DNA test casts doubt on executed Texas man's guilt (Bush's final months as governor)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JEFF CARLTON

DALLAS (AP) - A DNA test on a strand of hair has cast doubt on the guilt of a Texas man who was executed 10 years ago during George W. Bush's final months as governor for a liquor-store robbery and murder.

The single hair had been the only piece of physical evidence linking Claude Jones to the crime scene. But the DNA analysis found it did not belong to Jones and instead may have come from the murder victim.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that uses DNA to exonerate inmates and worked on Jones' case, acknowledged that the hair doesn't prove an innocent man was put to death. But he said the findings mean the evidence was insufficient under Texas law to convict Jones.

Jones, a career criminal who steadfastly denied killing the liquor store owner, was executed by injection on Dec. 7, 2000, in the middle of the turbulent recount dispute in Florida that ended with Bush elected president.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20101111/D9JE715G0.html

[Hawkeye-X]

1. It is only fair that W gets charged for first degree murder with this man among many Americans

that he has murdered along with countless of innocent natives.

I'm sick of it, and that man needs to be charged for war crimes now.

[madmax]

2. This is why I have reservations about the death penalty

There are cases that make me want to push the syringe myself. And then there is this. Also, Karla Faye Tucker - who bush wouldn't commute her death sentence to life w/o parole. Despite the begging from right wing religious leaders.

[groundloop]

7. I've got more than "reservations" about death penalty - I'm flat out against it

It's murder, pure and simple. It's not self defense, the prisoner (even if they're guilty as hell) is behind bars where they're no longer a threat to society. IMHO - the death penalty is purely an act of revenge. These after the fact findings of wrongly applying the death penalty demand that it be done away with.

[madmax]

9. You are a much better person than I

There are crimes that the base instinct in me wants to see avenged. Many adamantly support it or deplore it - I'm in the middle - leaning more to abolishing it.

When living in NJ I donated and supported repealing the Death Penalty, for just this reason, dead is forever.

[Downwinder]

10. Human sacrifice.

[fascisthunter]

3. He'll Probably Laugh about it

[rasputin1952]

5. For a long time...

he's one soulless bastard...x(

[BlueStater]

4. What's one more corpse to this mass murderer? N/T

[rhett o rick]

6. The ruling class cant be bothered with executing the actual murderer. Anyone will do. nm

[sonias]

13. And that is so true here in Texas

This man is one of two men who may have been innocent of the crime they were executed for. Cameron Todd Willingham is another that was executed under Rick Perry's rule. When confronted with a possibility of a review of the junk science used in this fire case, Perry quickly appointed a new commissioner of the Forensic Science Board to cover his ass. Then when called to task on it, he said Willingham was a monster and deserved to die. To Perry if Willingham was not guilty of this fire he was guilty of something else and that was good enough for him.

Blood thirsty execution bastards! :grr:

[JonLP24]

8. This is what happens

when DP is allowed.

[El Supremo]

11. I have to remind you that the Texas Governor does not have the power to commute.

Only the power to issue a stay. Texas is different than other states like Illinois.

Having said that, he still could probably have helped prevent this execution.

[Peace Patriot]

12. There is simply no argument FOR the death penalty that can counter this. Juries are imperfect.

Judges are imperfect. Cops are imperfect. Prosecutors are imperfect. Defense lawyers are imperfect. The justice system as a whole is imperfect. None of us are God! Therefore we can NEVER KNOW FOR SURE if someone is guilty. Never! The most heinous crime even with "slam-dunk" witnesses and evidence COULD BE an illusion--mistaken identity, imperfect witness perception and other errors--not to mention being trumped up. We can't take that chance. Period. End of story.

Someone up-thread said that they are torn, that there are some crimes that are so horrible that they make you want revenge--death for the criminal. But what if it's the wrong criminal? What if a series of blunders, or justice system malfeasance, or conscious falsehoods got the wrong person sentenced to death for the crime? We must learn to separate the crime from proof of guilt and we must learn that proof of guilt is never "beyond a reasonable doubt." There is ALWAYS doubt. Human justice is IMPERFECT. No one wants heinous murderers or any kind of murderers running around free, unaccountable for their crimes (um, including the rich and powerful people who perpetrate torture, the mass slaughter of unjust war and other large-scale crimes). But I would want no one--and I mean NO ONE--put to death for any reason--even if we think we know who they are and what they did.

Death is forever, as someone else up-thread reminded us. We can't take it back. We can't rehabilitate. And we can't compensate for mistakes. The mistakes of the death penalty are forever--as most civilized countries have realized.

And speaking of civilization--especially progress in human rights, social justice, equality and peace: The death penalty coarsens peoples' sensibilities. Young children learn from it that putting someone to death solves problems. And they learn this also from all the attendant coarsenings that our society has exhibited: that violence solves problems, that guns solve problems, that the ones with the biggest, most powerful guns and no conscience get what they want, that unjust war is somehow "patriotic," that instilling mortal fear in others is desirable behavior, that human life is cheap, that prisoners are persons of no consequence who can be brutalized, tortured and raped with impunity because "they deserve it," that the poor and the homeless can be kicked to the curb, that anyone who is not in "our gang" is fair game, and on and on and on. All of these coarse views stem, directly or indirectly, from the death penalty. If the state commits cold-blooded murder, then murder is okay, and from that, all else follows, including the many horrifying injustices of our so-called justice system and the horrors of unjust war, torture and massive theft from the poor.

The fascists who profit from war want life to be cheap, and, in the United States of America, I am sorry to say, they have succeeded in institutionalizing that view. It's called "dog eat dog." 'And if you get eaten unfairly, ha-ha on you!' Really, it is perverse. It is sick. And possibly the most perverse aspect of it is how this "dog eat dog" view got associated with 'Christianity.' Whom would Jesus execute? Whom would Jesus bomb? Whom would Jesus torture? Whom would Jesus rob? While it's probably unrealistic to expect human justice to be based on Jesus' sole message--"Love they neighbor"--somehow fascist politicians have twisted "Love they neighbor" to mean "kill certain people" --those convicted of murder, those convicted of being Iraqis, those suspected of being "terrorists," and anyone whom fascist politicians identify as "enemies." It's okay to kill "them"--meanwhile these pious assholes invoke "Jesus" as "their lord" and "family values." It's mindboggling. It's "Alice in Wonderland" strange--upside down, inside out and backwards. It is hypocritical beyond belief. And it is wrong, wrong, WRONG!

[BrownieGman]

14. Dead souls enjoy killing

His soul went down a frat house toilet,,,close behind a gallon of puke ,,,!


----- As for his actions in office..PREMEDITATED WAR = " MURDER " ------



I feel for the fools that followed his lead,,and I hope your personal faith carried you threw...