Plea Deals

The Houston Chronicle had a great article backin February about the growing number of individuals who served time after pleading out of a drug case; often these deals were presented with an expiration date, a kind of ‘take it now, or or it’s going to get worse’ type of thing.

            The problem is that sometimes, when the lab report on the cases came back (well after the individual had begun to serve their time), the tests would reveal that there were never any drugs involved, or that the amount was too small to have warranted a charge.

            You may remember Carlos Coy mentioning that he was offered a plea deal, only five years for confessing to the charges revolving around Jill Odom and Jane Doe. In his words,  "I told my lawyer, “I’ll take ten years for my son, but I won’t say I did something that I didn’t do.”

            Some will say that the drug pleas are small cases; that they are meaningless. The problem is, the attitude that allows this can and will extend into other other areas. Sgt Ryan Chandler of the HPD is currently being investigated for failing to investigate the cases he was given; those cases were typically homicides and the deaths of children.

            This was an ongoing problem, ignored and perhaps covered up by his peers and superiors; he refused to testify in court about these cases because apparently, he refused to put in the work. How many citizens were railroaded into plea deals without ever seeing a courtroom because an officer simply didn’t feel like doing the legwork involved in the case?

            How many of those currently in prison are there because they'd rather serve two years for a crime they didn't commit than ten for the same thing? How many who refused to take the "easy" path ended up spending long years in prison because of a lack of even a cursory examination of their cases? Who thought that they had nothing to fear from a trial because, "Hey, the police are going to look into this and figure out the truth!"?The respect that so many of us hold for The Law, The Police, and The Experts is never challenged by the revelation that these institutions are made up of human beings.

It’s a no-win situation; take a plea deal and serve a lttle time for a crime you didn’t commit, or demand your right to a trial and face a justice system system that has shown time and time again that it doesn’t give a shit for the presumption of innocence.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/More-being-exonerated-of-minor-crimes-5217977.php

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Disciplinary-letters-reveal-lax-investigation-in-5415789.php?t=80fe03d6a4

http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Investigate-the-Houston-Police-Department-5393679.php

http://www.spmaftermath.com/2012/11/spm-responds-part-10a.html

The CAC Saga

So,yeah...this happened. The Houston DA’s office partnered with the local Children’s Assessment Center to launch a public awareness campaign aimed at child abuse. It’s a noble goal, no one could deny that.

However, I would love to see a similar effort made to raise awareness of the CAC’s own bad behavior in the past, with an effort to repair the lives that it has torn apart. Recall, if you will, the clusterfuck caused by nurse Colleen Taft, resulting in hundreds of cases being brought under review. Problems with her work were brought to light in 2004:

Last week, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal expressed concern that some people may have been wrongfully convicted based on Taft's work. The prosecutor in charge of the review confirmed Wednesday that the probe now extends to about 30 children's cases Taft worked on at Memorial Hermann.

"Yes, we are having those cases pulled," Oncken said. "We've gotten a list of those cases and are in the process of determining which ones resulted in criminal charges."

Oncken was the lead prosecutor in Coy’s case; her team benefitted from evidence gathered by the CAC, and then she was asked to look into the source of that evidence and determine whether or not it was ‘good’ evidence. Not surprisingly, there is almost no word on how this investigation turned out.

I applaud the DA’s willingness to fight for innocent children. Let’s see if we can’t also fight for innocent men and women.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Probe-of-nurse-s-child-abuse-exams-expands-1973880.php

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/memorial/news/harris-county-officials-join-children-s-assessment-center/article_2972fce0-baa0-11e3-a598-0019bb2963f4.html

Letter to Devon Anderson 7

Time for another letter to the DA; as always please feel free to copy this one, write your own, or send one of the blog flyers.


The Honorable Devon Anderson

1201 Franklin Street, Suite 600

Houston, Texas

77002-1923 

Ma’am,

I’m writing to you today about the case of Carlos Coy, #908426.

There was an excellent article in The Houston Chronicle about quality control; a gathering of Justice System officials, lawyers, and doctors and aviation officials met in Pennsylvania met to discuss the merits of a formalized post-exoneration review process.

            The idea of a non-punitive review of each wrongful conviction to determine what went wrong, and how to avoid similar errors in the future, is a great one; an oversight committee dedicated to improving the justice system, and not parcelling out blame, could save future innocents from suffering in prison.

            I believe, if such a committee ever reviews Carlos Cy’s case, that they will likely find examples of Brady violations, of court officers that were peculiarly supportive of the prosecution’s attempts to change testimony mid-tial, and of experts that utilized their position to make claims that cannot be supported by science.

