Monday, January 02, 2006

 

Does Innocence Matter?

There are big days coming up in the New Year, but an un-heralded one may be next Wednesday, January 11th. In 9 days, the U.S. Supreme court will hear the appeal of Paul Gregory House, a man who has been on Tennessee's death row for over 20 years, and has extremely strong claims of innocence; all the physical evidence linking House to the crime has been disproved or called into extreme doubt by the advent of DNA testing, and there are no witnesses to the crime and no confession. No confession by House that is. There are a number of witnesses who state that another man, the victim's husband, confessed to the murder.


The Supreme Court has not decided an innocence claim in a number of years, and next Wednesday's decision will offer a chance for the court to state whether or not the habeas process is open to those whoa re innocent or simply to correct procedural errors. The L.A. Times ran a great story on the House case that has more details and can be viewed at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deathcase2jan02,1,1468579.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

It's worth a look.
posted by Wiesendanger Permalink  
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