Dudley Sharp
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Related topics, below

No Death Penalty = More Innocent Deaths and 
THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES 
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At least since Sacco and Vanzetti, the anti death penalty movement has been presenting guilty murderers as innocent (1).  Though Sacco and Vanzetti’s guilt was well known to a small cadre of anti death penalty folks and anarchists, they still allowed riots and other violence to take place, based upon the fraud of their innocence (1), in a well  orchestrated campaign, similar to those of today, such as the Troy Davis case (8) or the 142 “exonerated” or “innocent” frauds (2).

These frauds are easily discovered by basic fact checking yet, many in the media and academia advance these frauds, instead of exposing them.

False innocence claims: the many, the blatant, the legendary:

1) see Sacco and Vanzetti, within both:

a) Guilty: Sacco and Vanzetti
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/08/guilty-sacco-and-vanzetti.html

“(Author Upton) Sinclair met with Fred Moore, (Sacco and Vanzetti’s defense) attorney, in a Denver motel room. Moore “sent me into a panic,” Sinclair wrote in the typed letter that Hegness found at the auction a decade ago.”

“Alone in a hotel room with Fred, I begged him to tell me the full truth,” Sinclair wrote. ” … He then told me that the men were guilty, and he told me in every detail how he had framed a set of alibis for them.” 

b) “The Innocent Executed: Deception & Death Penalty Opponents”
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/10/08/the-innocent-executed-deception–death-penalty-opponents–draft.aspx

2) Roger Keith Coleman

The classic Cause Celebre, anti death penalty case is put together like this: 

Imagine facts that evidence won’t support, but make it real, anyway. And keep it going for years and years (1).

Anti death penalty activist Jim McCloskey spent 14 years championing Coleman’s innocence. 

He created a case of an innocent executed and knew the media will come.  And, boy, did they.

Here is McCloskey’s assessment of the state’s case against Coleman:

“The (state’s) case was built on innuendos and lies and ludicrous, insane theory that falls flat in the face of common sense.” (2)

This is a classic quote of anti death penalty infamy, duplicating so many others.  

Mr. McCloskey, look in the mirror.  Coleman’s guilt was confirmed by DNA.

For some time, Coleman’s defense team concentrated on the “real murderer”, with whom they, later, had to make an out of court settlement


3)  The Blatant Fraud –  The 142 “exonerated” from death row

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) simply decided to redefine both “exonerated” and “innocent”, in the same fashion as if they redefined “lie” as “truth”. 

a) The 130 (now 142) death row “innocents” scam
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/03/04/fact-checking-issues-on-innocence-and-the-death-penalty.aspx

b)  The “Innocent”, the “Exonerated” and Death Row
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-innocent-exonerated-and-death-row_19.html

An Open Fraud in the Death Penalty Debate: How Death Penalty Opponents Lie

This is a look at how well destroyed the “EXONERATED” and/or “INNOCENTS” list is and how it has been so deceptively used by the anti death penalty movement.


4)  Florida: The 83% error rate in “exoneration” claims. 

4 of the 24 “exonerated” may be innocent, as found in 2 studies by a Florida state agency, the Florida Commission on Capital Cases.  It is no surprise that the 24 “exonerated” claim comes from the deceptive DPIC.

This may represent the worst case of media deception, as the Florida media has known the real numbers since 2002 (updated 2011)  but refuses to use them, instead, pushing the well known DPIC deception of the 23/24 “exonerated”. That is how bad it has gotten.

From page 5 (2002 study) and page 7 (2011 study):

“The guilt of only four defendants was subsequently “doubted” by the prosecuting office or the Governor and Cabinet members: Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee were pardoned by Governor Askew and the Cabinet, citing substantial doubt of their guilt, Frank Lee Smith died before the results of DNA testing excluded him as the perpetrator of the sexual assault, and the State chose not to retry James Richardson due to newly discovered evidence and the suspicion of another perpetrator.”  

“doubted”, not confirmed. 

a)  Case Histories: A Review of 24 Individuals Released from Death Row (2002), FLORIDA COMMISSION ON CAPITAL CASES, Locke Burt, Chairman, June 20, 2002, Revised: September 10, 2002
http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/Publications/innocentsproject.pdf

            b)  TRULY INNOCENT?: A Review of 23 Case Histories of Inmates Released from Florida‘s Death Row Since 1973, Commission on Capital Cases, The Florida Legislature, Roger R. Maas, Executive Director, May 13, 2011
http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/Publications/casehistory05-13-11%20Report.pdf


5) “The innocence tactic: Unreliable studies and disinformation”, reports By United States Congress, Senate, 107th Congress, 2d Session, Calender no 731, Report 107-315. The Innocence Protection Act of 2002, (iv) The innocence tactic: Unreliable studies and disinformation, p 65-69    http://alturl.com/6j7oc

“Death penalty opponents have decided that, if a large enough risk of mistaken executions does not exist, they will invent it.”

