fran
Former Member
http://www.ip-no.org/Connick_ Suppression_Report.pdf
Innocence Project New Orleans
According to available records, favorable evidence was withheld from 9 of the 36 (25%) men sentenced to death in Orleans Parish from 1973-2002. Four of those men were eventually exonerated, having been released only after serving a collective 43 years on death row. In other words, one in every four men sent to death row by the New Orleans District Attorneys office from 1973-2002 was convicted after evidence that could have cast doubt on their guilt was withheld from them at trial. Four men, about 11%, were completely innocent.
An additional 25 non-capital cases were examinedin which allegations of evidence suppression were made.1 In 19 of these cases, courts found favorable evidence was indeed withheld, and in all others the court deemed that the allegations warranted an evidentiary hearing. Of these non-capital cases, four men were later found innocent of their crimes and released from life sentences after having served 70 collective years in Angola. Ten more had their convictions reversed. As a result, the State bore the expense of holding new trials for each of these men - a significant cost to taxpayers that would have been avoided had the District Attorneys office not withheld evidence during the initial trial.
The imprisonment of the innocent is just one of many detrimental consequences of evidence suppression. There are several reasons why this practice must be confronted
I would say that 25% of inmates on death row from a particular parish is a little more than an 'occasional' miscarriage of justice.:doh:
I guess it's ok if it's not in one's own back yard or their loved one that's wrongly accused and their life is ruined.
JMHO
fran