Court Clerk Fired For Helping Free Wrongly Convicted Man

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2013-08-15 05:29

Story here. Excerpt:

'After working 34 years as a court clerk in Kansas City, Sharon Snyder was fired in June for giving Robert Nelson a public document that showed him how to properly seek DNA tests, a move that eventually led to his release from prison three decades after being wrongfully convicted of rape.

Despite being punished for helping Nelson, Snyder told MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes" on Wednesday she would do it all over again.

"Oh yes, I would do it again," Snyder said in her first national television interview with Nelson. "I am so happy that he got exonerated on this charge, and felt that would happen or he wouldn't have filed that motion to start out with."'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

... or is there not something seriously wrong with a "justice system" that's more concerned with the form and format of requests and appeals than the question of whether or not justice is actually served?

Oh, I understand that to some degree, any system that doesn't maintain "proper channels" is asking to get mobbed. But in cases like this one, we're talking the difference between a man spending the better part of his life (or maybe all of what's left of it) in jail, or not. This is not a one-off case either of this kind of thing. In a word: "Ugh".

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-08-15 17:06

I think I get where the questionable act occurred. The article lacks in details. Mr. Nelson had requested DNA testing, but the judge denied his request on some "legal basis" of not meeting the requirements (a huge concern right there). The court clerk knew of a different case with similar circumstances, where the judge honored a request for DNA testing. Here is where the details stop, so I begin speculating. I think the document that she gave to the man's relative showed the inconsistency in the two cases requesting DNA testing, which allowed Mr. Nelson to re-submit his request, pointing out that the similar case had their request honored.

The judge did not like the exposure of his inconsistent rulings and probably played a part in getting the clerk fired. (speculation on my part).

This exposes a huge problem with our legal system and how much power judges and government employees have. Government employees have such little accountability and is why I feel we must keep government small and out of our lives as much as possible, My dad volunteers at the local jail and sees all kinds of injustices and government employees slacking in the jobs. Public defenders are a joke. Mr. Nelson's public defender should have been on top of this and familiar with other cases. he probably doesn't care and just gets paid to show up no matter what the outcome.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Kris on Sun, 2013-08-18 07:02