Who Gets Framed and Who Gets Exonernated?
If there is one flaw in the system - The system is broken
Texas tonight has halted an execution today as they felt they preparing to execute a potentially innocent man. Texas lawmakers tried an admittedly desperate long shot when they issued a subpoena ordering death row inmate Robert Roberson III to appear before a House committee four days after his scheduled lethal injection. Well that would not have happened if he were executed.
Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 after his 2-year-old daughter Nikki died of what medical experts believed to be a case of shaken baby syndrome. However, medical experts now say accidental short falls or naturally occurring disease or illness are known to cause conditions that mimic injuries attributed to shaken baby syndrome. Robert Roberson has said his daughter, who was chronically ill, fell out of bed. It is rare for the Texas Supreme Court to get involved in a criminal matter. But how the all-Republican court wound up stopping Roberson’s execution in the final hours underlined the extraordinary maneuvers used by a bipartisan coalition of state House lawmakers who have come to his defense.
The State of Texas has executed 591 people since 1982, more than any other state by far. Of these executions, 279 occurred during the administration of Texas Governor Rick Perry (2001-2014), more than any other governor in U.S. history.
Texas has executed five men in 2024. On October 17, 2024, Robert Roberson would have been the sixth. Harris County alone accounts for 135 of those executions these numbers include Arthur Burton and Garcia White in 2024. This figure represents more executions than any other county. Dallas County accounts for 65 executions, Bexar County for 46, and Tarrant County for 4.
Facts:
As of 2023, The National Registry of Exonerations has recorded over 3,000 cases of wrongful convictions in the United States.
Organizations such as The Innocence Project work to free the innocent and prevent these convictions, so far exonerating 375 people, including 21 who served on death row.
Texas jurors have rejected the death penalty in 30% of cases.
Texas has the third-largest death row population in the nation (174), after California* (640) and Florida (278).
As death sentences in Texas decline, they continue to be applied disproportionately to people of color.
A 2014 study estimated that at least 4% of those sentenced to death are innocent.
Since 1973, at least 200 people have been exonerated from death row in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
Over the last five years, more than 50 percent of death sentences have been imposed on people of color; nearly 40 percent were imposed on Black defendants.
If just one innocent person is executed then there is a flaw in the system. If there is one flaw in the system - then the system is broken.
Review the cases that the Innocent Project have now closed for exonorated cases.
Innocent Project - Closed Cases
Fiction novelist John Grisham has released his latest book, along with co-writer Jim McCloskey, the founder of Centurion, an organization that advocates for the wrongfully-convicted, new book "Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions", published by Doubleday. “Framed”, details the fight to free people convicted for crimes they did not commit.
John Grisham on the wrongfully convicted: "It's not that difficult to convict an innocent person". In his CBS News interview the question was askd “regards to the book's title, "Framed," who is doing the framing? "The police and the prosecutors," McCloskey said. "The police are coercing witnesses into false testimony. Prosecutors are hiding exculpatory evidence from the defendant. It goes on and on." The walls of the Centurion office, in Princeton, New Jersey, are lined with some of the faces of those clients, and the numbers, say Grisham and McCloskey, are troubling. Nationwide, 3,600 people have been exonerated since 1989; 68 percent are people of color. "Racism is a huge factor," Grisham said. "If you're a person of color and indigent, you've got an uphill battle, because you have no resources to fight this wrongful conviction," McCloskey said.
Exerts from Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions
The subtitle of Framed is Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions. I can assure readers, no matter what their background, that their response after reading each of these stories will be, “Did this really happen?” To which we the authors answer, “Yes, it did, and it happens far more often than you can imagine.” It is our intention and hope that these stories are not only a compelling read but at the same time serve as a microcosm of what is occurring throughout our nation’s halls of justice. It is our attempt to bring to light systemic flaws in the justice system’s infrastructure that cause untold tens of thousands of innocent souls to interminably languish in prison.
The twenty-three defendants caught in the web of these ten wrongful convictions needlessly spent decades in prison until the truth of their innocence finally emerged and set them free. Four landed on death row, two of whom came within days of execution, while one was tragically executed. Perhaps it will surprise readers that the racial makeup of the twenty-three is almost evenly split, ten white and thirteen black, demonstrating that this kind of injustice easily occurs across racial lines.
Often the real killers were under the nose of the police from the outset of the crime, and in two cases they were the star witnesses for the prosecution. DNA played an important role in several cases but not in most. Perjury by police and civilian witnesses was pervasive in these stories. These convictions were not caused by unintentional mistakes by local law enforcement or misidentification by well-meaning eyewitnesses or honest but erroneous forensic analysis.
Framed is powerful, heartbreaking and real. It exposed the inconsistencies in the justice system. It shines a light on a flawed system.
The Central Park Five
In 1989 they became the Central Park 5. Five black and Latino teenagers. Antron McCray, 15, Kevin Richardson, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, Raymond Santana, 14, and Korey Wise, 16. In April of 1989, Trisha Meili’s a 28 year old white investment banker, had been out for a jog when she was brutally beaten and raped. Meili’s body was discovered in New York City’s Central Park early in the morning on April 20, 1989. Meili remained in a coma for nearly two weeks and retained no memory of the attack.
The attack led to widespread outcry and the quick arrest the the five teenagers. The confessed on videotape following hours of interrogation. The boys later recanted and plead not guilty, saying their confessions had been coerced.
“When we were arrested, the police deprived us of food, drink or sleep for more than 24 hours,” Salaam wrote in the Washington Post years later in 2016. “Under duress, we falsely confessed. Though we were innocent, we spent our formative years in prison, branded as rapists.”
The crime was splashed across front pages for months, with the teens depicted as symbols of violence and called “bloodthirsty,” “animals,” “savages” and “human mutations. Despite inconsistencies in their stories, no eye witnesses and no DNA evidence linking them to the crime, the five were convicted in two trials in 1990. McCray, Salaam and Santana were found guilty of rape, assault, robbery and riot. Richardson was found guilty of attempted murder, rape, assault and robbery. Korey was found guilty of sexual abuse, assault and riot. They spent between six and 13 years behind bars.
Adding fuel to the fire, weeks after the attack, in May 1989, real estate developer (and future U.S. president) Donald Trump took out full-page ads four New York City newspapers at the cost of $85,000, The New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post and New York Newsday with the headline, "Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!"
The Exonorated Five
In 2002 a convicted serial rapist and murderer Matias Reyes already serving time, confessed to the Meili attack. Reyes was a positive DNA match to evidence found at the crime scene. On December 19, 2002, a New York Supreme Court justice vacated the convictions of the five previously accused men.
In 2003, the Central Park Five filed a civil lawsuit against New York City for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination and emotional distress. City officials fought the case for more than a decade, before finally settling for $41 million dollars. The payout equaled about $1 million for each year of imprisonment, with four men serving about seven years and Wise serving about 13.
The NYPD has never issued a formal apology to the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five. Donald Trump has never apologized for taking out the full-page ad (which didn't name the five men explicitly) and decades later continues to repeat claims that they were responsible for the attack.
And I guess the $41 million New York City paid out is apology enough.
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What a powerful and succinct account of this travesty. And still these injustices take place. And No apologies …from NYPD or tRump!
Excellent article this evening, CELLYBLUE, you've laid down the Facks with Recipes and the Statistics. I'm excited for you, Good Job reporting, Keep em' coming, and will reStack ASAP 🔥💯👍🇺🇸💙🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