Posted on 09/02/2008 9:34:51 AM PDT by abb
In a scorching ruling today, the state Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of a man serving more than 60 years in prison on burglary, robbery and sexual assault charges, saying the Durham District Attorney's Office unfairly delayed his trial for nearly five years.
The ruling could lead to freedom for Frankie Delano Washington, 47, an auto mechanic who was convicted of multiple charges last year in a 2002 invasion of a family's home in Trinity Park in Durham. Because the opinion was unanimous, the state has no automatic right to take the appeal further.
The delay cost Washington his right to a speedy trial, Judge Douglas McCullough wrote for a three-judge panel. The delay "could have been avoided if the state had exercised even the slightest care during the course of this prosecution," McCullough wrote.
McCullough also suggested that Washington may be innocent.
The victims originally described their assailant as younger and taller than Washington. And they identified Washington as the burglar from a distance of about 20 feet in the dark, as police held him in custody outside a police car.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
ping
http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2008/071517-1.htm
NO. COA07-1517
NORTH CAROLINA COURT OF APPEALS
Filed: 2 September 2008
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
v. Durham County
Nos. 02 CRS 48600-48604
FRANKIE DELANO WASHINGTON 02 CRS 48607-48608
"McCullough also suggested that Washington may be innocent."
Clearly not important to the courts as long as the proper formalities are in place.
That would have been under Hardin right? Looks like that entire place has been a mess for a long time. If the guy is innocent I wish him all the best.
Noticed that too. “oh & btw.....”
I had my own interesting brush with the Durham County judicial system a couple months ago when I got called for jury duty. I wound up as the foreman on the jury for a case of felony drug possession with intent to distribute (crack) against a young man. The case seemed pretty open-and-shut at first—they found a baggie of crack in this guy’s sock drawer when they searched the apartment he shared with another guy who’d already been arrested as a drug kingpin. They had a signed confession from the guy.
But the defense lawyer (a local legend named Butch Williams, who was very critical of The Fong during the whole Duke lacrosse ordeal) tore the DA’s case apart. The confession wasn’t written by the defendant, it was simply a transcription written by a police officer. The confession wasn’t audio or video recorded because there was an FBI agent present and “it’s procedure not to tape-record interviews where the FBI is involved” (huh?). The defense tore down a lot of the timeline upon which the DA’s case rested because of sloppy recordkeeping at the DPD. Without a recording of the confession, there was a distinct possibility that the DPD and the FBI agent threatened the guy with 10 to life in a Federal pen (even though there were no Federal charges involved) to try and get him to roll over on his roommate. In the end, it only took us an hour to find the defendant not guilty.
Yep, they took a case with physical evidence and a signed confession AND LOST because of sloppiness all around. That’s our Durham County tax dollars at work!
}:-)4
Excellent. You may have helped thwart another Frame by the ‘Durm Justice System.’ After following the DukeLax Frame for 2 1/2 years, it has become clear to us that framing innocent people happens often in Durham and North Carolina.
Honestly, I don’t know if the guy was innocent or not. And that’s the point that kept coming up in the jury room—due to a very good defense attorney and the relative ineptitude of the state and county, that whole “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold simply was not met. Originally I was one of two people who wanted to find him guilty of the lesser included charge of possession (without intent to distribute—we could do that). But it didn’t take me long to come around and realize that there just wasn’t enough proof. Oh, and what reminded me of this in relation to the posting is that it took them FOUR YEARS to procedure this guy on a low-end felony crack charge. The drugs were found in November ‘04, and the case went to trial back in July. Why so long?
I just hope the defendant is a little more discerning about who he shares an apartment with in the future—apparently the roommate really was a major crack distributor in Derm, and is doing 10+ in a Federal prison for it.
}:-)4
Yep, Nifong is a criminal was a huge part of the problem in the Duke hoax, BUT NC needs to reform it law concerning:
1. DA’s controlling judges
2. The lack of a speedy trial law.
My son is a senior this year living in Trinity Park. I will be very happy and relieved when he is done with this year and can move out of Durham.
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