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Smart
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Smart
Post Number: 444
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 207.199.2.34
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 6:57 pm: |    |
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Spitfire
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Spitfire
Post Number: 380
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 68.106.114.108
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 6:33 pm: | |
GuyZ:
After reading I couldn't help notice that the story has a lot of resembelance to the story fo Rubin "Hurrican" Carter, immortalized by Denzel Washington in the namesake movie.
"Hate brought me in here" -- is an unforgettable statement that made ripples at that time.
Singh
ShivaShankar -- R U Ready |
Spitfire
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Spitfire
Post Number: 379
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 68.106.114.108
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 6:32 pm: | |
Sorry about the long post --- I realized later I could have just posted the excerpt.
Anyways, I know of a few other instances of things that authors wrote and visualized become true, which we could discuss in this thread.
ShivaShankar -- R U Ready |
Spitfire
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Spitfire
Post Number: 378
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 68.106.114.108
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 6:30 pm: | |
DNA leads to dropping of murder charge
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press Writer
After eight years on death row and other lockups, 24-year-old Ryan Matthews was freed Monday by DNA evidence.
"I always knew it would happen. So it wasn't a surprise to me," said Matthews, a man so soft-spoken you have to lean close to hear him.
From the start, he has told anyone who would listen that he had nothing to do with the 1997 murder of grocer Tommy Vanhoose. Knowing he was innocent, he knew he would ultimately be freed, he said Monday.
"Never give up hope, no matter how bad it gets," he said after a brief hearing and the end of charges against him.
State District Judge Henry Sullivan dismissed the indictment at the request of Assistant District Attorney David Wolff, who noted that prosecutors have a year to "revisit" the case.
William Sothern, an attorney for The Capital Appeals Case, said he doubts that will happen. "He's exonerated. Without a doubt. Completely and totally exonerated," Sothern said.
District Attorney Paul Connick said the case is still open and investigators are questioning potential witnesses. "There's some discrepancies ... Nevertheless, the newly disclosed evidence is of such a nature that we took it very seriously and I began to reinvestigate," he said.
Jurors were told during Matthews' trial that no physical evidence linked him to the holdup and murder at Vanhoose's Bridge City store. But they believed two witnesses who identified him as the gunman, and co-defendant Travis Hayes, who testified that he drove Matthews to the store, heard shots, then saw Matthews, then 17, run out yelling, "Drive! Drive!"
Ultimately, another man's DNA was found in a ski mask tossed out of the holdup getaway car. Despite search after search and test after test, not one cell found in the mask was traced to Matthews.
Matthews' mother, Pauline Matthews, said she had no grudge against Hayes, who also was convicted and is serving life in prison.
"I've heard about interrogation. I don't know if I could have stood up to it," she said. "I'm just glad Ryan was strong enough not to say he committed a crime he didn't commit."
Pauline Matthews said she was always certain of her son's innocence, so never gave up hope.
Emily Bolton, an attorney with the Innocence Project of New Orleans, said she was confident that Hayes' conviction will now be reversed, as well. "The only evidence against Travis Hayes is his statement that Ryan Matthews did it, which DNA proves is false," she said.
The conviction has been appealed. Connick said, "We're going to let that take its course."
Sothern said Matthews is the seventh Louisiana death row inmate exonerated in the past six years, and the eighth since 1981. Two others, like Matthews, were under 18 at the time of their crimes.
"This is the sort of case where you'd expect the system to be most zealous of people's rights. But people are walking off death row because they are innocent," he said.
Matthews was released to house arrest in June, after tests requested by prosecutors found no trace of Matthews' DNA. There was another DNA test after that, Sothern said.
More than a year ago, Matthews' defense team found that the DNA did match that of Rondell Love, who is serving time for an unrelated killing in Bridge City, where Vanhoose's grocery was located. In addition, they said, other inmates have told investigators that Love bragged about killing Vanhoose.
Connick wouldn't say if he will try to indict Love. "It's an open case, still under investigation, so I'm not going to make any comments," he said.
Based on the DNA evidence, the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed his conviction and death sentence, and sent the case back to district court.
At trial, Connick said, defense experts testified that lack of their DNA on the ski mask would not prove that neither Matthews nor Hayes had worn the mask. In addition, two witnesses testified that they saw Matthews take off the ski mask as he left the store.
The latest tests were by Dr. Henry Lee, a well-known forensic pathologist, who went over the ski mask and a shirt found with it.
Lee told Connick that, while lack of any of Matthews' DNA wouldn't absolutely exonerate him, he would certainly expect to have found some had Matthews worn the clothes.
Since Love's DNA was there, "we did not have sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of Ryan Matthews beyond reasonable doubt at this time," Connick said. "I felt the only fair thing to do would be to dismiss the indictment against him and continue to investigate the case."
Matthews, who has had to have other people buy clothes for him while he was on house arrest, wanted to go shopping on Monday.
"We've all been locked up," Pauline Matthews said. "I've had to come straight home from work - someone always had to be with Ryan. So we're just going to stay out today."
After that? Matthews, a ninth-grade dropout, said he wants to go back to school.
ShivaShankar -- R U Ready |
Spitfire
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Spitfire
Post Number: 377
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 68.106.114.108
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 6:24 pm: | |
Stephen King was indeed right. A living testimony to his articulate ideas.
http://www.eenadu.net/story.asp?qry1=5&reccount=17
ShivaShankar -- R U Ready |
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