Drawings of golf courses leads to man's freedom

September 19, 2018 1:22 PM

With an investigation Golf Digest helped open, an Erie County court vacated Valentino Dixon's murder conviction after he had already served 27 years in jail
posted by vespabelle (12 comments total)

i hope he gets to play all the golf he wants, forever and ever.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:43 PM on September 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, that has to be one of the best outcomes of golf illustration to have ever happened. Sad that he had to get noticed this way, but good on Golf Digest for even looking into it! If I ever get into golf, I'll remember them for that. So happy he finally got out, but nothing can replace those years and who knows what significant portion of the incarcerated are there because of shitty cops, courts, DAs, and lawyers who often have an interest in seeing the innocent or anyone convicted for anything ever.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:48 PM on September 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

What the heck kind of GARBAGE WORLD do we live in that a GOLF MAGAZINE did better at solving a case than the ORIGINAL DETECTIVES AND LEGAL SYSTEM assigned to it did not?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:57 PM on September 19, 2018 [48 favorites]

I just cannot understand DAs, cops, etc. that railroad people into wrongful convictions.

You're letting some piece of shit that actually *did* the crime go free! Perhaps to do even worse things!

It's not just neglect of your sworn duties, but working exactly counter to those duties.
posted by notsnot at 1:58 PM on September 19, 2018 [11 favorites]

I can't wait for people sitting at home watching Court TV to start calling in to object.
posted by Etrigan at 2:00 PM on September 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I just cannot understand DAs, cops, etc. that railroad people into wrongful convictions.

By and large they have immunity and as any conservative will tell you over and over people with no skin in the game do bad things.
posted by srboisvert at 2:24 PM on September 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

When I read this it got really dusty really quickly. And I thought, hmmm I'm glad Mr. Dixon had access to art materials. Not just because this is what led to his being freed, but because creating can be so good for every person, no matter where they are.

So I googled "art supplies prison donate" and found Arts In Prison pretty quickly.

They accept materials, cash, and volunteers.

Consider giving 10 bucks to the art education program in your local prison. Who knows, maybe it will help another wrongly convicted individual get justice.
posted by bilabial at 2:53 PM on September 19, 2018 [12 favorites]

On really bad days I can almost believe that the railroading serves the railroaders in two ways: they've got busy, look-how-hard-we-toil work to keep conviction numbers up while they're doing it, and guaranteed work down the line when the actual culprit commits more crime.

Just before Dixon walked out of the courthouse, LaMarr Scott walked in and officially plead guilty to Jackson’s murder. Scott admitted responsibility the night of the shooting and has for decades since (including to Golf Digest)... Scott is already serving a life sentence for a 1993 shooting in an armed robbery that left one victim a quadriplegic. Tacking on a concurrent sentence for Jackson’s murder doesn’t change his prospects, other than maybe making any future parole a slimmer possibility.

Also, per one of Dixon's lawyers, Donald Thompson:

"Once a case crosses a certain threshold of media attention, it matters, even though it shouldn’t,” Thompson says. “It’s embarrassing for the legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the investigation was from a golf magazine.”

Valentino Dixon's art gallery site; includes non-golf subjects.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:03 PM on September 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

> I just cannot understand DAs, cops, etc. that railroad people into wrongful convictions.


It makes perfect sense if you understand that enforcing racial inequality is a secondary goal for many cops.
posted by scose at 3:26 PM on September 19, 2018 [7 favorites]

And a primary goal for some.
posted by tavella at 4:47 PM on September 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

It's all about incentives. Prosecutors are incentivized for convictions, and false-convictions have few (if any consequences). It wouldn't be hard to imagine a system that fixed that.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:33 PM on September 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

God, 27 years. Imagine if these monsters actually had to face consequences for the lives they destroyed. How many more who didn't catch the eye of a golf magazine?
posted by rodlymight at 4:42 PM on September 20, 2018