Dabbing at her teary eyes, state District Judge Joan Campbell said Thursday she will recommend that authorities free a Houston man who has served 19 years — almost half his life - in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit.According to the Chronicle, "Porter was arrested at the courthouse while attending [his nephew's] trial with other family members after one of the rape victims identified him as her attacker." Can you imagine! I wish Mr. Porter luck: Congrats to him and to everybody involved on this belated victory.
As members of his family jumped from their seats in tearful ecstasy at the judge's decision, the prisoner, Allen Wayne Porter, 39, first shed tears, then smiled broadly.
Campbell advised lawyers to return to her court today to explore ways Porter can be released on bond pending a final decision in the case by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
"Good news!" said Porter's court-appointed lawyer, Casey Garrett, at the end of the day-long hearing. "I am confident the CCA will agree with Judge Campbell. … It is really hard to wrap your mind around the fact that someone spent 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit."
This morning Campbell set Porter's bond at $30,000. His lawyer said Porter could be released later today.
If the court accepts her recommendation, it will order a new trial. Bob Loper, the special prosecutor, said today that he would move to dismiss the case, so he would not be retried.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Latest exoneration out of Houston based on false eyewitness ID
Allen Porter walked free an innocent man in Houston yesterday after DNA and fingerprint evidence convinced Harris County DA Pat Lykos to reopen the case after 19 years. Allan Turner at the Houston Chronicle described the emotional scene in court:
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Allow me to share some comments by Harris County D.A. Pat Lykos who led the charge to free Porter. -- Lykos said her office has a sworn mission to serve justice. "The integrity of the criminal justice system means everything," Lykos said. "Wrongful convictions are a triple tragedy - for the accused, the victim and for society. The true criminal is free to continue to commit offenses." --
How many more innocent folks are there in the system? I expect the Smith County Courthouse has contributed
"Applying other innocence rates estimated from various sources to Texas' large prison population gets estimates as high as 3,500 to 5,000 innocent prisoners out of those currently incarcerated." -- from Grits post
. . .yet conservative "tuff on crime" zealots can still insist that they are completely comfortable that we haven't executed an innocent person. How the HELL does this work????
Grits, we would also like to wish Mr. Porter good luck in his endeavors and invite him to one day share his story/traumatic experience with the public. Speaking out about it could assist him his road to recovery and make the healing process smoother. Who knows, by sharing the names of all parties involved, others may recognize names that are associated with ‘their’ false arrests and wrongful convictions?
As with Mr. Porter and countless others, the proof of 'his' innocence was readily available but yet he remained in custody as a 'Victim Of The System' for decades. How many times was he denied and ignored, we may never know? Sadly, VOTS (both free and chained) go on to suffer for the rest of their lives.
Now we can only hope that DA Lykos will go forward and also consider claims of innocence having absolutely nothing to do with DNA, Death Row, and Open Cases.
" I expect the Smith County Courthouse has contributed."
I'm pretty sure they have. The DA there cares nothing about the integrity of the system. All he cares about is locking as many people up (guilty or innocent) as he can so that he can continue to look tough on crime to his moronic constituents.
The quote from Lykos about the true criminal going free is significant. Judge Jack Skeen, from Smith County, was the former DA who allowed a man to remain free who had committed a brutal rape and murder while he knowingly prosecuted the wrong man. He refused to admit that law enforcement and the DA's office made a mistake. That man died, never having been held to account for his crime.
Oops... not so fast. According to today's Chronicle it appears that 12 of the years that Porter served were for a MURDER that he pled guilty to! Hope you bleeding hearts will forgive me if I don't invite him over to sing Kumbaya with the family anytime soon!
Anonymous said...
Oops... not so fast. According to today's Chronicle it appears that 12 of the years that Porter served were for a MURDER that he pled guilty to! Hope you bleeding hearts will forgive me if I don't invite him over to sing Kumbaya with the family anytime soon!
7/27/2010 01:12:00 PM
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Guess we should have kept him locked up then huh? Since he pled guilty to a murder, no point in lettin him out even if he didn't do the crime we got him locked up fer.
IDIOT...I doubt seriously you would sing Kumbaya with ANY of the exonerees...would ya RED?
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