Imagine, a the age of eighteen, walking into the local grocery purchase bread and sweet potatoes for dinner, being arrested for heinous crimes you never committed, and spending the next twenty-seven years in the Kafka-esque world of a southern state criminal justice system. Oh, by the way, you are black...
This is exactly what happened to one Thomas Haynesworth in 1984 in Virginia. Yesterday, the state reluctantly concluded, that yes, this man was innocent of the crimes he committed, and it would be a good idea to issue him a writ of actual innocence, wipe his slate clean, and let him get on with his life--now that he's forty-six years of age!
Even with overwhelming evidence of his innocence, four of the ten appeals judges thought he should rot in prison anyway--
“The victims have not recanted, no one has confessed, and there is no direct evidence that Haynesworth did not commit these crimes,” Judges Larry G. Elder and William G. Petty wrote in a dissenting opinion. “The Attorney General has merely expressed his opinion that Haynesworth is innocent.”
Therefore, even though Virginia's case against the man was proved a complete web of lies, it's up to the guy rotting in state prison to provide direct evidence of his own innocence from 1984.
Kafka lives in Richmond, ya'll.
Blessedly, Haynesworth finally is a free man. How many more like him, however? OS suspects many, many more. There is a chilling quote from a Virginia AG in the 1990's, Mary Sue Terry, buried in the article: “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
Contemplate this, ya'll...
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
The only things that stand between prosecutors, cops and judges who would gladly send innocent people to prison and death row are juries and state legislatures that insist that truth matters. The situation in Tennessee is egregious, with some 3,000 complaints in the system against judges, all handled in secret, by other judges. They were indignant that the legislature (now controlled by the GOP) would dare break in on their comfortable way of doing business.
Using Tennessee’s Open Records Act, Tennessee Watchdog found only 23 public actions – reprimands, censures, suspensions or agreed orders – by the COJ against Tennessee judges forthe last 10 calendar years. That total represents less than one percent of the almost 3,000 complaints lodged against judges in the last decade.
OS reminds his readers--vote, and communicate with your state reps and senators. Vote in that local DA election. Do jury duty when called, if you possibly can. Play possum with the prosecutor during the voir dire. Then, if you even smell a hint of a lie from the cops and prosecution (who cheerily suborn perjury daily), hang that jury. Remember, the defendant will be crushed under the wheels of the state unless one juror stands tall.
And you, or your eighteen-year-old kid, could well be next. For them, truth matters not a moment, only the collecting of scalps in the pursuit of the judge's robes, or that partnership in the high-powered firm, or that governorship, or all of the above.
You are just a piece of meat to grind along the way.
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
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