6) “The Myth Of Innocence”­, Joshua Marquis, pu­blished in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminolog­y – 3/31/2005, Northweste­rn University School of Law, Chicago, Illinois
http://coastda.blogspot.com/2005/03/myth-of-innocence.html

“Having largely abandoned the moral arguments against capital punishment, the modern abolition movement is now based on a trio of urban legends: (1) the death penalty is racist at its core; (2) those accused of capital murder get grossly inadequate representation; and (3) a remarkable number of people on death row are innocent.”

7)  see section III. Death Of Truth: Sister Prejean’s book “The Death Of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions”:

“(Prejean’s) book is moreover riddled with factual errors and misrepresentations.”

” . . . despite repeated claims that (Prejean) cares about crime victims,  implies that the victim’s husband was a more likely suspect but was overlooked because the authorities wanted to convict a black man.” 

” . . . a Federal District Court . . . stated that ‘the evidence against Williams was overwhelming.’  ” “The same court also did “not find any evidence of racial bias specific to this case.”

But, “Williams had confessed to repeatedly stabbing his victim, Sonya Knippers.”

“This DNA test was performed by an independent lab in Dallas, which concluded that there was a one in nearly four billion chance that the blood could have been someone’s other than Williams’.” 

from

http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/05/04/sister-helen-prejean–the-death-penalty-a-critical-review.aspx

8) Exoneration Inflation

“Exoneration Inflation: Justice Scalia’s Concurrence in Kansas v. March”, by Ward Campbell, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice, p 49, The Journal of the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice, Issue 2, Summer 2008
http://www.cjlf.org/files/CampbellExonerationInflation2008.pdf

“The more conservative approach of the court in Quinones I only recognized “actual innocence” in one‑half of one percent of the 7,084 death sentences imposed between 1973 and 2001.”

“By deflating the DPIC List, Justice Scalia’s concurring opinion in Kansas v. Marsh contributes to an honest and realistic assessment of that actual risk.”

9) “The Innocent and the Shammed”
by Joshua Marquis, Published in New York Times, 1/26/2006, http://coastda.blogspot.com/2006/01/innocent-and-shammed-nyt-oped.html

” . . .nothing is gained by deluding the public into believing that the police and prosecutors are trying to send innocent people to prison. Any experienced defense lawyer will concede that he would starve if he accepted only “innocent” clients. Americans should be far more worried about the wrongfully freed than the wrongfully convicted.”

10) “Troy Davis & The Innocent Frauds of the anti death penalty lobby”,
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2011/11/troy-davis-innocent-frauds-of-anti.html

“The Troy Davis campaign, like many before it, is a simple, blatant fraud, easily uncovered by the most basic of fact checking .

The case for Davis’ guilt is overwhelming, just as were his due process protections, which may have surpassed that of all but a few death row inmates.”

11) “Cameron Todd Willingham: Another Media Meltdown”, A Collection of Articles
http://homicidesurvivors.com/categories/Cameron%20Todd%20Willingham.aspx

The state of the forensics in the Cameron Todd Willingham case is this:

1) Of all of the forensics reports, that I have read, which find fault with the arson findings, none exclude arson. They conclude that the fire could be either arson or an accident.

2) Other reports continue to find for arson.

Other, non fire forensic, evidence against Todd Willingham not only continues to find for guilt but there is, now, more and stronger evidence against him.

Expert witnesses:

We have all seen where there are equally qualified experts in a trial that have opinions that are complete opposites. In some cases, there can be credible disagreement. In others, we respond with a deserved cynicism, 

With the Willingham fire, no credible person has denied that the fire could be arson. 

Dr. Hurst demurred. “I never had a case where I could exclude arson,” he said. “It’s not possible to do that.”(a)

Sadly, but in character (b), Barry Scheck and the Innocent Project have stated, flatly, that it wasn’t arson and that Willingham was an innocent executed (c) All that Scheck and the IP are doing is injuring the credibility of forensic science. Evidently, for them, the find their agenda worth it. Former Texas Governor Mark White, now an anti death penalty activist, appears headed down this path, as well.

(a) “Family’s Effort to Clear Name Frames Debate on Executions”, John Schwartz, New York Times,  October 14, 2010, 

12) a) “Carlos DeLuna: Another False Innocence Claim?” Maybe? Probably?

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/05/carlos-deluna-another-false-innocence.html

“Paul Rivera, a Corpus Christi police investigator who transported DeLuna between city and county jails, said the study’s researchers asked him years ago to reread the DeLuna case.

Rivera said he took his time combing through the investigation reports and transcripts. In the end, he drew the same conclusion.”

“I know exactly what happened,” he said. “DeLuna stabbed Wanda Lopez when she was on the phone and she was screaming for help.”

“Rivera, who investigated more than 200 murders in Corpus Christi, said at least nine of those people were on death row and no one questioned his investigations or methods before DeLuna’s case.”

