Another death row exoneration in North Carolina

[User 4332]

Two brothers, both mentally disabled, convicted as teenagers. One has been on death row for 30 years. The other serving a life sentence.

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said the DNA evidence destroyed the case against the brothers, and suppported their exoneration. Before calling for their release, Britt read aloud the ethical guidelines requiring prosecutors to seek justice, not merely convictions.

"Based on all the new evidence, the state does not have a case to prosecute," Britt said.

McCollum was 19 and Brown 15 when they were charged with the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, Sabrina Buie.

The main evidence against the brothers were two confession, written in longhand by law enforcement and signed by each brother. The confession detailed how four youths gang-raped an 11-year-old girl in a Robeson County bean field and then jammed her panties down her throat with a stick.

McCollum and Brown say they were coerced into confessing.

Both men are mentally disabled; McCollum with an IQ in the 60s, Brown scoring as low as 49. They have maintained their innocence of the rape and murder of Sabrina Buie.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/02/4115955/robeson-men-innocent-of-childs.html

The N&O did a full write-thru of their story this weekend: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/30/4105707/on-death-row-tormented-by-watching.html

 

[Dick Whitman]

You guys should read some of the "confessions" that people make that they end up getting convicted on. I'll dig one up later and post it. Unbelievable stuff. Just sickening.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Think about how many innocent people were imprisoned or put to death before DNA technology.

And think about how many innocent people are imprisoned or going to be put to death for crimes where no physical evidence was collected, i.e. shootings.

This is some serious ****, you guys.

 

[User 11148]

You think this case somehow vindicates skepticism about police? Really?

This case, and many similar to it, is an absolute tragedy. But to lay the blame on "the police" (a la Ferguson, etc.) is to paint with a ridiculously overbroad brush. Hell, even the defense attorney (at the appeal stage) admits to browbeating the defendants to confess.

The real villains in this injustice are: 1) the State Bureau of Investigation agents who coerced the sham confessions; and 2) the prosecutor who got his belt notch, truth be damned.

But, having said that ... let me get this straight. We've got two guys, who've been unjustly imprisoned for decades, ruled to be innocent by a judge and ordered freed. And prison officials insist these guys have to spend one more night behind bars because they "need to be processed." What the hell?

 

[Dick Whitman]

You think this case somehow vindicates skepticism about police? Really?

This case, and many similar to it, is an absolute tragedy. But to lay the blame on "the police" (a la Ferguson, etc.) is to paint with a ridiculously overbroad brush. Hell, even the defense attorney (at the appeal stage) admits to browbeating the defendants to confess.

The real villains in this injustice are: 1) the State Bureau of Investigation agents who coerced the sham confessions; and 2) the prosecutor who got his belt notch, truth be damned.

I think that 300 confirmed DNA exonerations, many of them due to suggestive identifications and/or coerced confessions, vindicates skepticism about the police, yes I do.

Larger than that, though, I think that this case is another data point vindicating skepticism about the entire ****ed system of criminal justice we have. From police, to prosecutors, to juries, up to judges. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes not.

It's not good at determining guilt or innocence. It is, mostly, a lawyer contest.

 

[User 11148]

We're arguing nomenclature. You're using the word "police" as a catch-all term for the entire criminal justice system. I'm using it in a very narrow sense. "Police," as I'm using the word, played almost no role in this tragedy.

 

[deskslave]

We're arguing nomenclature. You're using the word "police" as a catch-all term for the entire criminal justice system. I'm using it in a very narrow sense. "Police," as I'm using the word, played almost no role in this tragedy.

I have to believe that you didn't actually read the articles in question, because you're not usually willingly obtuse.

The main evidence against the brothers was two detailed confessions, written in longhand by law enforcement and signed by each brother.

There's no question that there was malice at multiple levels in this case, but the police should never have presented the two for charges in the first place.

 

[User 11148]

We're arguing nomenclature. You're using the word "police" as a catch-all term for the entire criminal justice system. I'm using it in a very narrow sense. "Police," as I'm using the word, played almost no role in this tragedy.

I have to believe that you didn't actually read the articles in question, because you're not usually willingly obtuse.

The main evidence against the brothers was two detailed confessions, written in longhand by law enforcement and signed by each brother.

There's no question that there was malice at multiple levels in this case, but the police should never have presented the two for charges in the first place.

Again, I am referring to those police officers you see walking (or driving) around in uniform ... you know, policing. The kind of police who've been brought up in multiple conversations/discussions of late (e.g., Ferguson, "I'm a cop", etc.). The ones doing the shooting, the tasing, the beating.

The defendants here were brought in by the NC State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Those folks are law enforcement, yes, but they're not the type/level of law enforcement to which DW was referring vis-a-vis other conversations.

But I agree completely with you that the SBI should not have brought those guys in for questioning on the basis of a teenager's statement that so-and-so looks at girls funny.

And, yes, I read both of the articles.

 

[cjericho]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Think about how many innocent people were imprisoned or put to death before DNA technology.

And think about how many innocent people are imprisoned or going to be put to death for crimes where no physical evidence was collected, i.e. shootings.

This is some serious ****, you guys.

