Posted on 09/27/2010 11:47:41 PM PDT by jerry557
A judge on Monday overturned the 1993 conviction of a deaf man who was sent to prison for raping a 5-year-old girl despite an absence of physical evidence linking him to the attack.
Stephen Brodie, 39, dropped his head in relief after an interpreter signed to him that Judge Lena Levario had set aside his conviction on the grounds of actual innocence. He then turned to face the courtroom audience, some of whom waved both hands in the air — sign language for applause.
"I feel like a burden has been lifted," Brodie told reporters through a translator. "I feel light. I feel extremely happy."
---
The case was reopened after his father wrote a letter to the office of District Attorney Craig Watkins, who started a unit in his office dedicated to re-examining possible innocence cases.
Brodie originally was arrested in 1991 for stealing quarters from a vending machine at a community swimming pool. While he was being questioned about that crime, police began asking about the unsolved rape of the 5-year-old girl a year earlier.
Brodie has been deaf since childhood, but police questioned him for hours without an interpreter. He eventually confessed, but later told The Associated Press he felt scared and pressured.
Richardson police said Monday that Brodie initially declined their offer of an interpreter.
"We felt like we did the best we could," Jonathan Wakefield, an investigator with Richardson police, told the AP. "It was a thorough investigation, and we didn't coerce or intimidate Mr. Brodie. We believe no innocent person should be incarcerated."
---
Michelle Moore, Brodie's current attorney, said Brodie was made a scapegoat because police were under pressure to find the person responsible for more than a dozen sexual assaults of young girls terrorizing the north Dallas area in the early 1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“We felt like we did the best we could,”
Well it was not good enough you fool. It left one innocent already handicapped man in jail for 17 years and some guilty party free.
Brutal. How do you get your life back? Or get rid of the memories?
The job of District Attorney and the entire “adversarial” system of justice need to be abolished.
Does anyone really buy this? Let's see, on the one hand, I could have some cops leaning on me hard. Or, on the other hand, I can confess to raping a 5 year old and go to prison? Hmm, I'll take A, cops leaning on me hard.
How hard is hard? There are cops out there that are fully capable of administering severe and constant pain and can do it in ways that will not leave a single mark on your body.
Its for that reason alone that I am always suspicious of situations whenever I hear a suspect in police custody has “confessed”. Especially if there are no witnesses to the confession except other cops.
Are you kidding? I dont trust the police any more than I trust any other government-run agency...which isnt much. There is a reason why confessions can be later thrown out of court. When they are made without an attorney present, they are very weak. In that situation, the police better have corroborating evidence to support the confession. And confessions are practically worthless in court when made under duress.
Texas by far leads the nation in wrongful convictions. This case is just one of many that have been overturned in the past several years. So I really dont have much confidence in the Texas police.
When the District Attoney has to open a special office to investigate convictions that might be wrongful...something is very wrong. Of course it may be much better today. The majority of these cases are quite old in the 1980s and 1990s that are being overturned. And police procedures are different today. They’ve learned from many common errors they made back then.
I wonder if these assaults stopped when he went to prison. I also wonder if they had any evidence (victims' descriptions, etc.).
Did you read the story? The police had a fingerprint and DNA from a convicted child rapist at the crime scene but did not enter that fact into eveidence at the trial!
They had leaked key facts about the case to the guy during his interrogation, but even with that he only got 2 of 47 key facts right in the interrogation.
Even the two prosecuters in the case have now said he is innocent.
Talk about a miscarriage of justice-I’d like to see the cops in this case do some hard time.
we had a case here where 3 16 year olds confessed to murdering a store clerk after more than 36 hours of questioning....6 months later they found the real murder living and killing in another state...the kids were villified in the local papers, and later it was shown that the cops decided not to tape the interviews, or to provide transcrips of them, just the signed confessions. I have told my wife and kids, the police are to be respected, but they are not your friends. Anytime you talk to them, even if you are a witness, have an attorney or your parents in the room with you, or just say nothing...
Texas will compensate Mr. Brodie for his years of wrongful incarceration but that is small payment for the loss of his freedom. Hopefully he can get his life reorganized and begin to settle into a life of freedom.
“..Texas by far leads the nation in wrongful convictions. This case is just one of many that have been overturned in the past several years. So I really dont have much confidence in the Texas police...”
Perhaps, you have more faith in NYPD, LAPD, or Chicago law enforcement. We Texans are proud that we take a dim view of lawbreakers and favor the death penalty. It’s unfortunate, of course, that the deaf man was wrongfully convicted, but that happens in other states as well. You can now knock off your Texas bashing.
17 years without parole sounds about right.
The guy didn't say anything about severe and constant pain. He said, according to this report, he "felt scared and pressured." Would you falsely confess to child-rape in that scenario?
I dont have much faith in ANY law enforecement. I don’t trust the cops any more than the criminals they are trying to lock up.
Just because the police say someone is guilty doesnt mean they are. That’s why we put on a trial. You are innocent until PROVEN guilty in a court of law. So I really dont give a damn what the police say. I only care about what the evidence is.
So now because the cops and courts screwed this up, the real child rapist has been on the loose since 1991. God only knows how many other children that person has now harmed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.