XPost: talk.politics.drugs, talk.politics.guns, alt.current-events.usa   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa.republican   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.law-enforcement   
   From: drp@drproctor.com   
      
   On 19 Dec 2003 04:21:57 -0800, shrbw@abertay.ac.uk (Barry Worthington)   
   wrote:   
      
   >We make mistakes too - that's why we don't execute people any more.   
   >   
   >We leave that to less civilised places like Texas....   
      
   We generally don't execute innocents here in Texas.   But I was   
   personally-involved in a near thing,   as follows====   
      
         The night before,  the  accused was observed having dispute with   
   victim,  who was found shot dead the next morning.  In the victim's   
   clenched fingers  is a hair from a white persons ( Both the victim and   
   accused were afro-american ).   
      
           Accused is convicted of murder in the first trial and   
   sentenced to death.    On appeal,  he gets a new trial.   
      
         I get called in as a defense expert to testify the hair was from   
   a caucasian.   When I finally look at it,  it  was obviously broken in   
   some traumatic event.   
      
          I always ask to look at the coroner's report,  since I did a   
   pathology residency.       In contradiction to the states theory that   
   the murder happened 12 hours before,   the physical findings clearly   
   show the victim could only have been killed an hour or so before the   
   body was discovered,  a which time,  the accussed had a good alibi.   
      
         There is reason to think the prosecution knew this.  E.g.,  Most   
   unusually,  the Medical examiner was not called to testify at the   
   first trial.  The suspicion is that this was because  he would have   
   had to testify to the real time of death,  if the defense attorney   
   figured it out...   
      
         Anyway,  the second jury comes thru with a "not guilty" verdict.   
   All this due to enough chance happenings that I wonder what does not   
   get cleared up....   
      
   Dr P   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)