Franky Carrillo spent two decades in prison after he was convicted of a drive-by shooting in 1992 and sentenced in 1992 to one life term and 30 years to life in prison. Critical to his conviction was the testimony of five eyewitnesses who said that they saw him pull the trigger.
Had we known then what we know now about the fallibility of eyewitness identification, particularly under poor lighting conditions, this travesty of justice may have been avoided.
Last week, the Davis Enterprise kindly ran a story about the Vanguard‘s Death Penalty Event on their front page. That apparently was enough to prompt former Judge Jim Stevens to object.
He wrote in a letter to the editor, “Your recent article on the meeting of death penalty opponents was interesting but full of humbug. I respect the right of others to work for and express their opinion but reserve my right to tell them they are full of garbage.”
Monday, July 23 2012, Warren Hill is scheduled to be executed in Georgia. He was convicted of killing another inmate while serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This is despite the fact that Warren Hill is mentally retarded. Georgia was one of the first states to ban the execution of the mentally retarded; but there is a catch. The defendant bears the burden of proving he is mentally retarded beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the only state that requires the defense to bear this burden. Only the Board of Pardons and Parole can stop his execution now.
While a judge has found that Mr. Hill is mentally retarded, with an IQ of only 70, he didn’t find that fact beyond a reasonable doubt but rather by a preponderance of the evidence, which is the ordinary standard in civil matters, more likely than not. And it is on this technical basis that he will be executed. The Georgia Supreme Court voted four to three to reinstate Hill’s death sentence, and at the end of last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled seven to four to uphold that death sentence even though the majority seemed to think it “unwise.”
On Wednesday, the trial of Tomas Matzat, facing multiple charges of vandalism on the UC Davis campus as part of the Occupy protests, was moved to Judge David Rosenberg’s court, as Judge Tim Fall recused himself without explanation.
Attorney Tony Serra moved to suppress a search warrant of Mr. Matzat’s campus residence, arguing that it “was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment in that it was a fishing expedition, subject to a facially deficient warrant that was not based on reasonable or probable cause.”
In June of 2005, Ernesto Galvan and his brother Fermin were out on Riverbank Road in West Sacramento when they were approached by Officer Schlie of the West Sacramento Police Department.
What would ensue would leave Ernesto Galvan badly beaten and disfigured after police unleashed a series of baton blows to his head. The District Attorney’s office would charge the men with obstruction and delaying a police officer as well as misdemeanor counts of battery on a police officer.
Pitchess Motion Revealing of Charges and Defense in Bank Blocking Case –
Defense for the 11 students and one professor charged with numerous misdemeanors for their alleged role in blocking the US Bank in UC Davis’ Memorial Union in January and February this year filed a Pitchess motion on Friday.
At a brief hearing they scheduled Judge David Reed to hear motions on August 24, 2012.
In two weeks, at the Vanguard’s Dinner and Awards Ceremony, the work of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) will be honored with a Vanguard Award. On hand to personally receive that award with be NCIP Executive Director Cookie Ridolfi and Legal Director Linda Starr.
The immediate benefit of the work NCIP and other branches of the Innocence Project across the nation is to exonerate those who have been wrongfully imprisoned like Franky Carrillo, who spent 20 years in custody before his 2011 release. Mr. Carrillo will be one of the featured speakers at this year’s event and will present the Vanguard Award to the organization and individuals who helped to exonerate him.
Flawed Work by FBI Led to At Least One Wrongful Execution Paper Reports
The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the Justice Department and FBI “have launched a review of thousands of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve a new trial because of flawed forensic evidence”
They report this is the largest undertaking of post-conviction review ever done by the FBI.
Cruz Reynoso to Present Award to Pepper Sprayed Students; Northern California Innocence Project Honored
As if the amazing line up of speakers at the Vanguard Dinner and Awards Ceremony was not enough, the DavisVanguard announces its six annual awards. The Vanguard Awards honor the work of individuals and organizations on behalf of social justice.
Headlining the awards is the Northern California Innocence Project, based at the Santa Clara Law School, winning the award for Law School/University of the Year. Executive Director Cookie Ridolfi and Legal Director Linda Starr will be in house to personally receive this honor. The Vanguard honors their body of work that has helped two notable exonerees, including this year’s speaker Franky Carrillo, last year’s speaker Maurice Caldwell, and Obie Anthony, among many others.
