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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 7:54:32 GMT -5
reason.com/blog/2014/09/03/mentally-disabled-men-sent-to-death-rowTwo North Carolina men who were convicted of the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1983 were exonerated yesterday after new DNA evidence proved their innocence. The men, Henry Lee "Buddy" McCollum and Leon Brown, are stepbrothers. McCollum, 19 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death and spent 30 years on North Carolina’s death row, making him one of the longest serving death row prisoners in the state. Brown, 15 at the time of the crime, was also sentenced to death but was later retried and sentenced to life in prison. Both men are considered mentally disabled—McCollum’s IQ is between 60 and 69 and Brown’s IQ is 49. Recent DNA testing of a cigarette butt found near the scene of the crime implicated convicted rapist and murderer Roscoe Artis, who lived a few hundred feet from the field where the body of the 11-year-old victim, Sabrina Buie, was found. Artis is currently on death row in North Carolina for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Joann Brockmann—a crime he committed less than a month after McCollum and Brown were arrested. Despite the fact that both murders were carried out in a similar way (both girls were raped, asphyxiated, and left in fields), within a month of one another, and in a town of roughly 4,000 people, Artis was never even considered as a suspect in the Buie murder. No physical or forensic evidence tied either McCollum or Brown to the crime. Instead, their convictions were largely based on confessions written by police, which the men signed. In a recent video interview with Raleigh’s The News & Observer, McCollum said, “I just made up a story and gave it to them so they would let me go home.” According to the Innocence Project, roughly 30 percent of defendants exonerated by DNA evidence gave false confessions, falsely incriminated themselves, or pled guilty to crimes they did not commit. Both men later recanted their confessions and said they were coerced. At his trial, McCollum recanted his confession 226 times. The prosecutor on the case, Joe Freeman Britt, who was once listed in Guinness World Records as the “deadliest prosecutor” after winning 46 death row cases. Known for his theatrics in court, Britt famously held the courtroom in a silence for five minutes during McCollum and Brown’s trial to emphasize how long it took Buie to suffocate. World's "Deadliest Prosecutor" McCollum and Brown’s innocence was proven only after the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a state agency established in 2006 “to investigate and evaluate post-conviction claims of factual innocence," decided to take on their cases. Before then, McCollum and Brown’s guilt was never questioned. Indeed, McCollum was even used as an example by United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to justify the death penalty. In 2010, the North Carolina Republican Party sent around campaign mailers containing McCollum’s mug shot before the state’s general election, attacking state Democrat’s support for the Racial Justice Act. Now retired, Britt told The News Observer last Friday he still has no doubts over the men’s guilt. “You find a cigarette, you say it has Roscoe Artis’ DNA on it, but so what? It’s just a cigarette, and absent some direct connection to the actual killing, what have you got? Do you have exoneration? I don’t think so,” said the man whose prosecution relied solely on confessions written by police and signed by mentally disabled teenagers. Defense attorneys say McCollum was the last person prosecuted by the “deadliest prosecutor” who remained on death row. According to The New York Times, McCollum and Brown’s release from prison “provided one of the most dramatic examples yet of the potential harm from false, coerced confessions and of the power of DNA tests to exonerate the innocent.” I’d go a step further and argue their innocence (or at least McCollum’s) demonstrates, once again, just how broken the death penalty is in the United States. Isn’t it time for it to just die already?
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Post by brookboy123 on Sept 4, 2014 8:01:32 GMT -5
....better 100 guilty go free than one innocent to the gallows.
yessiree.
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Post by psk836 on Sept 4, 2014 8:03:10 GMT -5
I saw that last night on CNN and it made me absolutely furious. All they had on them was their confessions, which they gave after 5 hours of interrogation with no attorneys present, and which they gave because they thought if they gave the police what they wanted then they would just be allowed to go home. The prosecutor in this case should be sent to jail for 30 years himself for this travesty.
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Post by peteetongman on Sept 4, 2014 8:05:14 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice
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Post by brookboy123 on Sept 4, 2014 8:08:21 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice Why wouldn't any state try to correct such an egregious injustice?
