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A courtroom technicality has cost a wrongly convicted Texas man the compensation that would otherwise be due him for the 18 years he'd served in Texas prison--14 of which he spent on Death Row.
Anthony Graves would have received $1.4 million in compensation if only the words "actual innocence" had been included in the judge's order that secured Graves's release from prison. The Comptroller's office decided the omission means Graves gets zero dollars, writes Harvey Rice at the Houston Chronicle, even though the prosecutor, judge, and defense all agreed at trial he is innocent
So how did this happen? Cory Session, a Texas Innocence Project policy director and one of the architects of the 2009 Tim Cole compensation law for exonerated prisoners, tells The Lookout that the Brenham prosecutor's office decided to dismiss the murder charges they originally filed against Graves, instead of retrying him all over again and finding him innocent. The compensation law provides $80,000 per year in prison only to claimants explicitly found innocent in a retrial or who are granted a pardon. Neither status now applies to Graves.
Session says he has no idea why the Brenham prosectors neglected to explicitly say in the court order that Graves was innocent. By simply dropping the charges, prosecutors could always retry Graves for the same crime if new evidence surfaced. Double Jeapordy rules would not apply, because the original charges against him have effectively disappeared.
Graves's lawyers are now pointing fingers at Burleson County District Attorney William Parham, who "declined to sign an order asking District Judge Reva Towslee Corbett to amend Graves' order of release to include the words 'actual innocence,'" according to the Brenham Banner Press. Parham said last month he also believes Graves is innocent, but that "actual innocence" carries no strict legal meaning; he also said he made no recommendations on the compensation case. Parham's office informed The Lookout he was not available for comment on the Graves case.
Session says Graves could now sue under federal civil rights law on the grounds that he suffered cruel and unusual punishment. Judge Corbett could also rescind the original order and add the words "actual innocence." If Graves sues the state of Texas in civil court, tort laws there limit any compensation to $200,000.
what a bum deal this guy has gotten. Not only did he lose 18 years of his life behind bars but to lose a million only to possibly sue for $200,000 maybe. I would commit a crime for real.
via : yahoo
-AL
T.I. has officially begun his 11-month stint in an Arkansas prison -- law enforcement sources tell TMZ the rapper checked in "sometime this afternoon."
If you recall, T.I. was sentenced to 11 months behind bars after his drug possession arrest on the Sunset Strip back in September -- an arrest that caused law enforcement officials to revoke his probation stemming from a federal gun conviction back in 2009.
A spokesperson for the prison tells us T.I. will go through the normal process -- which means he'll be processed, pose for a prison photo, and will be given a bunk assignment, again.
Get it together T I
-AL
The warden of a prison in the northern state of Durango is under arrest on suspicion she let inmates leave the facility to carry out killings in the nearby city of Torreon, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
In custody along with warden Margarita Rojas Rodriguez are her deputy, Francisco Carlos Alberto Uranga, and prison security chiefs Roberto Enriquez Aguayo and Jose Guadalupe Diaz Ordaz, as well as several guards.
The prison personnel are charged in connection with more than 30 deaths in Torreon, including last week’s massacre of 17 people attending a birthday party at a rented hall, AG office spokesman Ricardo Najera said.
Rojas is accused of allowing inmates to leave Cereso Dos prison at night to carry out killings with active help from some of the guards.
The inmates returned to their cells after the crimes.
“The criminals commit their executions as part of settling scores with members of bands linked to organized crime,” Najera said, adding that a search of Cereso Dos prison turned up four assault rifles used in the July 18 killings at Torreon’s Italia Inn.
Sunday’s arrests came days after the appearance on the Internet of a video in a which a Lerdo, Durango, police officer confesses to being on the payroll of a crime boss and points to warden Rojas’ alleged role in the Torreon murders
See the full uncut video here
WOW
-AL
According to the New York Post, Plaxico Burress lost his recreational privileges for a month because he lied to a prison guard. He told the guard he had permission to use his cell phone to call his attorney and the guard took his word for it. He had no such permission, and this particular guard doesn't like fibbers.
Now Plax has lost recreation privileges for a month and his cell phone for seven days. Ironic that Plax, while in prison, is allowed to have a cell phone while out here, we're trying to send a guy to prison for buying a cell phone. All that talent just wasted.
-AL
