Posted on 07/20/2006 10:33:03 AM PDT by newgeezer
Johnny Briscoe is a free man today, after serving 23 years for crimes the state now says he didn't commit.
Briscoe walked out of a state prison in Charleston, Mo., on Wednesday after serving part of a 45-year sentence for convictions involving a 1982 sexual attack on a woman ...
Thanks to DNA testing, authorities confirmed ... that Briscoe was innocent and that the real rapist was already in another Missouri prison.
...
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch called him ... and "apologized to him on behalf of the county, particularly for the past six years."
...
There was no DNA testing in 1983 when Briscoe was convicted. In 2000 and again in 2001, McCulloch ... asked the crime lab to look for evidence in the Briscoe case and other cases where DNA could now be applied to existing evidence.
McCulloch said his office was told the evidence had been destroyed.
... The laboratory reported that the freezer where the evidence might have been kept was searched and that the evidence - cigarette butts - had presumably been destroyed.
In 2004, the crime lab "was inventorying and cataloging everything in the lab" and found the cigarette butts in the freezer, McCulloch said, but his office didn't learn about their existence until July 6.
...
Testing of the three cigarette butts confirmed that the victim's DNA was found on all three but that the third contained DNA that matched a different man than Briscoe - one who is also in the Missouri prison system ...
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
I didn't see any mention of Briscoe, what did I miss?
We didn't, and your tagline explains why.
Good thing too!
The Cardinals had won the game and the series.
You can't fault the jury - that's the worst alibi witness ever.
In certain instances, I suppose. I might have given a bad example. There have been many others that have struck me at the time I read about them, but I can't recall them.
Murder and conspiracy to commit murder actually might be good examples. Once you commit the murder then the conspiracy is moot. Or, rape and sodomy. Forcible sodomy IS rape. It's one crime.
Either way, it's a good thing.
By definition—again, refer to your tagline—it's all good.
Wonder if that's gonna be tax-free?
I'll bet the nephew won't get any of it."
Not quite....somewhere between $200,000 and about $500,000 will go to the Lawyer with a contingency fee of 25% to 60%.
And the taxpayers will pick up the bill....
That one of three cigarettes did NOT have his DNA, and two DID have his DNA somehow seems not to exonerate him at all, in my opinion.
Did I miss something in the article?
Defense attorneys very, very seldom let their defendants take the stand. In most cases, the attorneys (including the prosecutor) are a lot smarter than the defendant and can easily trip him up, provoke him, or make him look guilty.
Johnny Briscoe seems unlikely to have had lawyer-level mental horsepower; otherwise he wouldn't have been a petty burglar.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Did I miss something in the article?
Yes...read the paragraph again:
Testing of the three cigarette butts confirmed that the victim's DNA was found on all three but that the third contained DNA that matched a different man than Briscoe - one who is also in the Missouri prison system ...
This guy was just as innocent as the Prosecutor that put him in jail...The Prosecutor needs to make a payback...Bigtime...
Isn't that crazy??? The rapist would get less time if he would have killed her afterward...And maybe wouldn't have ever gotten caught...Quite an incentive to murder your victim
gulp
Assuming you aren't being sarcastic, maybe he could trade places with you...He may have a far better feel for freedom and liberty than you appear to have, not to mention character...
That's about the reason I expected.
Two of the butts had the victim's DNA. The third butt had the rapist's.
None had Briscoe's. He wasn't there.
I assumed (or hoped) "jk" meant "just kidding." But, I guess I could be wrong.
36,000 for each year wrongly imprisoned?! ... I guess on the bright side, home boy here almost has a cool mil in his pocket for his troubles.... though thats not really compensation.
YES!
Yep, even when it doesn't seem so.
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