Please, consider reviewing Coy’s case. We have no new evidence, but a brief glance at the old will show that the case against him was weak, and seems almost manufactured. The complainant’s own testimony undermines the charges against him, and if we have learned anything from the numerous non-DNA exonerations in the last few years it’s that anyone, anywhere, could conceivably be convicted of any crime, even if they were out of state or in prison at the time it was committed. 

Me, my address, etc, etc.

http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Legal-minds-eye-quality-control-for-convictions-5398861.php?cmpid=htx

Dear Family 19

3/31/2014
Dear F.A.N.S. 

     Hey, I love you. I wrote you a quick Cold Forty, with a brief mention of the S.O.N.'s change in release date. Got more mail coming your way.

Con Amor,

Los

SING IT IF YOU KNOW THE HOOK

(Another Cold 40)

Call me Billy Grams as I put you in a trance

not a witch doctor but I am what I am

no Ma’am, no pay for da gas, or da ass

it’s all Taco Bell, run for da border fast

whip lash, whips dash, but I slow for the fans

Autographs, plenty laughs, brothers, uncles, aunts

all cash, no tax, Screw chopped, wid da ax

now watch, how he acts, nonfiction, all facts

let me dip into my story, Dope House for da glory

Big Shot Bob Horry, Asian man, “So sorri”,

Neva say “poor me”, all I say is “pour me”

a four please, mornings, approaching the floor G

that rhymes with orgy, but I stay porn-free

even when I’m corny- neva rock the mike poorly,

Losy flow, shocka fool, wreck me? imposterbull

rooster like “Cockadool!”, even make ya momma drool

pop a few of these pills, I’mma bring da medicine

music for ya felon friends, music for da eloquent

hataz got me hellabent, I don’t ride a renta-Vette

nigga in the pen ‘n’ gettin lit, wait a second pimp

let me catch my breath again, new name, guess it, mayne

Super Power Mexicain, but I changed it yestaday

Sand Piper Musicman, Him and All Da Screwston Band

neva will I lose a fan, if he leave he stupid man

watch how I shoot the can, even when it’s far away

Crane Style, Tiger Blow, so my good Karma stay

new date, is Ju-ly, sorry for the June lie

if I gotta lie again, sorry Pain but you die

nigga still blowin minds, kids good, growin fine

Momma gettin old with time, Gina on the sofa cryin

pourin my, fo in sty, -ro as I’m, blowin pine

lost in the ocean tryin hard to reach an open line

Love is what I hope ya find, mesh it with ya own design

bless’em with this flow of mine, play it on a slowa grind

walkin under solar lights, sippin drank and holdin mikes

askin if I’m throwed is, like, askin if a cobra bites

life is still an open book, only hurts when no one looks

first chapter, Coke and Crooks, let the bakin soda cook

product that the hopeless push, in tha city, or da woods

ghettos gettin overtook, sing it if ya know the hook.......

Los

Contest Winner

Alright, the voting is closed; the winner of our contest is commenter Eddie, who said "I think it means he writes with a blue pen but its red cus hr killed rob with it.. Its bloody"

Here's the answer SPM provided:

At the end of my forty, I say a man was killed by a pen. The pen is red from blood, from being used to kill the man. But it writes in Blue. 

Thanks so much for reading and participating, everyone.

Waco Lake Murders

For today’s post, I’m going to point you to an excellent article over at the Texas Monthly, which I stumbled across via Grits For Breakfast.

This is a long, long, (longlonglong) piece written from various perspectives about the Waco lake murders. Four men were imprisoned for the rape & murder of three teens. One, David Spence, was executed by the state in 1997, one died in prison, one was exonerated in 1993 and one, Anthony Melendez, remains incarcerated.

It’s sobering, because it shows how much time and effort it takes to get a wrongful conviction overturned. The level of bullshit displayed is a little disheartening; that’s what we’re up against. Still, the dedication displayed by numerous unconnected people is awe-inspiring. People can’t give a shit, unless they’re aware of shit; but you get information into the hands of the right people and mountains can be moved.

We need to know about these cases and be able to talk about them because I don’t believe that what happened to Carlos Coy was something unique, or out of the ordinary. Texas has railroaded its citizens, locking them away for years for crimes they did not commit. It’s documented, it’s publicized, and yet it’s not going to stop without the informed outrage of its citizens.

The Murders at The Lake