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Post by nils on Jul 30, 2014 2:54:59 GMT -6
Oklahoma District Attorney David Prater dropped charges against Yancy Douglas ,35, and Paris Powell, 36, after deciding the state's key witness was unreliable. "Ethically, and on my duty, I could not proceed in this case and had to dismiss it," Prater said. Derrick Smith, a rival gang member to the defendants and the state's main witness, was one of the apparent targets in the shooting. A federal appeals court in 2006 found that Smith had received a deal from the prosecutors that was not revealed to the defense and overturned the conviction of Powell but denied relief to Douglas. Smith testified against Powell and Douglas in their separate trials, but later admitted he never saw who shot him, that he was drunk and high that night, and that he testified only because prosecutors had threatened him with more prison time. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reviewed the District Court's findings in 2009. With respect to Mr. Powell, the Circuit Court affirmed the lower court, stating, "we agree with the district court that Mr. Powell’s trial did not yield a verdict worthy of confidence." With respect to Mr. Douglas, the Circuit Court held, "Assessing the prosecutor’s egregious conduct in light of the trial record leaves us with grave doubt about the validity of the jury’s verdict and persuades us that Mr. Douglas is entitled to habeas relief from his capital murder conviction." At the time of their release, the District Attorney added, “We all came to the opinion that without Derrick Smith, we did not have a case we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jack Fisher, Powell’s attorney, said his client has always maintained his innocence and that Powell’s release is “bittersweet. It should have happened a long time ago. It’s unfortunate that he had to spend 16 years of his life in jail. What it boils down to is they had no evidence he was guilty. The testimony that they used to convict him was false.” Best wishes Nils.
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Post by ltdc on Jul 30, 2014 8:40:35 GMT -6
a rival gang member to the defendants rival gang member. rival. that means no humans involved. but I thought anti DP folks were OK with "caging" innocent people, just not executing innocent people. so now what do you want? proof once again of what I've been saying for years, that the problem is not and has never been the death penalty. IF,IF, IF, there is indeed a problem, it lies in the investigation through court process. why not fix it there Nils?
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Post by whitediamonds on Jul 30, 2014 9:41:38 GMT -6
If there is a problem it lies in the investigation thru the court process !!! Exactly.
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