NYT: Death Penalty Overturned, NC Man released from Prison

[LoveTrains]

So it seems like one topic that is NOT a unity horse issue is the death penalty. I read this recent exoneration with interest, because apparently Scalia has used this particular case as why we need the death penalty for truly heinous crimes. It appears that two african-american men were wrongfully convicted and are being freed/exonerated based on DNA evidence.

IMO, it seems like there are a lot of issues with this case (racial, mental capacity of men convicted), and I'm pleased to see these men finally freed. But it is sad that they had to spend 31 years in prison. I don't know if this speaks more to a "why we shouldn't have the death penalty" or more to "we need to examine racial bias in the courtroom" or something else?

www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/us/north-carolina-death-row-dna.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&abt=0002&abg=1&_r=0


Death Penalty Overturned, North Carolina Man Is Released From Prison

By JONATHAN M. KATZSEPT. 3, 2014


RALEIGH, N.C. — Henry Lee McCollum had barely slept in days, terrified that his dream of 31 years — being released from North Carolina’s death row for a crime he did not commit — might not come true.



But finally on Wednesday morning, after one more night of delays, he was driven out of the concertina-wire gates of the central prison in Raleigh, and to the waiting arms of his parents.



“I just thank God I’m out of this place,” Mr. McCollum, 50, said. “Now I want to eat, I want to sleep, and I want to wake up tomorrow and see that this is real.”



Henry Lee McCollum wiped tears at a hearing Tuesday in Lumberton, N.C., where a judge declared him and his half brother Leon Brown innocent and ordered them both released from prison.DNA Evidence Clears Two Men in 1983 MurderSEPT. 2, 2014

Despite a judge’s order Tuesday declaring them innocent in a 1983 rape and murder of a child, Mr. McCollum and his half brother, Leon Brown, remained in custody overnight as officials processed the paperwork for their release. But Mr. McCollum finally left the prison around 9:42 a.m. on Wednesday and Mr. Brown, 46, who had been serving a life sentence, was expected to be released this afternoon from another prison in eastern North Carolina, according to his lawyers.



James and Priscilla McCollum, Henry’s father and stepmother, began to cry and shout for joy as the son they call Buddy stepped out in a houndstooth jacket, khaki pants and slate blue tie he’d been given by the lawyers who helped secure his release. The team, from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, began weeping and hugging as well. Standing a free man in fresh air for the first time in his adult life, Mr. McCollum swatted away gnats as he faced a phalanx of television cameras. He told the reporters that his faith in God had sustained him through years of fear that the legal system that had wrongly incarcerated him would also wrongly take his life.



Mr. McCollum also spoke of the 152 men still on death row in the state prison, whom he called his family.



“You’ve still got innocent people on North Carolina death row,” he said. “Also you’ve got some guys who should not have gotten the death penalty. That’s wrong. You got to do something about those guys.”



Finally free, Mr. McCollum, who like Mr. Brown is mentally disabled (Mr. Brown’s IQ in tests has registered as low as 51) faces the challenge of his life: learning to live in a world he has not experienced since he was a teenager three decades ago. On death row, Mr. McCollum was never allowed to open a door, turn on the light switch, or use a zipper. He never had a cellphone, and until last week had not used the Internet. (He excitedly told his stepmother about his first use of Google Maps days ago, when he saw pictures of her house.)



When he got into the family car, a navy Dodge Journey, he sheepishly slipped the beige shoulder belt around his neck and let it hang, unsure of how to use it.



The lawyers with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation said that there was no plan to seek redress or to secure money for training from the state to assist with his reintegration into society.



“It’s not like being on probation or parole. It’s just — good luck,” said Gerda Stein, the center’s director of public information. The family did not immediately have plans to seek redress from the government, she said.



For now Mr. McCollum’s father, James, said he wanted to get his son back home to the small town of Bolivia, near Cape Fear.



“We’re going to go home to Bolivia, take a shower,” he said. “Then I’m going to say, ‘Do you want to go fishing? I’m going to teach you how to fish.'” As he got in the driver’s seat to leave, James McCollum put on a hat that said “Jesus Is My Boss.”

[orangeblossom]

So glad they're free. The sad thing is, they're just two of many who are wrongfully convicted and serving sentences ranging from years to the death penalty.

I'm glad that the organization that helped them, and Project Innocence and more exists to help people like them.

[Deleted]

Wow. I'm glad they were able to finally use the DNA evidence.

The one brother was only 15 or 16 when he was convicted?

[gpw]

The title of this thread makes it seem like the death penalty itself was overturned in NC! I was all  !

[wawa]

I think this case highlights how the fact that we have these racial biases in the courtroom means that the death penalty is not something I can stand behind in good conscience. I also wrestle with the entire concept of a "civilized" society putting people to death - but the known issues with our justice system knock me squarely into the anti camp. Frankly we just can't be trusted with life and death power over people until we can prove that the system isn't biased.

