Man convicted for murder proven innocent - AZ Governor won't sign release from prison...

[old mark]

NYT article about the following. An Arizona man was convicted of murdering 2 people whose bodies had been found in the desert. His wife, who worked in law enforcement and had access to evidence, claimed he confessed to her he had done it, and he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole - he is currently still in prison.
Lately, evidence proves him innocent and Governor Brewer refused to sign papers releasing him from prison. Speculation is taht she is running for re-election and is afraid this will reflect poorly on her "tough on crime" stance...
Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/us/15bar.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

Proven innocent and still in prison for political reasons.

mark

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[BR_Parkway]

2. Shouldn't a judge be able to issue an order releasing him? Or reversing

the verdict or something

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. OP is very misleading. Nothing has been done in court yet

[peacetalksforall]

3. Justice from a government employee in Arizona - this appears to be typical

type headlines coming from that State.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. ACLU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blondeatlast]

5. Brewer is pure politica ambition. I hate to see what she'll do if she does get

a full term.

she's appealing to Arizona's LCD--and that is damn low indeed.

[sui generis]

6. she's a piece of work. Kind of like Dexter, except

with an innie instead of an outie. The most basic of American ideals is "freedom". The most basic concept of American punishment is the removal of "freedom". Kidnapping, or the removal of freedom from someone for personal or capital gain is a capital crime.

For the governor to be a party to this for political reasons could be construed to be participating in a kidnapping, especially if physical evidence has exonerated the man.

A verbal confession? Really. I blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma city. Using telekinesis. :eyes:

[old mark]

7. I always thought it was you......nt

[MattBaggins]

20. That is the saddest part of the case

The original judges allowed the testimony of an estranged wife but said the testimony of a confession from another man to three other individuals was hearsay.

[laughingliberal]

8. Inexcusable! nt

[Subdivisions]

9. Yet another American political prisoner. n/t

[Initech]

10. Arizona = now officially the most ass-backwards state in the union.

[michreject]

11. She just can't release him

He has been convicted. This is why the judicial branch is separate from the executive branch. New evidence has to be brought before the court.

Can she give him a pardon? I don't know but if she could, he would still be a convicted felon.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. OP title is wrong...he is still a convicted felon and nothing has been proven in court

The clemency board is not a court. A court could free him immediately.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4426370 is a duplicate post but at least it gets the title right.

[treestar]

14. Wow. Thanks.

[blondeatlast]

15. At least Sarah Palin had the grace to resign from the Guv. before she did any more damage

to her state.

Brewer has that same national office ambition. I shudder at what she'd do to my state with a full term. :scared:

[Catshrink]

19. Lady Blah Blah was at least elected

[lawwolf]

16. The title is misleading

He wasn't actually proven innocent. New evidence has been brought forward that calls into question his guilt, but that is far from being proven innocent. Lets step away from emotion and look at facts. You have one person that says this guy confessed to the murder, you have a palm print and something else that I can't remember at the moment that support that confession. On the other side you have someone claiming that someone else confessed to the crime. As for the supporting evidence, the best we have is the son of the defendant saying that he could see his mother tampering with it, but we have NO evidence that the tampering actually took place.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a prosecutor, so I have a natural inclination in not believing defendants when they claim they are innocent. That being said, if all of the information available today were available at the time of trial (another confession and reason for disbelief in the wifes story), I highly doubt the defendant would have been convicted and I think he should have been released with the new information.

[leftynyc]

17. Does someone else have to be

convicted before the person in jail can petition the court for release?

[lawwolf]

18. Not at all

A person can petition the court at any time for release. In reality it would be very difficult for someone to be convicted of a crime that someone else is already serving time for. You don't get much better "reasonable doubt" than someone else already convicted for it. If you found yourself in the rare situation where you truly believe that someone else is the guilty party it would be in your best interest to release the first person so you could tell the jury that "I am the State, and this new evidence is so strong that I clearly see I made a mistake and released the original guy."

[old mark]

21. The article states that the AZ Clemency board FOUND HIM INNOCENT last year...

I believe they found his wife lied and manipulated evidence used to convict him, and that another person-convicted of similar murders-confessed in confidence to his lawyer.The Clemency board ruled that he was wrongly convicted. I so no real error, just semantics....
A jury did not find him innocent, an Clemency board did.

The Governor refuses to act, so he is still in prison.

mark

[ProgressiveProfessor]

22. A clemency board does not have that authority

They stated they believe he is innocent and that a miscarriage of justice has been done. They are probably right. However, they only make recommendations to the Governor. A court could release him immediately.

[pinboy3niner]

23. Jan Brewer: Once again, least likely to be named Humanitarian of the Year nt

[blondeatlast]

24. "No more years." At this rate, Sarah Palin might barely at some point start to

look mildly okay-like on a bad day.

[pinboy3niner]

25. They both creep me out big time

And I'd include Bachmann, Coulter and Malkin in that list. My "Perfidious Five" (though I'm sure other candidates could be suggested, too).

[Rex]

26. So they need to retry the case at a new trial.

Expecting any political person to help with the obvious is never going to happen. Governors are just puppets dancing for our entertainment. Their paymasters control the strings. Right now Arizona is going through some serious de-evolution so I'm sure he will rot in prison for the rest of his life unless HE does something about it.

[cascadiance]

27. Hmm.. If she wants to use the state's power to KILL an innocent man...

(you know she'd do the same if he was on death row!), doesn't that make that b*tch a MURDERER too!?!!! At least more of a murderer than he is, if he's been proven innocent!

Lock HER up and throw away the key! I guess she figures SCOTUS and her other court friends will help her stay in power like they did when they threw out AZ's public campaign financing last week!