Posted on 04/16/2008 7:28:06 PM PDT by Strategerist
After spending nearly 23 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, Thomas Clifford McGowan on Wednesday heard the words that set him free.
"Words cannot express how sorry I am for the last 23 years," said state District Judge Susan Hawk, moments after overturning his convictions. "I believe you can walk out of here a free man."
McGowan, 49, won his freedom after a DNA test this month proved what he had always professed: that he did not rape a Dallas-area woman in 1985 and then burglarize her apartment. He was convicted of both crimes in separate trials in 1985 and 1986 and sentenced to life each time. The primary evidence against him turned out to be misidentification by the rape victim.
"I've been living a life of a living hell and my nightmare is finally over with," McGowan said after the hearing. "This is the first day of my life. I'm going to go forward."
Hawk's ruling, which now must be affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, makes McGowan the 17th Dallas man since 2001 to have his conviction cast aside because of DNA testing. That's the most of any county in the nation, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high. That does not include McGowan and at least two others whose exonerations will not become official until Gov. Rick Perry grants pardons or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issues its rulings.
The crowded courtroom included dozens of McGowan's relatives. Also attending were three Dallas County men who had been wrongly convicted and eventually exonerated by DNA testing. They greeted McGowan with handshakes and hugs, and one gave him a $100 bill to "get him started."
McGowan, wearing a button-down shirt and slacks, looked trim and relieved. He said he prayed frequently and was benefiting from some "powerful forces." While in prison, one of McGowan's sisters died, and he said he missed watching his sibling's children grow up.
"I know God forgives, so hey, I've got to forgive, too," McGowan said. "It's not going to benefit me to be harboring anger or resentment."
McGowan's wrongful imprisonment began in May 1985 when a Richardson woman returned home and came upon a burglar in her apartment. The man bound her hands with his belt, raped her at knifepoint and then loaded his car with several items stolen from her apartment, according to court documents.
Police eventually presented the woman with a photo array of seven men. She picked out McGowan's photo, saying she "thought" he was the attacker. But police told her she had to be certain and "couldn't just think it was him," she testified in court. It was then that she said McGowan was "definitely" the attacker, according to court documents.
Just a few words from a police officer can significantly influence whether a witness identifies the wrong person, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said.
"It's not that the police officer involved in this matter was intentionally doing anything wrong. He wasn't," Scheck said. "That kind of a forced choice response ... is very, very damaging."
More exonerations are expected in Dallas County, where District Attorney Craig Watkins has set up a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing hundreds of cases in which convicts have requested DNA testing to prove their innocence. About 10 Dallas County cases are in various stages of investigations and DNA testing, and another exoneration is likely within the next few weeks, prosecutors said.
Watkins said he plans to lobby other prosecutors to put in place similar programs.
"This should not be a pilot program that lasts two or three years," Watkins said.
The DNA from McGowan's case yielded a full profile that is now being run through state and federal databases, assistant prosecutor Mike Ware said. If a match is found, it could identify the true rapist.
bump for later
-ccm
If he is only making a point, he should just say that, not defend his outrageous remarks.
What if she invited him home, initiated sexual intercourse, then had regrets in the morning and called him out for raping her? It does happen, you know, despite what the shrieking fem-hags say.
-ccm
for the record, I don't trust the police or attorneys to work for justice...they work for and "end"....period...
I agree with you 100% about cops and prosecutors working primarily to close the book on cases. Which is what makes your first statement so scary.
Violent criminals on the street cause havoc. But it's havoc I can to some degree do something about. I can lock my doors and bar my windows. I can stay out of some neighborhoods. I can have a loaded .45 next to me. Might help. Might not. Might never find out. But being able to do something gives the peace of mind to get on with life.
An environment where a transposed address, or having the same goatee as someone who was seen in the lobby later that night, or having a vindictive ex, or whatever it is is going to sick an intentionally blind, close the case and save society from the 100 justice system on me isn't something you can do anything about except keep your head down and live in fear.
How many Nifong DAs you figure there are out there? One out of a hundred? I’d guess ten times that many. Anything to get ahead in this modern world.
How can we be pro death penalty when we know we are putting innocents in jail all the time?
The police generally know the criminals in their jurisdiction surprisingly well. If a victim ID's the perptrator from mug shots, that means they can arrest a bad boy they don't want on the streets. The police can make the crime fit the man every time. Many a man is serving time for a crime he didn't commit, but whom the police "know" is not innocent of other crimes.
It's wrong and justice has nothing to do with it. It's more like practical urban housekeeping.
Mug books get populated by criminals. I obviously know nothing about this particular man. However, if he had an extensive criminal record, even of petty crimes, we ought to hear about it.