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Post by psk836 on Sept 4, 2014 8:09:09 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice They're only halfway there pete. The law enforcement people involved in this need to face some pretty serious charges and some pretty serious fines and jail time.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 8:16:05 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice I would call it "bringing and injustice to an end." Correcting the injustice would get them the 30 years of their lives back.
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Post by peteetongman on Sept 4, 2014 8:16:19 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice Why wouldn't any state try to correct such an egregious injustice? Let's hope they follow NC's lead
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Post by peteetongman on Sept 4, 2014 8:18:27 GMT -5
congrats to a southern state for correcting injustice I would call it "bringing and injustice to an end." Correcting the injustice would get them the 30 years of their lives back. call it what you want. they did what was possible
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Post by thelion on Sept 4, 2014 8:29:10 GMT -5
I would call it "bringing and injustice to an end." Correcting the injustice would get them the 30 years of their lives back. call it what you want. they did what was possible Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'.
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 8:37:38 GMT -5
call it what you want. they did what was possible Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'. So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything.
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 8:37:56 GMT -5
call it what you want. they did what was possible Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'. So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything.
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Post by shaniqua on Sept 4, 2014 8:39:57 GMT -5
Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'. So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything. But bobo can talk about exterminating American citizens he doesn't agree with and you keep silent. You are a hateful old biddy.
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 8:45:32 GMT -5
So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything. But bobo can talk about exterminating American citizens he doesn't agree with and you keep silent. You are a hateful old biddy. I do not recall any rule on this board that requires me to read and respond to every post here. As for a post from Beau advocating "exterminating" American citizens, I have read no such post. Alternatively I have read many hateful, nasty posts from you and have refrained from responding to those also. As for your deecription of me - it could be very hurtful to someone who gave a damn what you think - I don't.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 8:47:09 GMT -5
Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'. So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything. Or we just do away with the death sentence altogether and not ever have to worry about killing an innocent person.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 8:51:21 GMT -5
But bobo can talk about exterminating American citizens he doesn't agree with and you keep silent. You are a hateful old biddy. I do not recall any rule on this board that requires me to read and respond to every post here. As for a post from Beau advocating "exterminating" American citizens, I have read no such post. Alternatively I have read many hateful, nasty posts from you and have refrained from responding to those also. As for your deecription of me - it could be very hurtful to someone who gave a damn what you think - I don't. That happens a lot.
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Post by shaniqua on Sept 4, 2014 8:55:44 GMT -5
I do not recall any rule on this board that requires me to read and respond to every post here. As for a post from Beau advocating "exterminating" American citizens, I have read no such post. Alternatively I have read many hateful, nasty posts from you and have refrained from responding to those also. As for your deecription of me - it could be very hurtful to someone who gave a damn what you think - I don't. That happens a lot. Selective memory... What a loser lady.
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 8:58:54 GMT -5
I do not recall any rule on this board that requires me to read and respond to every post here. As for a post from Beau advocating "exterminating" American citizens, I have read no such post. Alternatively I have read many hateful, nasty posts from you and have refrained from responding to those also. As for your deecription of me - it could be very hurtful to someone who gave a damn what you think - I don't. That happens a lot. Very interesting to find out that you and Shanniqua think that Beau wanting to "exterminate" (Shanniqua's term) people he believes are destroying this country should be sent packing yet it is okay for Lion to advocate "gutting and skinning" those that he felt are responsible for this bad, bad turn of justice which would most certainly cause their deaths. (BTW wouldn't that include the jury? Your warped sense of right and wrong certainly gives one pause.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 9:08:15 GMT -5
Very interesting to find out that you and Shanniqua think that Beau wanting to "exterminate" (Shanniqua's term) people he believes are destroying this country should be sent packing yet it is okay for Lion to advocate "gutting and skinning" those that he felt are responsible for this bad, bad turn of justice which would most certainly cause their deaths. (BTW wouldn't that include the jury? Your warped sense of right and wrong certainly gives one pause. What exactly did you read that lead you to believe any of that? I merely commented on how often you don't see the "nasty" and "perverse" things that Snuffles posts and how you rarely miss it when it's someone that disagrees with you politically.
