Innocence: Miss. crime scene prowess lacking
The Clarion-Ledger
View original online article here
Even the most diehard proponent of capital punishment would not want
innocent people to be wrongly convicted - that is, if imposing justice is
indeed the goal.
But, unless Mississippi starts investing in improving the state's system
for criminal investigations, the inescapable conclusion must be to
consider halting executions.
A disturbing list of wrongful convictions is providing evidence for that
conclusion:
- On Thursday, Levon Brooks walked free after serving 18 years in
prison for a crime he didn't commit. In 1992, Brooks was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison in the slaying of his girlfriend's
daughter, Courtney Smith, 3, in Noxubee County. DNA evidence showed he
was not the rapist.
- In February, former death-row inmate Kennedy Brewer's capital
murder conviction was thrown out, and he was set free. Brewer was
sentenced to die in 1995 for raping and murdering a 3-year-old girl
until DNA testing showed he wasn't the rapist.
- In 2006, Cedric Willis of Jackson was freed after spending 12
years behind bars.
- Other cases are under review.
Since 1989, DNA testing has been responsible for the postconviction
exonerations of 213 people nationally, according to Emily Maw, director of
the Innocence Project New Orleans.
Mississippi lawmakers over the years have voiced staunch approval of
capital punishment, despite failing to adequate fund both criminal
investigations and judicial resources to speed trials through providing
indigent counsel.
It's almost as if lawmakers want to talk "tough" on crime, but go limp on
effective prosecution and incarceration by failing to fund the criminal
justice system.
But if Mississippi wants to pass constitutional muster to continue to
impose the death penalty, it must:
- Fully staff and equip a modern Crime Lab, including fast, accurate
DNA testing (chronically underfunded, the lab has routine staff
vacancies and has had backlogs of up to 1,000 cases more than a year
old);
- Hire a full-time state medical examiner (the position has been
vacant since 1995, with one pathologist responsible for more than
1,500 autopsies annually, an impossible standard);
- Upgrade forensic training and investigation statewide (Mississippi's coroner system is woefully inadequate and outdated).
Mississippi can't continue to "get along," with the possibility of
continuing to convict people later found to be innocent, or even - heaven
forbid! - execute the wrong people.
Brooks, behind bars for 18 years, and Brewer, on death row, for heaven's
sake, should send the message that Mississippi's forensic system is a
crime in and of itself.
The state must clean up its act.
Copyright © Mississippi Innocence Project