Court Watch

Yesterday’s story on Michael Morton and the story that emerged earlier this year. when the US Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutors in the John Thompson case could not be held liable for the destruction of evidence that was used to wrongfully convict Mr. Thompson, lead us once again onto the path of looking into ways to prevent wrongful convictions.

In October, Michael Morton walked out of a Texas Courtroom after his 1987 murder conviction was overturned because of new DNA evidence pointing to another man.

The Yolo County District Attorney’s office has just spent three and a half years and unknown quantities of money to get the death penalty in what should have been a slam dunk case.

Deputy District Attorney Sulaiman Tokhi argued that this is a case where “bad liars meet good evidence.”  During these troubled economic times, crimes involving the stealing of metal pipes such as copper and turning them into recycling centers have increased in numbers.

Eight years ago in Colorado, authorities showed up at the home of Tom Mink with a warrant to search for evidence of “criminal libel.”  Mr. Mink had developed a satiric internet publication, The Howling Pig.  Mr. Mink, then a University of Northern Colorado student, was being prosecuted for libel for what he claimed were protected First Amendment satirical writings.

Five young codefendants were facing nearly 20 years in prison for an attack on January 24, 2011.  The co-defendants, four of whom were minors, faced charges of robbery, assault and gang enhancements.

In the recent multi-defendant case in which five youngsters were alleged to have jumped, assaulted and robbed an individual, the Yolo County District Attorney aggressively pursued gang charges despite very thin evidence of gang involvement for the youths.

In early 2010, the Vanguard reported on the case of Robert Ferguson, who faced life in prison for stealing a package of shredded cheese from the Nugget Market.  Ultimately, after unfavorable press, the District Attorney dropped pursuit of the third strike and Mr. Ferguson for his minor crime, and he was instead was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison.

On January 24, 2011, a white male in his twenties, a musician in a band, was walking home from his drummer’s house on Sacramento Avenue (in West Sacramento) at 10:30 pm on a Monday night.  He was wearing headphones when he was approached by a person in a Michael Jordan jersey, who asked where he was from.

Lost in the melee of the pepper spraying incident is an interview of a juror by Davis Enterprise reporter Lauren Keene, whose interview now casts doubt on the dismissal of the other juror, ostensibly for language reasons.

Yolo County Judge Janet Gaard held Davis resident Paul Delgado to answer, in a preliminary hearing for two felony charges of attempting to sell meth, despite the fact that there is no evidence that he ever possessed the drug that he allegedly offered to sell to an undercover agent of YONET.

I’d like to be able to tell you that, in the end, justice was served, a murderer got what he deserved and we are all better off for it.  To wearily quote Bob Dylan, “In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel – to show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level – and that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded…”

When Judge Richardson dismissed Juror No.11 on Monday morning, granting her request for dismissal based on what she claimed to be a language barrier, it created several red flags for the Vanguard, which questioned why she seemed able to understand sufficient English to render a guilty verdict, but not enough to participate in the deliberation on the penalty phase.

On Monday morning, after a brief inquiry with Juror No.11, the judge granted her request for dismissal based on what she claimed to be a language barrier.  Left unanswered by the judge and unquestioned by the defense is how she could understand enough English to render a guilty verdict, but not enough to participate in the deliberation on the penalty phase.

On November 3, 2011, 285 people packed the Yolo Judicial Watch Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony to listen to a night about wrongful convictions highlighted by Maurice Caldwell, an individual who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and Linda Starr from the Innocence Project, one of the attorneys that helped to free him.

This Thursday at King Hall, John Thompson, who spent 14 years on death row before he was exonerated one month before his scheduled execution, based on the prosecution’s withholding of exculpatory evidence during trial, will speak at King Hall and discuss his experiences with the criminal justice system.

One of the most poignant parts of the recent county realignment discussion was when Debra Shelton, who works for CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) as an educator, talked about Marco Topete and the fact that we simply failed to provide him with the resources he needed to be able to survive on the outside.

It was not supposed to happen this way.  But a juror’s shocking request to be removed from the penalty phase of the Topete trial has thrown a monkey wrench into the system.