In a few weeks, Franky Carrillo will speak at the Vanguard‘s annual Dinner and Awards ceremony. His wrongful conviction, that cost him 20 years in custody, was based not just on the faulty memory of the witnesses but also intentional manipulation by law enforcement.
Carrillo was sentenced in 1992 to one life term and 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of one count of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in a fatal drive-by shooting.
Maurice Possley, Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize To Speak at Vanguard Event
In November, California voters will be asked to decide whether to keep the death penalty in place or convert the sentences to life without parole. Proponents of the effort to repeal the state’s death penalty point to the fact that the state has only executed 13 people since the death penalty was reinstated at a cost of $184 million per year, according to a recent study.
On July 26 at Woodland Heidrick Ag Museum, the Davis Vanguard will host a dinner and awards ceremony featuring speakers who will educate the public on why they believe California should end the death penalty.
A San Diego County Supervisor would criticize the state’s realignment process, arguing, “Since [the law] was passed, theft is up in this county by 16 percent, including autos. You can’t blame that on our budget. But it’s Sacramento’s budget that has presented us with this dilemma.”
Except for one problem, a San Diego news site reports, it is untrue.
A recent study noted that 15% of the wrongful convictions reviewed involved a false confession. A reasonable person would have to ask, “How can that happen?” Phil Locke, Science and Technology Advisor, Ohio Innocence Project, posed this question in a recent blog entry on the Wrongful Convictions Blog.
“Well, there are some quirky psychological reasons why some unique individuals might confess to a crime they didn’t commit, but in the more general case, there are reasons why people do this,” he writes.
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling determined that mandatory life without possibility of parole for minors in homicide-related cases is unconstitutional.
The ruling was based off the precedent of two now concluded court cases. In each case a fourteen-year-old was convicted of homicide. The first case found Arkansas native Kuntrell Jackson guilty of a convenience store murder in 1999, even though he decided to stay outside while the murder took place. The other case found an Alabama boy named Evan Miller guilty after beating a 52-year-old neighbor and setting fire to his home. The neighbor then died of smoke inhalation.
One of the problems facing those who believe that the problem of wrongful convictions is far deeper that statistics currently available would indicate, is the dearth of reliable longitudinal data.
However, a new study that involved the DNA testing of hundreds of old Virginia homicide and sexual assault cases supports the exoneration of at least 38 suspects, according to a study released Monday by a national policy group that examined the test results.
The Three Strikes Reform ballot initiative will not fix all of the problems associated with the three strikes law. What it will do is fix the problem of people charged with minor crimes such as stealing a package of shredded cheese, then facing a 25 year to life sentence.
What it will also do is save the state perhaps $100 million a year, a number that has fiscal conservatives, who do not normally support measures of this sort, jumping on the bandwagon.
In 2010, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office, led by Deputy DA Clinton Parish, sought to put Robert Ferguson, charged with the theft of a package of shredded cheese, into prison for life under California’s three strikes law.
Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish argued that, given Mr. Ferguson’s long history of being in prison for a total of 22 years, he has not learned from his mistakes. Mr. Parish told the court, “The people gave him another shot, yet here we are again… Simply put this defendant is a career criminal.”
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending the Justice Summit put on by the Public Defender’s Office in San Francisco. They had three panels, and one of the most interesting spoke to alternative approaches to gang prevention efforts.
One of the most compelling speeches was the “keynote” by UCLA Professor Jorja Leap, author of Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love and Redemption.
The good news is that the Yolo County Grand Jury did not find anything untoward about the operations of the Yolo County Jail, but they are concerned with issues of inmate overcrowding, recidivism rates and budget reductions.
“Only individuals arrested on felony offenses are detained,” they report. “Each detainee is interviewed to identify gang affiliation, history of sexual offenses, confidential informants, race, religious preferences, federal inmates, etc.”
On Wednesday, Tomas Matzat was back in the Yolo County Court where he was finally arraigned on his felony and misdemeanor charges for vandalism.
Famed Defense Attorney Tony Serra made his first appearance in front of Judge Tim Fall – it was largely uneventful and a matter of formality. Mr. Matzat pled not guilty to the charges and they set, at least for now, a preliminary hearing for July 18.