Monday, April 28, 2008
Another Wrongful Conviction
Every time the howler reads a news story about a person wrongfully convicted of murder, she can't understand how people in the United States can still support capital punishment.
The latest story is about a Missouri man who was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The Associated Press reports that "tests on blood samples taken from the murder scene of Angela "Mischelle" Lawless...found they [were] not from Joshua Kezer, the accused.
Trial transcripts show there "were no witnesses to the killing. No physical evidence - DNA, fingerprints or murder weapon." Nada. "In fact, Kezer's friends and family say he wasn't even in the state the night Lawless was killed."
Trial transcripts show there "were no witnesses to the killing. No physical evidence - DNA, fingerprints or murder weapon." Nada. "In fact, Kezer's friends and family say he wasn't even in the state the night Lawless was killed."
The law officer who found the dead woman's body never felt Kezer was guilty. And when he became the local sheriff, he did something about it; he reopened the case.
Fortunately, The Innocence Project in New York City also became involved, picking up some of the costs for the DNA testing.
Fortunately, The Innocence Project in New York City also became involved, picking up some of the costs for the DNA testing.
Like nearly every wrongful conviction, it's either a snitch who lies or an eye witness who gets it wrong. In this case, a jury convicted Kezer on the the testimony of notoriously unrealiable "jailed informers."
Poor Keser has been sitting in a prison for almost 15 years for a murder he didn't commit. Meanwhile the person who killed the former cheerleader whose dead body was found dead in the car by the highway exit ramp is still running free.
Well thank God Almighty that Kezer didn't live in Virginia; he'd already be dead, for sure.
H/T Southeast Missourian for image.
H/T Southeast Missourian for image.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 8:56 PM 
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