DNA frees man who had served 27 years for murder

[Bobblehead]

A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate to be cleared by DNA testing

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/608879.html

And a scary statistic:

Woodard, cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, became the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside.

18 in ONE county!

Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high. That does not include Woodard and at least three others whose exonerations will not become official until Gov. Rick Perry grants pardons or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals formally accepts the ruling of lower courts that have already recommended exoneration.

So the "real" total is 34, and over half of those are one county.

[Azure]

Good.

I never thought of this way to open up the overcrowded prisons.

[dissentowner]

I hope he sues huge and get's a pile of money. You can never get back 27 years of your life...

[BlackEleven]

It's even scarier when you consider if there are 34 people we know of that have been wrongfully convicted, how many other innoncent people may have died in prison or even been executed.

[KTrain]

There aren't a lot of times when I think suing for a stupid amount of money is warranted but this is definitely one of them.

[Iggy's Forehead]

So, that means there's at least 34 killers getting away with murder in Texas.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

It's even scarier when you consider if there are 34 people we know of that have been wrongfully convicted, how many other innoncent people may have died in prison or even been executed.

This, in my view, is the strongest argument against the death penalty. No justice system will ever have perfect results 100% of the time. If one is to support capital punishment, one has to live with the fact that occassionally mistakes will be made and innocent people will be executed. What percentage of executions would be considered an "acceptable" level of collateral damage? One percent? Half a percent? For me, killing even one innocent person is too many, which is one reason why I'm strongly opposed to the death penalty.

As for the OP, I find it shocking to think that this man spent almost my entire lifetime (I'm 28) behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He'll never have those years back, and no amount of compensation could possibly be enough.

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

This, in my view, is the strongest argument against the death penalty. No justice system will ever have perfect results 100% of the time. If one is to support capital punishment, one has to live with the fact that occassionally mistakes will be made and innocent people will be executed. What percentage of executions would be considered an "acceptable" level of collateral damage? One percent? Half a percent? For me, killing even one innocent person is too many, which is one reason why I'm strongly opposed to the death penalty.

As for the OP, I find it shocking to think that this man spent almost my entire lifetime (I'm 28) behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He'll never have those years back, and no amount of compensation could possibly be enough.

I agree. Have you watched that Kevin Spacey movie?

You also have to consider, of all these brutal serial killers and murderers who get the death penalty, do you think that has served as a deterent, really, ever?? Like, some crazy guy is going to think "hmm, instead of life in prision I might get the chair in 15 years, I better not kill these people."

[Jason14h]

You also have to consider, of all these brutal serial killers and murderers who get the death penalty, do you think that has served as a deterent, really, ever?? Like, some crazy guy is going to think "hmm, instead of life in prision I might get the chair in 15 years, I better not kill these people."

Beats having tax payers pay $50,000 a year for the rest of their life.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Iggy's Forehead

I agree. Have you watched that Kevin Spacey movie?

You also have to consider, of all these brutal serial killers and murderers who get the death penalty, do you think that has served as a deterent, really, ever?? Like, some crazy guy is going to think "hmm, instead of life in prision I might get the chair in 15 years, I better not kill these people."

The death penalty has been made too politically correct to even serve as a deterrent.

That being said, I would only agree with it under the most extreme cases. But, that also means throwing killers in a 4x8 cell and throwing away the key.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Iggy's Forehead

I agree. Have you watched that Kevin Spacey movie?

You also have to consider, of all these brutal serial killers and murderers who get the death penalty, do you think that has served as a deterent, really, ever?? Like, some crazy guy is going to think "hmm, instead of life in prision I might get the chair in 15 years, I better not kill these people."

With Serial killers, I almost think it would be worthwhile to keep them alive and study the crap out of them, I'm sure that the interviews with Ted Bundy were an invaluable look into the mind of a near brilliant serial killer. Maybe if we study them, test them, and then autopsy the crap out of them we can find the root cause and signs of these monsters so that we can find them before they go off the reservation.

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

With Serial killers, I almost think it would be worthwhile to keep them alive and study the crap out of them, I'm sure that the interviews with Ted Bundy were an invaluable look into the mind of a near brilliant serial killer. Maybe if we study them, test them, and then autopsy the crap out of them we can find the root cause and signs of these monsters so that we can find them before they go off the reservation.

So you're of the opinion that serial killers are what they are the day they're born, like pre-wired mentally?

Not saying it's right or wrong, just curious..

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Azure

The death penalty has been made too politically correct to even serve as a deterrent.

What do you mean by that?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Beats having tax payers pay $50,000 a year for the rest of their life.

You do realize that the death penalty is generally a more expensive route than life imprisonment, eh? With all the mandatory appeals and such the death penalty can cost the state a massive chunk of change.

[chris lindberg]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

so that we can find them before they go off the reservation.

Or before they get off the wagon train...

[Iggy's Forehead]

How can it be $50,000 a year PER PRISONER when it's much, much less for an average person to pay rent, eat food, pay bills, get clothes, bla bla bla for a year?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Azure

The death penalty has been made too politically correct to even serve as a deterrent.

The death penalty has been shown to provide little deterrent effect.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...did=1705#crimi

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Iggy's Forehead

How can it be $50,000 a year PER PRISONER when it's much, much less for an average person to pay rent, eat food, pay bills, get clothes, bla bla bla for a year?

The cost of the facility, operating costs plus the salaries of corrections staff all contribute to that amount.

[Iggy's Forehead]

Originally Posted by Reaper

The cost of the facility, operating costs plus the salaries of corrections staff all contribute to that amount.

Fine, but then we're stretching the truth to say $50,000 per person, because a lot of those costs are mandatory to even have prison. Operating costs would be there regardless, they don't multiply exponentially for every new prisoner.

[RougeUnderoos]

http://www43.statcan.ca/04/04b/04b_003c_e.htm

The average daily cost of housing an inmate was $189 at the federal level and $137 at the provincial level.

That's close to 70 grand a year and that's 2001 numbers. Seems awful steep to me but hey, what do I know?

http://www.solicitorgeneral.gov.ab.c...nt_custody.htm

That has it at 95 bucks a day in Alberta prisons.