|
Previous on Rubin Carter |
his response to Morin prosecutor's
appointment to the Bench | injusticebusters'
first tribute to him | Sermonette: Taking
up the Hurricane's suggestions | Carter's
2005 tour comes to Saskatoon | Interview on PBS Frontline
: Helen
Prejean on Dead Man Walking | Death
in Texas: article in the New York Review of Books | Other
wrongful convictions: Alan Gell
| Lonnie Erby | Calvin
Willis | North Carolina Moratorium
Coalition |
Sister Helen
Prejean
Doubts on death row
By RUBIN (HURRICANE) CARTER,
March 5, 2005
- The Death of Innocents: An
Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
- By Sister Helen Prejean
- Random House, 310 pages, $35.95
When I was asked by The Globe
and Mail to review The Death of Innocents, a new book
by Sister Helen Prejean, I leaped at the opportunity. She has
been one of my heroes for a long, long time. We have worked together
on many occasions over the years.
The Death of Innocents only demonstrates the human insanity
in which we live. If you believe in, or have faith in, the correctness
of the criminal justice system as it is presently being administered,
don't read this book. It will blow your mind, your faith and
your belief, leaving you with the knowledge that, in the criminal
justice system, innocence means nothing and retribution means
everything.
Sister Helen's account of her
experiences with the criminal justice system, as a spiritual
adviser to those condemned to death, is a wonderfully sad and
disheartening exposé of a system where truth does not
count -- only procedures. In the first chapter, she speaks of
Roger Coleman, a Virginia coal miner who was executed in Virginia
on May 20, 1992, because of a procedural technicality. His rookie
lawyer, trying her first capital case, filed Coleman's petition
one day late -- 24 hours late -- and so they took his life.
I had the opportunity to speak
with Coleman one day before the state of Virginia executed him.
Having been in that same position myself, I was impressed by
his presence of mind, given the dreaded thing that was waiting
to shock the life out of his body.
At one point, a prison nurse,
who was concerned that Coleman had missed his scheduled medication
for a sore shoulder, interrupted our conversation. I said to
him, "Brother, this is absolutely insane. Here the state
of Virginia is about to take your life, and they're concerned
about your health!" He laughed, and I laughed too.
But I cried the next day when
I saw him being carried from the prison in a body bag.
Roger Coleman is very much
in the news again today, because the state of Virginia is refusing
to release the DNA specimen that might provide evidence of his
guilt or innocence. The system is afraid it may have executed
an innocent person.
The Death of Innocents is a profoundly disturbing and horrifying
demonstration that, once a jury has found a person guilty, it
takes a monumental effort to reverse that decision. That's why
competent counsel is necessary. There is a great deal at stake
in upholding criminal convictions. Careers, political and otherwise,
are built on these convictions. Successful police officers are
promoted, successful prosecution attorneys become judges, and
a successful judge is one who is seldom reversed on appeal.
Even at the best of times,
nobody likes to admit fault. But when admitting that a mistake
has been made begins to threaten one's own professional standing
-- one's own career -- then justice becomes a very personal matter.
Establishing that one, or one's colleague, did not make a mistake
becomes much more important than the possible innocence of the
person convicted.
There are many people in prison
today who find themselves standing on the wrong side of the law
not because they went astray, but because the law, having been
placed in the wrong hands, strayed from the right path. Many
instances of this have occurred right here in Canada. For instance,
Guy Paul Morin was convicted of raping and killing nine-year-old
Christine Jessop. Christine's parents told the police that they
had returned home at a particular time and found her gone. The
time they gave made it impossible for Morin to have committed
the crime. Under questioning from the police, the mourning mother
admitted she could have arrived home at a different time. Her
original statement would have seriously weakened the case against
Morin. The changed version strengthened it. And an innocent person
was convicted of a horrible crime.
"Junk science" and
"forensic fraud" were also involved in this case. Hairs
found in Morin's car were presented to the jury as consistent
with hairs from the murdered girl, but the link turned out to
be a weak one.
