Man convicted of rape freed after 23 years in TX prison after DNA tests

[RottenWillow]

That takes money. No small chunk of change. We aren't talking a speeding ticket of 500 bucks. We are talking over 10K.

It doesn't seem right that an innocent person should have to pay to make a record go away that they should have never had to begin with. Does it? How is that justice?

OK so they find you NOT GUILTY (which does NOT = innocent) or they dissmiss the case but you still have a record? Well, until YOU PAY to have it expunged.

Justice prevails until bankruptcy occurs.

That's true. If the prosecutor rebuffs his request to expunge, it's going to require some money.

I've been on the wrong side of the criminal justice system and it's far from fair. Police dramas usually infers that the accused have unfair advantages, but IME it's the opposite. They'll steamroll you in a minute if you cannot afford a good attorney.

 

[Bikini Mod]

That's true. If the prosecutor rebuffs his request to expunge, it's going to require some money.

I've been on the wrong side of the criminal justice system and it's far from fair. Police dramas usually infers that the accused have unfair advantages, but IME it's the opposite. They'll steamroll you in a minute if you cannot afford a good attorney.

WERD

You get steam-rolled sometimes regardless if the judge has a hard-on for you.

Either way there is one thing that is true about the system and that is that it is a perpetual money-maker for everyone involved; the litigants cash cows with NO RIGHTS, whether they did something to get themselves there or got sucked into it because of the unjust behavior of another.

All one needs is to be accused of a crime that most in society are repulsed by and all the money in the world won't help. We aren't talking garden variety drug dealing or grand theft auto or even regular old vehicular manslaughter. We are talking the kinds of crimes that even prison inmates will kill you for when you get put into the can.

 

[bigtravis]

I was convicted and was doing time for a crime for which I was later exonerated via new evidence. The new evidence did not however ID the actual perpetrator. The prosecutor declined my attorney's informal request to expunge that conviction, and he had to pursue a formal route. The basic elements of our situations sound identical to me.

You have to understand the liability issue of the case in this thread and the other that I speak of. 11 years and 23 years. How much time did you have to serve?
Did your case involve DNA? You see? The simple fact that a second finding of DNA gives the opinion that the subject incarcerated should be released based on another continuing investigation.
FOR. The simple fact that the owner of the second finding of DNA could come forth saying that HE AND THE RELEASED INMATE BOTH TOOK PART IN THE CRIME. Our justice system is not flawless. It's just like anything else that's human.

 

[Bikini Mod]

Our justice system is not flawless. It's just like anything else that's human.

My only beef is that so many people think that it is better than other systems in other countries and then once a body gets caught up in it they find out the hard way that it is all a bunch of bunk; that the system here ain't all that much better than systems in other countries.

Money talks and bullshit walks, that is unless you really REALLY piss the wrong people off, often times without even realizing it or sometimes because the individual feels so strongly about the greater good - ie people like Rosa Parks. (Just the first name that came to mind but there are so many in history and many whose names we'll never know but only reap the benefits of their fight for a cause that was important to THEM.)

And the reason most don't hear about the cases where good people DO get screwed is because the innocent aren't about to publicly admit they have been accused of crimes that they didn't commit and that is because MOST PEOPLE ASSUME that if you were accused - then you are indeed guilty. I do think that this perception comes from one of the great American lies that there really IS liberty and justice for all and that we are all of us created equal.

There isn't and we aren't. It would be nice if that were true, but it just isn't.