I don't know that people get as upset as they should about a guilty murderer still being out there every time someone gets exonerated. Guess it's better to have 1,000 guilty men walk than have 1 innocent man imprisoned. Just hope you or family doesn't cross the murderers or rapists.

 

[User 4332]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Think about how many innocent people were imprisoned or put to death before DNA technology.

And think about how many innocent people are imprisoned or going to be put to death for crimes where no physical evidence was collected, i.e. shootings.

This is some serious ****, you guys.

I don't know that people get as upset as they should about a guilty murderer still being out there every time someone gets exonerated. Guess it's better to have 1,000 guilty men walk than have 1 innocent man imprisoned. Just hope you or family doesn't cross the murderers or rapists.

I'm more angry that the apparent killer of this girl - Roscoe Artis - raped and killed another girl one month after police (and I'm using police to encompass the SBI agent, the sheriff's deputy and the Red Springs police who worked together on this case) elicited false confessions from these two than I am at the idea that a killer walks freely among us because of an exoneration.

To make it worse, at the time of this killing an active murder warrant for Artis was pending on the other side of the state, and he lived only a block from where the killing occurred. Had the police done a thorough job, he would have been suspect No. 1 from the get-go and this doesn't get pinned on two developmentally disabled teenagers - among the easiest groups from which to coerce a false confession.

****'s right that this kind of case should **** people off more than it seems to.

 

[qtlaw]

If you think it pisses off people who have had the benefit of an education (one of the great things about law school was learning criminal procedure and the things that occurred prior to the right of representation (Gideon v. Wainwright IIRC) and Miranda; think about the impact on those less educated and less fortunate; yes they get very pissed off and very skeptical of the "Police".

 

[Dick Whitman]

"Why wouldn't you just cooperate when the police want to talk to you?"

- YankeeFan and others, SportsJournalists.com, 8/2014

 

[Riptide]

Get off the cross, Dickie.

Maybe you should donate some of your office hours to the cause.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Think about how many innocent people were imprisoned or put to death before DNA technology.

And think about how many innocent people are imprisoned or going to be put to death for crimes where no physical evidence was collected, i.e. shootings.

This is some serious ****, you guys.

I don't know that people get as upset as they should about a guilty murderer still being out there every time someone gets exonerated. Guess it's better to have 1,000 guilty men walk than have 1 innocent man imprisoned. Just hope you or family doesn't cross the murderers or rapists.

I'm more angry that the apparent killer of this girl - Roscoe Artis - raped and killed another girl one month after police (and I'm using police to encompass the SBI agent, the sheriff's deputy and the Red Springs police who worked together on this case) elicited false confessions from these two than I am at the idea that a killer walks freely among us because of an exoneration.

To make it worse, at the time of this killing an active murder warrant for Artis was pending on the other side of the state, and he lived only a block from where the killing occurred. Had the police done a thorough job, he would have been suspect No. 1 from the get-go and this doesn't get pinned on two developmentally disabled teenagers - among the easiest groups from which to coerce a false confession.

****'s right that this kind of case should **** people off more than it seems to.

That's what caught my eye as well.

How the hell did no one put this together?

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Never had much respect for the legal profession.
There are still wrongful convictions in an age of technology.
So whose fault is it now?

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't know that people get nearly as upset about this as they should. These men were in prison for decades, one of them on death row, for a crime they did not commit.

There are multiple threads here that have turned into paens to the morally incorruptible American police officer, always willing to work with you as long as you are willing to show respect to him in return. But the number of DNA exonerations - i.e. instances where the person convicted could not have committed the crime - is now in the 300s, I believe. Here, one of the men had an IQ under 50.

This is the shame of a nation, and should be treated as such. It should shake people's faith in our system, in the Constitution, in law, to their very core.

Never had much respect for the legal profession.
There are still wrongful convictions in an age of technology.
So whose fault is it now?

Where does one begin?

English common law.

The Framers of the United States Constitution.

I can't pin too much blame on those two, though. They did the best they could at the time.

More importantly: Any number of police, lawyers and judges since then. Any number of newspapers that send eight people to cover an NFL game and zero to follow up on a murder.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

If the West Memphis 3 didn't move the public needle, then it's not going to be moved.
This miscarriage could just as easily happen today, just without the execution.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/21/us/george-stinney-hearing/

 

[Chef2]

Is Shawshank on a loop somewhere?

I've never seen the word obtuse used more in the last two days than it has been here .....

 

[Songbird]

Bernard Baran Jr., who spent 21 years in prison on child molestation charges that were overturned in 2006, has died, The Eagle learned on Wednesday.

<snip>

Baran, who is gay, was convicted in 1985 of sexually abusing five children at the Early Childhood Development Center in Pittsfield, where he worked at the time. His conviction came amid a nationwide hysteria involving child care sex abuse cases.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_26460338/bernard-baran-cleared-child-molestation-charges-dead-at

 

[Baron Scicluna]

"Why wouldn't you just cooperate when the police want to talk to you?"

- YankeeFan and others, SportsJournalists.com, 8/2014

Bit of a difference between getting a lawyer and cooperating and running away from the police, doncha think?