IMO, it seems like there are a lot of issues with this case (racial, mental capacity of men convicted), and I'm pleased to see these men finally freed. But it is sad that they had to spend 31 years in prison. I don't know if this speaks more to a "why we shouldn't have the death penalty" or more to "we need to examine racial bias in the courtroom" or something else?

So basically my answer to that would be both, but #2 leads to #1.

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 3, 2014 11:33:49 GMT -5 gpw said:

The title of this thread makes it seem like the death penalty itself was overturned in NC! I was all  !

Same here.

I'm glad they're free. Even as someone who's completely anti-DP, if they were sentenced to life in prison it would still be awful that they've been deprived of 31 years of life due to our imperfect criminal justice system. I do wish there was information about the case - namely, were/are there other suspects now?

[LoveTrains]

Sept 3, 2014 11:33:49 GMT -5 gpw said:

The title of this thread makes it seem like the death penalty itself was overturned in NC! I was all  !

You can thank the NYT for being a sensationalistic rag, then. I just copied it straight from them.

[anonymous]

Sept 3, 2014 11:36:45 GMT -5 wawa said:

I think this case highlights how the fact that we have these racial biases in the courtroom means that the death penalty is not something I can stand behind in good conscience. I also wrestle with the entire concept of a "civilized" society putting people to death - but the known issues with our justice system knock me squarely into the anti camp. Frankly we just can't be trusted with life and death power over people until we can prove that the system isn't biased.

IMO, it seems like there are a lot of issues with this case (racial, mental capacity of men convicted), and I'm pleased to see these men finally freed. But it is sad that they had to spend 31 years in prison. I don't know if this speaks more to a "why we shouldn't have the death penalty" or more to "we need to examine racial bias in the courtroom" or something else?

So basically my answer to that would be both, but #2 leads to #1.

this is exactly what I was thinking.  glad you articulated it better than I could have

[CrazyLucky]

Sept 3, 2014 11:38:56 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Sept 3, 2014 11:33:49 GMT -5 gpw said:

The title of this thread makes it seem like the death penalty itself was overturned in NC! I was all  !

Same here.

I'm glad they're free. Even as someone who's completely anti-DP, if they were sentenced to life in prison it would still be awful that they've been deprived of 31 years of life due to our imperfect criminal justice system. I do wish there was information about the case - namely, were/are there other suspects now?

There is another suspect now.  It's a 74 year old who is in prison, convicted of a similar crime committed a month after this one.  He hasn't admitted it, but they think it was him.

www.wral.com/after-30-years-in-prison-for-murder-half-brothers-walk-free/13946572/

[ESF]

Sept 3, 2014 11:36:45 GMT -5 wawa said:

I think this case highlights how the fact that we have these racial biases in the courtroom means that the death penalty is not something I can stand behind in good conscience. I also wrestle with the entire concept of a "civilized" society putting people to death - but the known issues with our justice system knock me squarely into the anti camp. Frankly we just can't be trusted with life and death power over people until we can prove that the system isn't biased.

IMO, it seems like there are a lot of issues with this case (racial, mental capacity of men convicted), and I'm pleased to see these men finally freed. But it is sad that they had to spend 31 years in prison. I don't know if this speaks more to a "why we shouldn't have the death penalty" or more to "we need to examine racial bias in the courtroom" or something else?

So basically my answer to that would be both, but #2 leads to #1.

On your first sentence -- Harry Blackmun, the SCOTUS justice who wrote Roe v Wade used to support the death penalty in his earlier years on the court, and before he resigned, he basically said, that while the practice might be constitutional on paper, it's never, ever going to be constitutional in practice, in large part because of biases and the flaws in human nature.  So you are in good company.

And I agree with you on the second.  It is simply not a practice befitting of a modern democratic society. It's not only morally wrong, but it is such an extreme grant of power to the government, and such an extreme exercise of that power.  We just don't need to kill bad people anymore.  We have progressed to the point where we do not need to vest with the government that level of power and control. 

Finally, here's a great take on it.  

www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/09/henry_lee_mccollum_cleared_by_dna_evidence_in_north_carolina_after_spending.2.html

I particularly liked this excerpt.

It never fails to astonish me that the same conservatives who argue that every last aspect of big government is irreparably broken and corrupt inevitably see a capital punishment system that is perfect and just. If you genuinely believe that the state can’t even fix a pothole without self-dealing and corruption, how is it possible to imagine that police departments and prosecutors’ offices are beyond suspicion, even though they are subject to immeasurable political pressure to wrap up cases, even when the evidence is shaky and ill-gotten, and even as there are other avenues that have gone unexplored? Cops and prosecutors aren’t necessarily bad. But they are subject to political and community pressure that sometimes leads to improper conduct and the suppression of the evidence of that conduct.

[Deleted]

It's hypocritical. "You bad man for arbitrarily taking someone else's life! Who said you could have that power? Just for that, we're going to take your life because we say we have that power."

And pretty much exactly what wawa said. I can't support it.