Bad day for the Pro-Death Penalty crowd! DNA Tests Undermine Evidence in Texas Execution!

[devilgrrl]

New results show Claude Jones was put to death on flawed evidence.

Oops!!! :sarcasm:

Claude Jones always claimed that he wasn’t the man who walked into an East Texas liquor store in 1989 and shot the owner. He professed his innocence right up until the moment he was strapped to a gurney in the Texas execution chamber and put to death on Dec. 7, 2000. His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene—a strand of hair—that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones.

But DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project show the hair didn’t belong to Jones after all. The day before his death in December 2000, Jones asked for a stay of execution so the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing. He was denied by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

A decade later, the results of DNA testing not only undermine the evidence that convicted Jones, but raise the possibility that Texas executed an innocent man. The DNA tests—conducted by Mitotyping Technologies, a private lab in State College, Pa., and first reported by the Observer on Thursday—show the hair belonged to the victim of the shooting, Allen Hilzendager, the 44-year-old owner of the liquor store.

Because the DNA testing doesn’t implicate another shooter, the results don’t prove Jones’ innocence. But the hair was the only piece of evidence that placed Jones at the crime scene. So while the results don’t exonerate him, they raise serious doubts about his guilt. As with the now-infamous Cameron Todd Willingham arson case, the key forensic evidence in a Texas death penalty case has now been debunked.

<snip>

Documents show that attorneys in the governor’s office failed to inform Bush that DNA evidence might exonerate Jones. Bush, a proponent of DNA testing in death penalty cases, had previously halted another execution so that key DNA evidence could be examined. Without knowing that Jones wanted DNA testing, Bush let the execution go forward.

More: http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/texas-observer-exclusive-dna-tests-undermine-evidence-in-texas-execution

discuss...

[Orrex]

1. It'll be a better world when we can execute people simply because they're inconvenient or unpleasant

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. Bush was involved...'nuff said...

I still support the death penalty, but only in cases where guilt is clear cut, 100% irrefutable by video, confession or DNA evidence. I also support a moritorium on all death sentences being carried out unless the above mentioned criteria has been met.

The strand of hair in this story was never even checked to see if it was the defendant's??? Something stinks with this story...

[howaboutme]

6. That's about how I feel.

There must be overwhelming evidence and corroboration to the extent that there is virtually no possibility of an innocent person being executed or of being set up by police or prosecution. DNA evaluation must be required in application of all evidence. The recent case in the Connecticut home invasion killings is an example of a clear cut need for the death penalty.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LiberalFighter]

4. They need to find DNA that proves either Bush or Perry committed the murders.

[Subdivisions]

5. Imagine the horror that man went through knowing he didn't do what he was

being executed for.

[duhneece]

7. & then multiply that by the number of other innocents

I believe he cannot be the only innocent person who was killed by the state.

[Alexander]

8. All those DUers advocating execution without trial are mysteriously absent from this thread.

[Rage for Order]

9. Not really

It's not like this guy was a saint. From the article you posted:

"Born in Houston in 1940, he was arrested numerous times and spent three stints in prison on robbery, assault and theft charges. While serving an eight-year sentence in a Kansas prison, Jones allegedly doused another inmate with lighter fluid and set him on fire."

It's hard to muster up much indignation over the fact that someone who killed another human being by setting them on fire was executed. Sounds like he was executed for the wrong crime. Also, it's not like he denies being involved in the crime for which he was executed. The only argument is which dirtbag actually pulled the trigger:

"He was put to death for what allegedly happened on the afternoon of Nov. 14, 1989.

Jones and an accomplice named Kerry Daniel Dixon pulled into Zell’s liquor store in the East Texas town of Point Blank, about 80 miles northeast of Houston. They had a .357 magnum revolver given to them by a third man, Timothy Jordan.

Either Jones or Dixon remained in the pickup truck, while the other went inside and shot the store’s owner, 44-year-old Allen Hilzendager, three times and made off with several hundred dollars from the cash register."


So no, it's not really a bad day after all.

:shrug:

[SidDithers]

10. K&R...nt

Sid

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. And life in prison is also CHEAPER

(And I will leave the moral arguments out)

For those who advocate the death penalty... it is high time the US has very public and mandatory watching executions...

(For the record I am against it... but I know people need to actually watch them... every one of them, to get what the state does)

Oh and it wasn't just Bush... later on another man was also executed that might have been innocent as well. That warrant was signed by Perry.

If we sent the wrong man to jail for life, they can be released. If we kill them... that cannot be undone.

[alp227]

12. Just read this on Drudge Retort. And Bush reads this and smirked. n/t

[11 Bravo]

13. When presented with these facts, former president George W. Bush responded ...

Heh heh, ya' can't make a omelet without breakin' a few eggs. 'Sides, I was a wartime preznit, heh heh. And a cowboy. And mommy loved me best!