DNA wins freedom for man after 26 years

Submitted by anthony on Thu, 2008-01-03 19:34

Story here. Excerpt:

"A man imprisoned since 1981 for sexual assault was freed after a judge recommended overturning his conviction.

Charles Chatman, 47, was released on his recognizance after serving nearly 27 years of a 99-year sentence. He was freed on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.

Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. That is more than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas, an organization of volunteers who investigate claims of wrongful conviction.

Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing. Including Chatman, the state will have released at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project."

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Comments

I would sue them for so much money they would have to name the state of Texas after me. Then I would go after the girl and do the same.

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

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Submitted by MrReality on Fri, 2008-01-04 13:57

...that the State that imprisons the most people (and executes the most people) of anywhere in the Western World, would also lead the USA in the number of people freed as a result of wrongful conviction.

Tough on crime also equals more innocent people locked up along the way. What a revelation!

Good thing DNA evidence is available in 20% of sexual assault cases.

To bad for the other 80% of sexual assault cases, and all the crimes that collecting DNA evidence is not standard practice for that also rely on witness testimony. They have no prayer of getting exoneration if they are wrongfully locked up.

Plus the fact that the Innocence project is NOT government funded and relies on volunteer workers and cannot even imagine having the ability to investigate even 5% of the cases they receive annually.

I say lets just shoot 'em all and let God sort it out! That's almost as good as what we have now anyway. (that's sarcasm if you hadn't already guessed)

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Submitted by Paragon on Fri, 2008-01-04 18:51

I believe our current President, a famous good 'ol bwoy Texan who chuckled every time his governor's "final appeal" phone rang, would call this --

"a serious misinterpolation of unjustice."

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Submitted by Roy on Fri, 2008-01-04 19:02

Gee, I just bet he gets $300 to $400K from the state for the 26 years he was illegally held.

Such a deal!!!

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Submitted by Luek on Fri, 2008-01-04 19:26

He would have a ball with this lawsuit.

"If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

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Submitted by MrReality on Fri, 2008-01-04 19:53

This dude should hire John Edwards, an acclaimed, successful trial lawyer who's made millions in just this sort of litigation for the common working man.

I'd wait until after February's Super-Tuesday state primaries to call him, because his hourly rates will be significantly cheaper then.

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Submitted by Roy on Sat, 2008-01-05 01:01

when i wore a "younger man's clothes" i was all for the death penalty. as we grow older we grow not only more mellow, but wiser.

everything anywhere close to our so called "justice system" is driven by $$. money has corrupted what was once called an "Honorable Profession". honest americans know it, and we all see it every day in the courtroom media circus.

with that knowledge why would we want to put people to death using a corrupted system? the Innocence Project has freed close to 250 men now that were wrongly convicted. wrongly convicted by a system we know is corrupt to the core. so we allow this corrupt system to murder innocent people, and we as a people turn the other cheek and pretend all is well. we joke about it. call it being tough on crime. and only 5% of the requests even get addressed? pitiful.

and what a lot of people don't realize is that it costs less to keep people in prison for life than to kill them, due to the corrupt lawyers sucking out all that taxpayer money up in the almost endless appeals required in a death penalty case.

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Submitted by daveinga on Sat, 2008-01-05 02:44

Unlike anything feminists want, The Innocence Project is not publicly funded at all and relies entirely on donations and volunteer efforts. They simply do not have the resources or staff to investigate most of the cases they receive. They narrow it down to the most likely winnable cases (usually the one's where DNA is still available) and then they take on the few of those cases that they can afford to and since they can only work when there is money to do so, it can often take 15 to 20 years before they gather enough evidence to bring the case back to court.

This is not at all a slight against The Innocence Project as they do incredible work. It is just merely to illustrate that all the money to do such work lies with the justice system pre-conviction and that the general public does not give enough of a crap to balance the equation a little by demanding that the government fund projects like the Innocence Project or just donate money themselves.

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Submitted by Paragon on Sat, 2008-01-05 16:42

Now the guy needs to find a way to sue to get 27 years of his life back, somehow...

Men's Rights + Women's Rights = HUMAN Rights

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Submitted by Boy Genteel on Sat, 2008-01-05 16:51

paragon.
"The general public does not give enough of a crap to balance the equation a little"
scott
The general public has been "conditioned" by a constant barage of women-as-victim agit-prop (classic textbook victim demagoguery)..to abandonded any sympathy for males.

Constant exposure to agit-prop, and the anti-male "media lace curtain" are very powerfull!!

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Submitted by scottkirk on Sat, 2008-01-05 16:53

Now the guy needs to find a way to sue to get 27 years of his life back, somehow...

That's what I had suggested. They are going to have to really hit this guy off to make up for this.

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

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Submitted by MrReality on Sat, 2008-01-05 19:59