tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post8983142138398114042..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: How best to tell jurors about shortcomings of eyewitness IDGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-2677238481168690582012-08-02T11:25:23.739-05:002012-08-02T11:25:23.739-05:00Hey DLW, now that you've shared with us that y...Hey DLW, now that you've shared with us that you just went along for the ride because there was a pay check waiting on you and you were simply ordered to waste taxpayers funds & it's bothered you since 1976 ish -<br /><br />*I challenge you today, to do something that will cure you of this dilemma, allowing you to enjoy your golden years and make the lives of others bearable.<br /><br />Join the PNG Team and offer guidance to folks that are being ignored by the picky 'projects', post conviction units and the Texas Board of Pardons & Paroles (Clemency Section) based on the 'TYPE" of evidence (or lack of DNA) showing / proving ones innocence. You could co-author letters to "whom it may concern" on behalf of those having ample proof of innocence. You could have your own mini column & tell the world about your horrible career as an ADA and what you plan to do about it in your effort to right past wrongs. <br /><br />You could do a lot more than simply dropping a few paragraphs on GFB readers expecting us to believe it because you say you did this and that. You could've quit and mowed lawns but you stayed and who knows how many nolo contendere marks are on your belt? You can redeem yourself today or not. You don’t owe anyone anything except for yourself. ThanksThomas R. Griffithhttp://www.projectnotguilty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-47846705887328404672012-07-30T14:06:53.787-05:002012-07-30T14:06:53.787-05:00All one has to do to learn just how unreliable eye...All one has to do to learn just how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be is go on line and Google "eyewitness testimony" then you can set back and read study after study, some going back 40 years. It's not like this is anything we haven't known for some time now.<br /><br />We don't allow lie detector results in court because there is a chance that somebody can lie to the lie detector and get away with it. Why do we want to put so much stock in eyewitness testimony? Look at the cases reversed where people were convicted on eyewitness testimony and freed by DNA evidence.<br /><br />To me this all is another example of the over zealous; win at all costs, prosecutorial mind sit that seems to permeate the DA offices across the country.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05236666405095867671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-48285612250049030602012-07-30T13:02:42.914-05:002012-07-30T13:02:42.914-05:00When I was an Assistant District Attorney, my boss...When I was an Assistant District Attorney, my boss assigned a robbery case to me which was my first felony. A young man had robbed a convenience store on the west side of Abilene and the clerk had given the police a complete description of the robber. <br /><br />Within 15 minutes of the robbery an APD officer found a young man waiting on a bus at the Greyhound station in Central Abilene. In spite of the fact that the guy at the bus station didn't look anything like the robber and wasn't dressed anything like the robber and had no money on him except enough for a bus ticket he was taken into custody and driven to the store that was robbed. <br /><br />The officer had him stand outside the cop car in handcuffs while another officer inside the store asked the clerk if that was the guy. The clerk said yes. <br /><br />I told my boss that I believed we had the wrong guy. The boss told me that if the clerk insisted it is the right guy, pick a jury and let them decide. <br /><br />That's what I did and the clerk insisted under oath that in spite of the fact that the young man on trial looked nothing like the description of the robber she had given the officers, it was indeed the robber. <br /><br />The Jury took 5 minutes to render the 2 word verdict. All 4 women on the Jury came out of the jury box to hug the defendant. I made a hasty exit for the stairwell but 3 of the males on the jury caught me and wanted to know why we were wasting their time. <br /><br />The case came out the right way but I have been haunted for 36 years by the prospect that it just as easily could have ended in a conviction with a different set of 12 people in the jury box. <br /><br />From that experience, I learned that eyewitness ID isn't always the end of it and I learned that prosecutors have no business passing the buck to a jury for political reasons.DLWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10620670491113872035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-34629907950748476372012-07-30T12:27:41.648-05:002012-07-30T12:27:41.648-05:00NOTE: Eyewitnesses can't be trusted when they ...NOTE: Eyewitnesses can't be trusted when they describe one thing and positively I'd another thing. It's a crime to file a false police report and another crime when a victim and the police team up to make it stick to save face. When everyone catches it & everyone ignores it like it never even happend, we get a system that can't be trusted.Thomas R. Griffithhttp://www.projectnotguilty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-40816275189250225052012-07-30T12:21:17.337-05:002012-07-30T12:21:17.337-05:00Hey Grits, never thought we’d be thanking New Jers...Hey Grits, never thought we’d be thanking New Jersey (the home of fake hot sauce) for stepping up and doing the right thing.<br /><br />I just wish that they’d taken time to cover instances where crime victims originally describe suspects of one race and proceed to Positively Identify suspects of a totally different race at live Show-Ups, where detectives catch it and allow victims to re-describe suspects and seek charges anyway. <br /><br />In an effort to cover all bases and since it appears that I’m the only peckerwood in Texas’ history to be positively I’d as a black skinned gunman, where the detectives caught the gross discrepancies during the Photo Lineup and again during the live Show-Up only to seek charges vs. doing the right thing, I’ll be sending the New Jersey Supreme Court copies of; the HPD police incident report, certified case files & 14 x 11 color police photo. Thanks.Thomas R. Griffithhttp://www.projectnotguilty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-48581397019932422422012-07-29T16:25:11.120-05:002012-07-29T16:25:11.120-05:00Not true at all. They're just more prone to er...Not true at all. They're just more prone to error when they've never seen the suspect before.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-23195929304061787132012-07-29T14:47:36.948-05:002012-07-29T14:47:36.948-05:00Eyewitnesses are not to be trusted.Eyewitnesses are not to be trusted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com