DNA acquittals shaking up forensic science

Current methods questioned as more wrongful convictions emerge


By Robert Bazell
Chief science and health correspondent
NBC News
updated 10:30 a.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 12, 2008

Last week sheriff’s deputies in Chickasaw County, Miss., arrested Justin Albert Johnson for the 1992 rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl.

What makes the case noteworthy is that another man, Kennedy Brewer, was convicted and sentenced to death for the same crime. Brewer spent 12 years in various prisons and jails, including death row, at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parcham.

DNA evidence exonerated Brewer in 2001. But because certain prosecutors were reluctant to admit they made a mistake, Brewer remained imprisoned until last August. Charges against him are still technically pending, but they will likely be dropped soon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23113417/

DNA evidence exonerated Brewer in 2001. But because certain prosecutors were reluctant to admit they made a mistake, Brewer remained imprisoned until last August. Charges against him are still technically pending, but they will likely be dropped soon.

This makes me sooooo mad!!!:angry: :angry: :angry:

Someone's pride and "win record" takes precedence over someone's innocence and freedom!

That's hardly unusual. In Dallas County, Texas, the District Attorney who was elected last year agreed to reinvestigate over 400 cases in which DNA evidence (particularly with recent advances in the technique) might make a difference, and to hand over any such evidence to the Innocence Project and other investigators. I have yet, however, to hear of anyone receiving any such material in Dallas County as of this writing.

The former Dallas County D.A. kept a collection of 8x10s, 57 of them if I remember right, in his office. Each was someone he had prosecuted who had received a death sentence and been executed. One must wonder about the mentality behind such actions, which far more resemble those of a serial murderer than of a member of the judiciary.

There are many men and women in prison because of a prosecutor, or states attorney, or a judge caring about the "win" or "votes" instead of the person's actual innocence. I am positive and have seen proof in many cases when the new DNA laws in post conviction testing have turned things around for the innocent. The worst part is that it takes time and the convicted and their families lose many years while they have to wait. I do however know that the system will be changing and with DNA testing getting better and better, eventually those accused will be found innocence. These costly mistakes for the counties and states will hit them right where it counts... their wallets!