“The Columbia researchers are adamant about trying to abolish the death penalty, he said. “I don’t know why these people are so vicious,” he said.”

b)  “Report questioning execution doesn’t sway lawyers”  MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press, CNS NEWS, May 16, 2012 – 9:15 PM,http://cnsnews.com/news/article/report-questioning-execution-doesnt-sway-lawyers#sthash.Xqa96lzy.dpuf

“DeLuna claimed the killer was a man named Carlos Hernandez whom he’d met in the Nueces County jail. The county’s former prosecutor who tried DeLuna, Steve Schiwetz, said records showed DeLuna had never been in the jail at the same time as a Carlos Hernandez. He also said investigators gave defense attorneys photos of every Carlos Hernandez who had been jailed in Nueces County and showed them to DeLuna, who refused to identify any of the photos as the killer.”

 

http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/01/30/fact-checking-is-very-welcome.aspx

Pickett:  (In 1989) “I was  so 100% certain that he couldn’t have committed this crime. (Carlos) was a super person to minister to.  I knew Carlos was not guilty. ” “I knew (executed inmate) Carlos (De Luna) didn’t do it.”

REPLY:  There is this major problem. It appears that Rev. Pickett is, now, either lying about his own 1989 opinions or he is very confused.

In 1999, 4 years after Rev. Pickett had left his death row ministry, and he had become an anti death penalty activist, and 10 years after De Luna’s execution, the reverend was asked, in a PBS Frontline interview,

“Do you think there have been some you have watched die who were strictly innocent?”

Pickett’s  reply: “I never felt that.”

13) Gary Graham: Hollywood, Murder and Texas: 
A CASE STUDY OF LIES, HALF-TRUTHS AND  INTIMIDATION 
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/graham.htm

“C. (1) Gary Graham’s defense claims have been reviewed and rejected 9 times by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest criminal court in Texas), 2 times by the Texas Supreme Court, 4 times by the U.S. Supreme Court and in a total of thirty-three (33) judicial or executive proceedings. (Houston Post, July 29, 1993 and subsequent events, as of 9/8/96.)

(2) a. Federal District Court Judge David Hittner ruled that all of Graham’s new evidence is not sufficient to entitle him to a federal hearing and refused Graham a hearing or a stay of execution. He also stated that several of Graham’s new witnesses were not credible. (Houston Post, August 16, 1993 and Houston Chronicle, August 14, 1993.)
b. After a thorough review of all the “new evidence”, by himself and his staff, Texas Attorney General Dan Morales stated, “…that none of that new information is credible. There is no new evidence. Graham is stalling for time.” The “new evidence” and “revised” witness statements are “”stoned-cold manufactured evidence.” (Houston Chronicle, August 15, 1993, Houston Sun August 16, 1993 and The Texas Observer, August 20, 1993.)

14) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

For decades and internationally, one of the biggest “innocent” executed cases.

The Venona Intercepts, 1995

The US Government has direct evidence of Julius Rosenberg, and others’, involvement with the Soviet’s, as spies for atomic secrets, with intercepted communications between the Soviet’s and some of their US spies, from 1944. These Venona  intercepts were released in 1995.  There was more than enough evidence that Ethel, at least, knew of his spying and chose not to report it, enough for a conspiracy, which was the charge and why they were executed.

Folks look past the obvious.

They both had ample time to come forward and proclaim Ethel innocence and, to, at least, save one parent for their children. They chose not to, instead, they both chose that Ethel should die, leaving their children to be orphaned, a decisive indicator of  guilt for them both and as well as their devotion to the cause.

Direct evidence of Ethel’s guilt came later, as did more evidence of the damage that the Rosenberg spy ring caused.

Rosenbergs Redux, BY RONALD RADOSH AND STEVEN USDIN, DECEMBER 6, 2010
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/79648/rosenbergs-redux-julius-ethel-communist-spies

From which:

“As for Ethel Rosenberg’s role, the evidence is unequivocal. She recruited her brother as an atomic spy and provided logistical support to Julius’s espionage activities. She knew at least two Soviet intelligence officers, and they considered her a loyal and trustworthy compatriot.”

NOTE: This, below,  is a “rebuttal” to Radosh and Usdin’s article above, by Michael Meeropol, one of the Rosenberg’s sons. The rebuttal is so weak, that it should be viewed as a complete concession, with the exception of the date Julius became a spy.

 

15)   The Innocence Project Invents False Confessions
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-innocence-project-invents-false.html 

“Dr. Welner demonstrated how poor scientific methodology and an anti-police agenda among declared scholars in this novel area of scientific interest result in inflated perceptions of the prevalence of false confessions. 

These include false representations by The Innocence Project that the proportion of false confessions in wrongful conviction cases is 25 percent when that percentage is in actuality close to 10 percent.”

16)  The Death Penalty: Do Innocents Matter?
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html

“Well known anti death penalty scholars “(Charles) Black and (Hugo Adam ) Bedau said they would favor abolishing the death penalty even if they knew that doing so would increase the homicide rate by 1,000 percent.” 

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Since 1973:

1) no credible claim of an innocent executed in the modern era, post 1972 (“The Innocents Fraud”, above);

2) the death penalty protects innocents, in three ways, better than does life without parole (LWOP): enhanced due process, enhanced incapacitation and enhanced deterrence (“The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents”, below);

 

THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES