Derrick Hamilton: A jailhouse lawyer who changed the system.
July 15, 2016 3:46 PM   Subscribe

Home Free ‘You have a guy there who’s really good at the law. We need him in the law library.’
posted by Michele in California (9 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is a great story. It's simultaneously enraging (about the system) and encouraging (because he did, in the end, win, and is helping others now as well).
posted by suelac at 5:53 PM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


I can't even imagine the fortitude it takes to endure everything he did and still keep his focus.

That Supreme Court ruling is a testament to that, and something that will help multitudes of people in similar situations in the future.

Amazing achievement.
posted by flippant at 7:13 PM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


That Scarcella is still collecting a pension makes me sick. The taxpayers and residents of NYC deserve better.
posted by praemunire at 8:24 PM on July 15, 2016 [5 favorites]


Scarcella is lucky that most cops are not corrupt pieces of shit like he is. If they were, he might just find himself on the wrong end of a fabricated pedophilia charge.
posted by wierdo at 12:06 AM on July 16, 2016


Hamilton is right: prison is the way to deal with those who work to wrongly convict others. In no case of wrongful conviction I've read has this been the result.
posted by oheso at 1:56 AM on July 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


Such a harrowing story. I lost count of the instances in the saga where I think I would have just said "fuck it - they won - I can't keep doing this." The perseverance and ability to apply himself to a vast field like law is almost unfathomable to me — I read this 12 hours ago and I am still dumbstruck by it all.

Also, it was a bit of a trip going through the article — hearing my internal reading voice — as my name is Derek Hamilton, and his birthday is eerily close to mine.
posted by Dark Messiah at 5:50 AM on July 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


So amazing and so wonderful that he survived to help himself and others. People doing good work.
posted by gt2 at 8:19 AM on July 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm filled with admiration for Hamilton, and filled with rage at Scarcella's apparent total impunity. We have got to find some way to ensure police and prosecutors pay for misconduct--instead of collecting pensions and votes while the taxpayers fund the settlements with their victims.
posted by karayel at 4:48 PM on July 16, 2016


What a fantastic person Derrick Hamilton is.

I understand the need for a statute of limitations, but it enrages me that Scarcella has so far not been prosecuted. I really hope Derrick prevails in either or both lawsuits he's filed against New York State and the city/NYPD/Scarcella.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 8:58 AM on July 17, 2016


« Older Hey Blondie! You know what you are?   |   28 Pages Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments