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Supreme Court opens way for prisoners to try to gain access to DNA evidence
Washington Post ^ | March 7, 2011 | Robert Barnes

Posted on 03/07/2011 6:29:38 PM PST by neverdem

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To: neverdem

This should have been a 9-0 decision. I can’t believe that someone would vote to not allow someone to prove that they could be innocent before pulling the plug. How cold. I don’t know the three but it is probably the females on the court for some reason. The ones who voted against this are essentially killing innocents or it is very possible. God will not be happy with the three.


21 posted on 03/07/2011 11:51:55 PM PST by napscoordinator
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To: napscoordinator
I don’t know the three but it is probably the females on the court for some reason.

It was Alito, Kennedy and Thomas. It's in the story.

22 posted on 03/07/2011 11:58:48 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

It was Alito, Kennedy and Thomas. It’s in the story.

Wow. Very disappointing.


23 posted on 03/08/2011 12:16:50 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: socalgop; neverdem
Kennedy?

1 posted on March 7, 2011 9:29:44 PM EST by neverdem

Nope. The four liberals - sotomayor, kagan, ginsburg and breyer, plus scalia and roberts.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-9000.pdf

Huh! It's not every day that Kennedy is on the minority, or that Thomas and Scalia are on opposite sides . . .

24 posted on 03/08/2011 4:16:05 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (DRAFT PALIN)
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To: taxtruth
People Prosecutors are way too quick with a rope in America to convict innocent people.

You are correct, but for the reason I note above. Your guilt or innocence has NOTHING to do with the situation. It's all about the prosecuting attorney's win / loss record, so that he can move on to the next higher political office.

25 posted on 03/08/2011 4:16:46 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Bringing children to America without immigration documents is child abuse. Let's end it.)
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To: Gena Bukin
FWIW, the Innocence Project confirms the guilt of roughly half the cases they take on.

....and that also is a good thing. Kinda makes the Innocence Project a twofer.

26 posted on 03/08/2011 5:15:31 AM PST by Roccus (POLITICIAN...............a four letter word spelled with ten letters.)
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To: Gena Bukin

“FWIW, the Innocence Project confirms the guilt of roughly half the cases they take on.”

FWIW, the Innocence Project confirms the innocence of roughly half the cases they take on.

Those 3 justices should be ashamed of themselves.


27 posted on 03/08/2011 7:31:02 AM PST by mewykwistmas ("Now don't say you can't swear off drinking; it's easy. I've done it a thousand times")
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To: mewykwistmas
Those 3 justices should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm actually surprised to see Roberts on the majority side on this one. He's been critical of the Innocence Project (IP) in the past expressing a fear that DNA testing risks "unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice."

I disagree with this.

It's my opinion that anytime someone sits in prison wrongly convicted for a crime they didn't commit --even if this person is otherwise a scumbag with a mile-long rap sheet (as many IP defendants are) it still means that there is a guilty person walking the streets, a threat to society, who got away with a crime.

28 posted on 03/08/2011 7:41:19 AM PST by Gena Bukin
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To: Roccus
Kinda makes the Innocence Project a twofer.

I agree with what the Innocence Project (IP) is trying to do. Nobody should sit in prison for a crime they didn't commit.

I think their 50% success rate is something of a testament to the integrity of our sometimes imperfect system of criminal justice. They don't just pull names out of a hat when they take on cases. They sift through literally thousands and thousands of appeals from prisoners (every last of whom claims to be innocent), research thousands of files and try and find only those cases with the highest odds of being wrongfully convicted. And after all this, that 50% of these people were really guilty and just blowing smoke up the rears of IP lawyers shows that the vast majority of the time, our system works in convicting the right person for the crime.

29 posted on 03/08/2011 8:17:00 AM PST by Gena Bukin
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To: Roccus
Kinda makes the Innocence Project a twofer.

I agree with what the Innocence Project (IP) is trying to do. Nobody should sit in prison for a crime they didn't commit.

I think their 50% success rate is something of a testament to the integrity of our sometimes imperfect system of criminal justice. They don't just pull names out of a hat when they take on cases. They sift through literally thousands and thousands of appeals from prisoners (every last of whom claims to be innocent), research thousands of files and try and find only those cases with the highest odds of being wrongfully convicted. And after all this, that 50% of these people were really guilty and just blowing smoke up the rears of IP lawyers shows that the vast majority of the time, our system works in convicting the right person for the crime.

30 posted on 03/08/2011 8:17:16 AM PST by Gena Bukin
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