TCCA Judge says wut?

I found this very cool piece about Judge Elsa Alcala (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) and her opinions on the death penalty; although it focuses primarily on capital murder cases, it is heartening to see that even a judge on the TCCA questions the accuracy of our justice system. From the article:

Aside from the court’s well-documented missteps, there are other signs of the system’s imperfections in the wave of exonerations of Texans, such as Michael Morton, who were wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for many years, while the true criminals went free. Oftentimes, the guilty go on to commit more crimes, which was true in the Morton case in which the person who murdered Morton’s wife, went on to kill another woman.

It’s worth noting that Texas led the nation in the number of people wrongly convicted of crimes, who were exonerated in 2015, according to figures compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations. In all, 54 people were exonerated for mostly homicide and drug cases going back to 2004. New York was second with 17. False identifications by witnesses, misconduct by police or prosecutors, errors by crime labs or defense attorneys, all are among the things that can and do go wrong.

It’s no wonder Alcala is uncomfortable remaining silent. Doing so perpetuates the fallacy that the state’s death penalty is carried out fairly and justly. That might be what many wish it to be, but it is not the reality.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/opinion/texas-death-penalty-beyond-repair-so-think-about-e/nrpRR/

Sonia Cacy

I have to say, it’s a little weird that I never have to look very hard for a new story of a wrongful conviction in Texas. Today’s victim of the state is Sonia Cacey, a woman who served 6 years of a 99 year sentence for murder. Although she was paroled in 1998, she’s spent the last 18 years living with a murder conviction.

            The judge who performed the initial review declared her innocent, but the case must go through the Court of Criminal Appeals before she can be considered exonerated.  I believe she appealed under SB344, which allows a writ of Habeas Corpus based on faulty or discredited scientific evidence.

For those of you losing heart, just remember that it’s never too late for justice; it may take longer than we’d like, but eventually the truth will come out in Carlos Coy’s case. Take heart, keep spreading the word, and never, ever give up.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/07/01/texas-womans-murder-conviction-reviewed-by-court/

http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/leading-fire-investigation-into-the-twenty-first-century/

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/06/06/judge-rules-sonia-cacy-innocent-case-goes-cca/

Kerry Max Cook

A slightly bizarre turn of events in the Kerry Max Cook case; he was released in 1999 after 3 botched murder trials and 20 years in prison. Although he signed a plea deal for his release, he’s been fighting to prove his actual innocence to this day.

He recently fired his Innocence Project lawyers, accusing them of bullying him into a plea deal that would remove any accountability from the prosecutors who imprisoned him. He plans to represent himself in the future.

I admire his fortitude, and hope that he finally receives justice. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if Carlos Coy had taken the plea deal that prosecutors offered him but I think that, ultimately, the truth is what matters and it’s what you have to fight for.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/06/former-death-row-inmate-fires-lawyers-threatens-to-undo-his-own-exoneration-deal.html/

Flooding & Evacuations

Those of you who are not in Texas may not realize that we have been inundated with rain the past few weeks. Parts of the Ramsey Unit, where SPM is incarcerated, have been evacuated. I don’t know if he is among the inmates who have been moved, but hopefully we’ll get an update soon.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-flooding-idUSKCN0YQ0RL

http://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Third-Texas-prison-unit-evacuated-because-of-Brazos-River-flooding-381784271.html

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/tdcj-evacuates-another-prison-unit-in-rosharon-as-brazos-river-rises-8453845

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Inmates-riot-during-Texas-flooding-that-forces-7952589.php

Spread the word

I want to say a very big thank you to Mark Serna, who put one of our SoundCloud phone calls on a YouTube video. YouTube is a little bit more well-known, a little bit more accessible, and I appreciate the work he put it into it. I stupidly misspelled his name when I put it up on Facebook, and I apologize for that.

The video has 5,378 views as I write, let's see if we can get that number up; please share it on your social media platform of choice, show it to friends or anyone who has questions about the case. He's got a YouTube channel with a lot of SPM content, as well: Free SPM

Both parts of the recording are also available on Sound Cloud here: https://soundcloud.com/incandesio