Although the miscarriage of justice is not currently a frequent occurrence, throughout the years, several people have been wrongfully convicted. For multiple reasons, the guilt of the person was believed to be true; thus, punishments were administered accordingly. In an effort to minimize the wrongful convictions, The Innocence Project is committed to assist and exonerate those who have been convicted of a crime that they did not commit.
In June 1995, Angel Gonzalez was convicted for aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping. Gonzalez was initially sentenced to 40 years in prison; however, upon his completion of 20 years, DNA testing cleared him from the accusations. Initially, however, as a way to avoid admitting to an avoidable …show more content…
Rex Bloomstein’s documentaries allows society to see the effects of the prisoners in prison and the effects it has on their families. A passage in the book, Media & Crime 3rd Edition, Sage Publications Ltd, Yvonne Jewkes, page 209, “Bloomstein is widely appreciated for humanizing his subjects, while still conveying the complexities of their personalities, motives and circumstances; a process he has called ‘undermining the simplicities’ (Blomstein, 2008; cf. Bennett, 2006a)”. When you put the 1440 prisoners that were executed from 1977 to 1986 into perspective, these prisoners had one mother and one father, so that adds up to 2880 people that were indirectly affected by the execution. So if you add the 2880 people, mother and father, to the 1440 that were executed that brings the total of 4,320 people affected by the execution. We can’t assume if any of the 1440 prisoners that were executed had children or were married but let us assume that half of the 1440, 720, were married. Now we just added 720 more people to the 4, 320 people to total of 5,040 people who were affected by these executions. This could go on and on with the number of affected people increasing causing ripple effect on the lives of the effected people. According to www.osborneny.org, “A misperception exists that children of incarcerated parents are more likely to be …show more content…
Basically, the act modified the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure to require on going discovery of exculpatory evidence. In previous versions of the law and how the Brady law was applied in Texas, the prosecutor only had to turn over certain evidentiary items but it was based on their determination of what met the Brady requirement (Orr & Rodery, 2015). This legal application of the laws and case laws lead to evidence being withheld by the prosecution. This is typically referred to as prosecutorial misconduct (Orr & Rodery). In Michael Morton’s case, the prosecution withheld the witness statement of his son and neighbors. The son gave a statement of the description of the murderer and the fact his father was not home at the time of the murderer. The other witnesses gave a description of man casing the area with a wooden club. The prosecution also withheld physical evidence found outside the house. They had a bandana with the victim’s blood stained on it and hair of from murderer (Orr & Rodery). The new law requires a defendant to ask for discovery. However, once that is done, the discovery must continue and does not have to be asked for again. The law also requires things to be provided as soon as practicable. The newly changed law is codified as 39.14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Orr & Rodery). According to the new legal update class I teach, it requires the submission of all notes
In June 1995, Angel Gonzalez was convicted for aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping. Gonzalez was initially sentenced to 40 years in prison; however, upon his completion of 20 years, DNA testing cleared him from the accusations. Initially, however, as a way to avoid admitting to an avoidable …show more content…
Rex Bloomstein’s documentaries allows society to see the effects of the prisoners in prison and the effects it has on their families. A passage in the book, Media & Crime 3rd Edition, Sage Publications Ltd, Yvonne Jewkes, page 209, “Bloomstein is widely appreciated for humanizing his subjects, while still conveying the complexities of their personalities, motives and circumstances; a process he has called ‘undermining the simplicities’ (Blomstein, 2008; cf. Bennett, 2006a)”. When you put the 1440 prisoners that were executed from 1977 to 1986 into perspective, these prisoners had one mother and one father, so that adds up to 2880 people that were indirectly affected by the execution. So if you add the 2880 people, mother and father, to the 1440 that were executed that brings the total of 4,320 people affected by the execution. We can’t assume if any of the 1440 prisoners that were executed had children or were married but let us assume that half of the 1440, 720, were married. Now we just added 720 more people to the 4, 320 people to total of 5,040 people who were affected by these executions. This could go on and on with the number of affected people increasing causing ripple effect on the lives of the effected people. According to www.osborneny.org, “A misperception exists that children of incarcerated parents are more likely to be …show more content…
Basically, the act modified the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure to require on going discovery of exculpatory evidence. In previous versions of the law and how the Brady law was applied in Texas, the prosecutor only had to turn over certain evidentiary items but it was based on their determination of what met the Brady requirement (Orr & Rodery, 2015). This legal application of the laws and case laws lead to evidence being withheld by the prosecution. This is typically referred to as prosecutorial misconduct (Orr & Rodery). In Michael Morton’s case, the prosecution withheld the witness statement of his son and neighbors. The son gave a statement of the description of the murderer and the fact his father was not home at the time of the murderer. The other witnesses gave a description of man casing the area with a wooden club. The prosecution also withheld physical evidence found outside the house. They had a bandana with the victim’s blood stained on it and hair of from murderer (Orr & Rodery). The new law requires a defendant to ask for discovery. However, once that is done, the discovery must continue and does not have to be asked for again. The law also requires things to be provided as soon as practicable. The newly changed law is codified as 39.14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Orr & Rodery). According to the new legal update class I teach, it requires the submission of all notes