Posted on 08/04/2005 11:30:11 AM PDT by Graybeard58
MIAMI -- A man who spent 26 years behind bars as Florida's "Bird Road Rapist" was released from prison Wednesday after DNA evidence cleared him in two of the attacks and cast doubt on whether he was responsible for any of the crimes.
"Victory," 67-year-old Luis Diaz said as he walked out of the courthouse a free man. He said he planned to spend time with his family, was not bitter about the time he lost and didn't blame prosecutors.
"They did their job. You have to respect that," he said later at a news conference. Payment for his years in prison also wasn't on his or his family's mind -- for now.
"He is our compensation right now," said son Jose Diaz, 40, who was flanked by his brother and sister.
Circuit Judge Cristina Pereya-Shuminer threw out his five rape convictions at the request of both Miami-Dade County's chief prosecutor and lawyers for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that works to get inmates exonerated via DNA.
About 30 relatives and friends in the courtroom stood and applauded after the judge said he was free to go. A handcuffed Diaz, dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, waved to his family and wiped his eyes with tissues.
Prosecutors stopped short of declaring Diaz innocent in all the rapes, instead citing the difficulty of retrying him after a quarter-century.
"It is impossible to ignore the difficulties inherent in retrying five very old cases even under the best of circumstances. Police investigators retire, memories fade, and victims move on with their lives," the dismissal request said.
Diaz was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to life in prison for seven of 25 sexual assaults that occurred between 1977 and 1979 in the Bird Road area of Coral Gables, south of downtown Miami.
The Bird Road Rapist would attack young women drivers, signaling them to pull over by flashing his headlights and then forcing them to have sex at gunpoint.
Diaz was arrested after a victim who worked as a gas station attendant spotted a driver she said looked like her attacker. She gave police the license plate number, which led them to Diaz.
The convictions were based on identifications made by eight victims in all, even though some of them initially described a much heavier and taller Hispanic who spoke English. Diaz, a Cuban-American, spoke little English and, because of his work as a fry cook, smelled of onions -- something no victim mentioned.
In 1993, two victims recanted their identification of Diaz, and those two convictions were thrown out. But five other convictions remained, until lawyers asked for DNA testing.
Evidence gathered from the two of the rape victims was discovered, and DNA testing of the semen conclusively excluded Diaz as the attacker.
in both cases. That, in turn, cast doubt on his other convictions.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who was the county prosecutor when Diaz was convicted, did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
Defense attorney Roy Black, who represented Diaz at his trial, said he was thrilled.
"That Luis' innocence has finally been admitted is cause for celebration, but nothing can erase the 26 years he spent in prison, in horrible condition, separated from his family," Black said in statement.
Barry Scheck, executive director of the Innocence Project, said the Diaz case demonstrates anew the need for police to improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
He said three-quarters of the 160 prisoners who have been exonerated by post-conviction DNA in the United States had been convicted based on mistaken identification.
"This should be a landmark case in the history of eyewitness reform," Scheck said. "There are reforms police and prosecutors are using across the country that reduce error, protect the innocent and help apprehend the guilty."
"...was not bitter about the time he lost and didn't blame prosecutors."
Gore voter?
I saw this story last night on the network news, and there was naturally no reference to the Reno connection. Every time I watch a story on the MSM, I'm reminded why I shouldn't.
Brainwashed.
florida's legal system is hopelessly dictatorial, spiteful, and, of course, unjust. I think it was that way well before reno had too much to do with it.
Note that I am not claiming that this particular man is really guilty. I'm simply saying that the guilty could slip through this way.
Reno was good at putting innocent people in prison but saying she supported the rights of the accused.
Please cite a reference for this.
In 1984, Frank Fuster was living the American dream with a nice house in the Miami suburbs and a new wife who was helping him raise his 5-year-old son. Then, Fuster's world fell apart. He and his wife found themselves charged with sexually abusing more than 20 children who attended their unlicensed home day care center."Monstering" interrogation techniques are currently employed by our forces in the WOT. Recently they are being "celebrated". Well -- they are not applicable or accurate except against some personality types and in some environments. Very limited!Fuster -- who it was soon learned had prior convictions for manslaughter and child molestation -- seemed to be the classic perpetrator. Branded a "monster" by parents and the local media, he was convicted and sentenced to 165 years in prison. His case would establish a successful method for prosecuting similar day care abuse cases nationwide, while also boosting the political fortunes of a state attorney named Janet Reno, whose office would go on to prosecute additional cases of multiple sexual abuse at day care centers in the Miami area.
