MetaFilter posts tagged with criminaljustice

Manufactured Guilt in Louisiana?

AgentRocket — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:45:35 -0800

Radley Balko (mefi’s own), a journalist for reason magazine and writer of theagitator.com blog, published a startling story at reason online today (warning: disturbing photos and video) that convincingly suggests that the embattled doctors Steven Hayne and Michael West may have engaged in criminal evidence tampering that supported a capital murder conviction in the death of a 23 month old girl in Louisiana. Jimmie Duncan, the defendant, currently sits on death row. Hayne and West’s findings against Duncan were similar to those against Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, two men who were convicted in Mississippi based on bite mark analysis but freed (largely thanks to the Innocence Project) on DNA evidence. In each case, West matched bite marks on a victim’s body – which were “discovered” by Hayne after they went unnoticed by other persons exposed to the victim – to the defendant. The bite marks were then used to support a murder conviction. Radley’s previous work exposing Dr. Hayne was a driver of the state of Mississippi removing him last summer from the list of doctors authorized to perform autopsies in the state. Radley’s work – on prosecution of doctors, ”puppycide” by raiding police, the rise of SWAT teams, a look at an anti-capitalist protest in DC, and the sad case of Cory Maye - has been featured on Metafilter before.

Escape from La Paz

jonson — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:31:13 -0800

In the 1981 film Escape from New York, the entire island of Manhattan had been converted to a self-sufficient, walled off open air prison, devoid of guards & cells. The fiction of the film bears an alarming similarity to the reality of life in San Pedro Prison, a walled off, police-free convict slum in Bolivia's capital city, La Paz. This fascinating/horrifying experiment in criminal justice is the feature of a 2003 eponymous documentary; some of the details include the story of a drug kingpin, unhappy with his cell, who had a second story constructed to allow more breathing room; or the prison soccer team, sponsored by coca-cola, or even the non-prisoner children of the imprisoned, who roam the streets of San Pedro ("At least this way the parents live with their kids, and the family stays together. Outside, they’d have nowhere to live").

Innocent: Don't pass go, but you still owe.

thomcatspike — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 08:38:29 -0800

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims ‘food and lodgings’ We locked you up in jail for 25 years and you were innocent all along? That’ll be £80,000 please.

Affirmative Action applied to the Death Penalty?

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 07 Jan 2003 16:27:25 -0800

A report commissioned by outgoing Maryland governor Parris Glendening has found interesting racial disparities in the death penalty: although it appears the race of the defendant is irrelevant individually in the application of capital punishment, such is is not the case when one weighs in the race of the victim of a crime, in which the killing of a white person by a black person nearly doubles the likelihood of the defendant receiving the death penalty, "primarily because they are substantially more likely to be charged by the state's attorney with a capital offense."

OneBallJay — Wed, 02 May 2001 09:15:59 -0800

And now for something really depressing - the Texas Department of Criminal Justice maintains a database including the 'last statements' of all inmates executed since 1982.