proved to be an indispensable tool of prosecutions and police everywhere. It is the most widely accepted "solution" for a simple lack of evidence.
Did the police really believe that Burrell and Graham were guilty?
Were they afraid that guilty men would walk free just because they couldn't find
any proof? From my reading about wrongful convictions, that might well be the
case. The police simply decided that these two "dun it". They felt
it in their bones. They were convinced, emotionally. Maybe they didn't answer
questions the right way. Maybe they sweated under questioning. Maybe they were
stupid.
Maybe they should be on Oprah. [2011-03]
"The kind of prosecutorial misconduct in the cases of the two men is not unusual, said Mr. Graham's lawyer, Ms. Fournet." No, it's not. And it's probably the best reason why the death penalty should be abolished in the U.S., as it has been in Canada for twenty years.
What a time for the governor of the state that has been the most mindlessly efficient and enthusiastic about executions to have stolen the election to become president.
Which is not to say that Al Gore was exactly Mr. Courageously Righteous on the issue. It is clear that he adopted Clinton's very pragmatic "go with it" attitude towards the death penalty. But my guess is that Gore might have been persuaded to lead a movement against the death penalty given the incredible number of wrongful convictions that have come to light in recent years. Dubbya's attitude? They must have done something wrong for the police to even have suspected them in the first place.
It looks like Bush is going to appoint John Ashcroft, the Senator who lost an election to a dead man, as the new attorney general. We are told that Ashcroft, as a devout Christian, is completely in favor of the death penalty.
???
I can't help but wonder, "What would Jesus do?" about a jail-house snitch who put two innocent men on death row so he could get a lighter sentence for passing bad checks? What he do about the prosecutors who knowingly pressed the case, aware of the fact that there was no physical evidence against the two men, and that the key witness had a history of mental illness? What would he say to the prison officials who handed each of the men a $10 check, as compensation for losing 14 years of their lives? What would he say to the judge who put a developmentally delayed man on death row?