Thankfully, Morin was eventually
exonerated by DNA evidence.
Sister Helen details very succinctly
the flaws and the mistakes of our criminal justice systems in
North America, and even offers solutions. To prevent or to stop
bad cases, prosecutors and police officers, especially senior
ones, must learn to recognize the "telltale signs"
that a case may be, as the lawyers say, "not safe"
-- that there may be something wrong with it. Having spotted
the signs and looked carefully into the case, they must be prepared
to stop it. This is one of the most difficult things to get people
to do. These telltale signs are: the absence of hard evidence;
witnesses who change their testimony after conferring with the
police; inconsistent police reports and notes; and unreliable
witnesses, especially "jailhouse snitches," who should
almost never be believed.
The two most dominant telltale
signs of a bad case and, surely the cause of many wrongful convictions,
as chronicled in The Death of Innocents, are eyewitness
testimony and retracted confessions. Eyewitnesses are notoriously
inaccurate, especially in cases of cross-cultural identification.
They may be entirely credible, but nevertheless wrong. Unfortunately,
juries tend to believe eyewitnesses much more than they should.
Likewise, confessions that
the accused retracts should have little or no weight. A person
who wishes to confess would plead guilty. But if that person
pleads not guilty, then it should be obvious that he is not confessing.
Yet "confessions" carry a great deal of weight with
juries, even when the confession is repudiated or when there
is clear evidence that the confession was coerced.
If any of these "telltale
signs" are present, and particularly if more than one of
them are present, prosecutors and Crown attorneys should immediately
worry that the case may not be a good one.
Sister Helen Prejean is an
old-fashioned lover of liberty; she administers the kind of service
the world loves, one person -- alone -- who speaks the truth,
mocking the enemies of justice, freedom, truth, beauty and good.
Just a few years ago, Sister
Helen and I had the enormous pleasure of participating in a "journey
of hope" at a children's crusade in northern Pennsylvania,
where children from 57 different countries were represented.
The three-day conference demonstrated very clearly how Sister
Helen serves all of mankind, not only as spiritual adviser to
those in prison facing the death penalty, and not only to her
best friend, Ann, who was dying of cancer, but also to young
people all over the world.
Thank you, Sister Helen.
Rubin Carter, sometimes
known as Hurricane, is executive director and chairman of the
board of Innocence International, an organization dedicated to
uncovering wrongful convictions. He spent 20 years in a New Jersey
state prison, narrowly escaping the electric chair, for a triple
murder he did not commit.
|
 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How to walk yourself through the justice system
-
- Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
-
- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Index
to the stories on this website
This is not
regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story
and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at
the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated
Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
-
- Stephen
Williams: Canadian
writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Gary
wells: Faulty eye-witness
testimony
-
- Tulia,
Texas
- Gilmer,
Texas
- Willie
Upshaw
- Wrongfully convicted in Canada
- Foster Parent false accusations
- Martensville
- Don
Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction
- James
Lockyer
- Hurricane
Carter
- Johnny Cochran speaks up for
Bill Sampson
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
-
-
-
-
The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
 Hatchen and Munson: These two drove
Darrell Night to the edge of
Saskatoon on a freezing January night in 2000. They were found
guilty of unlawful confinement, did some time and are acknowledged
by the Saskatoon Police Service for each having served for 17
years. The Police Association stood by them and paid for their
defence until they were convicted. Only then were they fired.
- Federal
Prosecutors Report
- Bad
forensics
- The
CSI effect
- "Expert" testimony
- Reid Technique
- Monique Turenne
- James
Driskell
-
- Edmonton
police
- Halifax
- Toronto
police
- Vancouver police
- Winnipeg police
-
- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
Canadians
who have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations
combined with zealous Crown
Supreme
Court orders new trial and quashes conviction in two more cases
with improper disclosure issues
A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
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