The police generally know the criminals in their jurisdiction surprisingly well. If a victim ID's the perptrator from mug shots, that means they can arrest a bad boy they don't want on the streets. The police can make the crime fit the man every time. Many a man is serving time for a crime he didn't commit, but whom the police "know" is not innocent of other crimes.
It's wrong and justice has nothing to do with it. It's more like practical urban housekeeping.
Mug books get populated by criminals. I obviously know nothing about this particular man. However, if he had an extensive criminal record, even of petty crimes, we ought to hear about it.
That is correct. And it tends to turn the alleged perp's life into a great big $h!t sandwich. And he'll have to eat on it for the rest of his life. Even if exonerated. "
Just a couple hours ago I saw a show on TV about a guy named Avery- was falsely convicted of rape by eyewitness ID, exonerated by DNA after abt 18 years( which provided a name of the real perp who was already in for a LONG time), let loose, then within a few years was convicted of murder, of another woman, on confession of an accomplice nephew. Really strange.
Weeelll, as a member of the jury, I’d be looking for two or THREE witnesses.
Witness one: the lady says he raped her
Witness two: there’s DNA evidence of a sexual encounter.
That doesn’t PROVE anything.
Witness three: Roommate enters late and finds her screaming help, help as he does his thing -
that would convince me.
There is scripture for this you know - in the laws of the OT, the rape victim has to cry out and so forth - the Bible totally condemns rape, and it is a death penalty crime. But it has to be well proven.
Then the defendant wins. If the prosecutor can't secure the evidence from tampering, then there is no good cause for a conviction. The tampering could just as easily have been perpetrated in order to win a fraudulent conviction. The burden is on the prosecution to prove that the evidence has not been tampered with by anybody.
"Er....Why did it take so many years to test his DNA, when DNA testing has been around so many years now?"
Excellent question! DNA testing, while it might be expensive, seems like a no brainer to me. It would be useful in many types of cases, but particularly in a rape case it should be standard procedure. I've read of cases where people were exonerated by testing it, but only after they or their family were able to raise the money for the test. That is shameful!
He doesn’t really need to do either. It’s just vengeance in that case. IIRC in Texas you get $25k a year per year of wrongful imprisonment capped at $500k. He’ll get all $500k AFAIK being in for 23 years.
There is no such thing as an "innocent" man. He may not have been guilty of this crime, but we're all guilty of doing things or at least thinking things that are wrong.Da Komrade, everyone needs to go to the gulag.Maybe he just wasn't punished for the right wrong, but it still might be right that he was punished. At least it wasn't wrong in that sense.
"Here in Illinois they caught the 2 Brown's Chicken murderers after 10 years on the loose. One of them had a meal at the place and luckily the cops saved the evidence just in case."
I recently saw that case profiled. Horrible! To think these fiends would target a place just because they want to kill innocent people and then they jammed the back door so people couldn't escape. Pure evil! I do hope that somehow they can get the death penalty.
That's a ripoff. I make much more than that at my job! Sure, it's better than nothing, but is hardly compensation for being in prison for something you did not do.
That's a ripoff. I make much more than that at my job! Sure, it's better than nothing, but is hardly compensation for being in prison for something you did not do.True enough. Then again, given that the railroaded are almost always poor schlubs who can't afford a lawyer it's probably the right amount(if you're thinking like an actuary).
Do I want to be the one? Of course not...
But I could just as justifiably ask YOU, do you (or your family) want to be one of the victims?
Do you think it’s right to “sentence” hundreds of innocent people to death, rape, or other violent acts to save one innocent person wrongly accused?
I know this is something most folks don’t want to even entertain as a reasonable argument, but I maintain that it is.
Thomas Sowell has a concept for this - it’s called “invisible cost”. If the cost of a decision or policy cannot be DIRECTLY attributable to the decision or policy, it is more likely to remain or be put into place.
Example, how many people die due to the FDA withholding approval on a drug? Unknown, it’s “invisible”. But, if they approve a drug that causes harm, that’s HIGHLY visible.
So, which way will they err?
Don’t be facetious, of course I don’t mean 3.
You forgot another “wrongfully freed” - those obviously guilty who are freed on a technicality...
OJ committed another violent crime with a gun.
Here's my counterpoint to your argument.
Obviously I do not want to be one of the victims. However, I can defend myself and my family from criminals thanks to .45ACP. Most violent criminals do not have the power of the state backing them either. When something is sanctioned and given the power of law, there is much more of an authority there than street criminals do not have. DA and Law Enforcement have a lot of authority. Much of it is actual authority, but their persuasive authority is much stronger. They have the media access, and titles which causes a lot of average citizens to think they are automaticaly right until proven wrong.
Now not all DA's are bad, and not all cops are crooks. In most towns, most aren't. However, there's a reason why defendants have a right to a fair trial. The founding fathers knew what a tyrannical government was, and we have safeguards against that. Everyone has a right to a fair trial.
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