But was Frank Fuster really guilty of the sexual abuse charges for which he was convicted? Or was he the victim of a tainted investigation that led to damning testimony from the state's star witnesses: some 20 children and Fuster's own wife? Eighteen years later, this FRONTLINE investigation reveals new evidence that calls into question the seemingly ironclad case against Frank Fuster. This report also includes new allegations by Fuster's former wife that Janet Reno personally participated in a campaign to break her down psychologically in order to force her to testify falsely against her husband.
"Did Daddy Do It?" recalls the media frenzy and public hysteria surrounding several high-profile day care abuse cases unfolding across the nation at that time. Nowhere was that public panic more pronounced than in Miami, where Janet Reno and other prosecutors had begun vigilantly pursuing day care sexual abuse cases. []
"These people did a number on me," Noel, now 24, tells FRONTLINE. "They were playing games with a 6-year-old's head. They were good at it -- I was confused. But now I know the truth."
That truth, Noel now says, is that he was never abused by his father. What's more, defense attorney Rosenthal questions the accuracy of the state's gonorrhea test, saying that particular kind of test had been shown to be inaccurate, and that the state had quickly treated Noel so that no further testing was possible.
Now Ileana Flores, Fuster's former wife, has come forward to tell FRONTLINE that her trial testimony against her husband was the result of a concerted effort by the state attorney's office to break her down psychologically and force her to testify against her husband. However, this FRONTLINE report also examines how Ileana has changed her story several times over the years.
"What I testified at trial was not the truth," says Ileana Flores, adding that Fuster "didn't do any of those things."
Flores recounts a harrowing tale of being kept naked in her Dade County jail cell, held forcibly under cold showers, and being subjected to repeated psychological badgering aimed at convincing her that she had repressed memories of Fuster's abuse. She even recalls late-night visits from Janet Reno.
"I would tell [Reno] 'I am innocent,' and she would say, 'I'm sorry, but you are not and you're gonna have to help us,'" Flores tells FRONTLINE.
Janet Reno -- now a candidate for governor of Florida -- declines to address Flores' charges, saying only that Flores has changed her story before. When asked to recall specific details about the case, Reno replies, "I haven't looked at the file in fifteen years. I would need you to bring me all the files and I don't foresee having the time to go through the files."
When FRONTLINE offered to provide Reno with the files, she declined to discuss the case further.
Meanwhile, Frank Fuster is serving his 165-year sentence. He says he turned down a deal from the state in which he was offered a sentence of fifteen years if he would plead guilty. "If I had taken [it]," Fuster tells FRONTLINE, "I would have been home ten years ago." He refused the deal, he says, "Because I am innocent."
Source: PBS Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fuster/etc/synopsis.html
And LOOK -- what Reno and her unterfuhrers did in Miami show how damn easily corrupted the technique is. Bend ONE interrogator (by bribes, blackmail, whatever) and you set up for serious harm -- the results can be made disasterous to those who key on the gained info.
Oh, this Chimera stuff is possible but incredibly, incredibly, incredibly rare.
And if a perp was a Chimera, the two DNA samples would still be closely related; he'd be his own "brother", it wouldn't be COMPLETELY different DNA.
I'd put the chance that any of these prison releases due to DNA evidence being Chimeras being released as about zero.
Here's a description of the mild form. This is about the more severe form that I'm talking about. Here's another one. They should point you in the right direction.
By the way, I'm pro-life and don't think that this in any way conflicts with the idea that a child's life begins at conception, though it makes things a little more complicated to explain.
Given that a chimera would still have very closely related DNA to himself I'm fairly confident that such a result would provoke more detailed testing. At the very least, they'd check if the guy had any brothers and whether they could be linked to the crime, at first.
It's not possible for a chimera to have different DNA completely unrelated to its other set of DNA.
Question_Assumptions has been watching too much CSI.
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