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Post by shaniqua on Sept 4, 2014 9:09:06 GMT -5
Wrong again. Bobo has frequently called for the EXTERMINATION of liberals, and you know it. But do keep the blinders on and keep exposing your bigotry. You are amusing.
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 10:00:05 GMT -5
Very interesting to find out that you and Shanniqua think that Beau wanting to "exterminate" (Shanniqua's term) people he believes are destroying this country should be sent packing yet it is okay for Lion to advocate "gutting and skinning" those that he felt are responsible for this bad, bad turn of justice which would most certainly cause their deaths. (BTW wouldn't that include the jury? Your warped sense of right and wrong certainly gives one pause. What exactly did you read that lead you to believe any of that? I merely commented on how often you don't see the "nasty" and "perverse" things that Snuffles posts and how you rarely miss it when it's someone that disagrees with you politically. I notice in all of that attack on me you have been able to sidle by the FACT that Lion advocated "gutting and skinning" the prosecurtors and the judge (I'm still wondering how the jury escaped his hate). As for what I read and what I miss guess that is just the way it is. You don't like it - quit attacking me and I will be delighted not to read another of your ugly posts.
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Post by shaniqua on Sept 4, 2014 10:01:58 GMT -5
Ooh ooh ooh, HolyMary is gonna cry to bobo now...watch for it.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 10:05:39 GMT -5
What exactly did you read that lead you to believe any of that? I merely commented on how often you don't see the "nasty" and "perverse" things that Snuffles posts and how you rarely miss it when it's someone that disagrees with you politically. I notice in all of that attack on me you have been able to sidle by the FACT that Lion advocated "gutting and skinning" the prosecurtors and the judge (I'm still wondering how the jury escaped his hate). As for what I read and what I miss guess that is just the way it is. You don't like it - quit attacking me and I will be delighted not to read another of your ugly posts. I'm not attacking you. I'm merely making an observation. He did, but I took that as being metaphorical. I could be wrong about that though. I would certainly never advocate for that because I am against the death penalty regardless of the method used. You didn't answer my question about where you read that I believe any of those things you claimed I believe. Should I take your silence on that to mean that you were mistaken?
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Post by numarymag on Sept 4, 2014 10:17:23 GMT -5
I was not mistaken and my OPINION is mine regardless of how much you whine Evil.
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Post by shaniqua on Sept 4, 2014 10:20:17 GMT -5
Paranoid but amusing holymary
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Post by psk836 on Sept 4, 2014 10:23:04 GMT -5
Personally I think the problem with our system is not the death penalty per se, it's that we incentivize high conviction rates for prosecutors and law enforcement officials and there is no recourse against them when they abuse and corrupt the system.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 10:25:47 GMT -5
I was not mistaken and my OPINION is mine regardless of how much you whine Evil. You are mistaken. In fact, you're flat out lying. It's okay though as I've come to expect this from you especially when dealing with me.
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Post by thelion on Sept 4, 2014 10:25:58 GMT -5
Gutting and skinning the prosecutor and the *investigating* cops would be what is 'possible'. So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything. Idiom is completely beyond you.
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Post by evilconempire on Sept 4, 2014 10:32:43 GMT -5
So killing those that you find guilty is okay but not the ones that were found guilty in a court of law? What happened to these men was terrible and obviously they have done the best they can to correct a wrong. Perhaps death sentences should be reviewed by an independent group of legal minds to determine that the sentence was in line with the evidence of guilt. Certainly killing those that found them guilty doesn't help anything. Idiom is completely beyond you. Okay, so just to be clear for those that don't know what that word means, you do NOT want to actually kill those responsible for sending these innocent men to prison?
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Post by thelion on Sept 4, 2014 10:40:51 GMT -5
Idiom is completely beyond you. Okay, so just to be clear for those that don't know what that word means, you do NOT want to actually kill those responsible for sending these innocent men to prison? Quite correct - by 'gutting and skinning' I mean 'taking these chuckleheads to the cleaners' (oops, another idiom, I'l probablu have to explain THAT one, too) in any civil suit and stripping them bare financially, and if there is any CRIMINAL action (conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights, etc.) that they get appropriate prison time.
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