Houston and Texas Justice (Amarillo, Burleson: crime, school, university)

[lukeache]

Hi all:

Yesterday, I watched a documentary on A&E about the Innocence Project at University of St Thomas in Houston and it gave me the chills. It was talking about people who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they apparently did not commit and were now on death row. I hope this does not offend anybody or discourages people from moving to Texas, but the Texas Justice System, in my opinion can be very unfair, ruthless and just incredibly ignorant. They were talking in particular about a case in Burleson County, where a black man was convicted of murder. Apparently, he did not commit the crime and even the person that confessed clearly stated that he did not commit the crime, the attitude of the county sheriff's office was pretty much like "I dont want to hear it". There was another case in Amarillo about blacks being arrested for crimes they did not commit..etc. I am not your ultra Liberal, but we are not talking about just one case here. To me, this type of backwards mentality is one of the things that would make me think twice before moving back to this state.

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by lukeache

Hi all:

Yesterday, I watched a documentary on A&E about the Innocence Project at University of St Thomas in Houston and it gave me the chills. It was talking about people who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they apparently did not commit and were now on death row. I hope this does not offend anybody or discourages people from moving to Texas, but the Texas Justice System, in my opinion can be very unfair, ruthless and just incredibly ignorant. They were talking in particular about a case in Burleson County, where a black man was convicted of murder. Apparently, he did not commit the crime and even the person that confessed clearly stated that he did not commit the crime, the attitude of the county sheriff's office was pretty much like "I dont want to hear it". There was another case in Amarillo about blacks being arrested for crimes they did not commit..etc. I am not your ultra Liberal, but we are not talking about just one case here. To me, this type of backwards mentality is one of the things that would make me think twice before moving back to this state.

we can always improve on any justice system. but hollywood and some activitist groups assertions that most punished people are innocent is just simply not the case. please look again at the glass of water. the glass is still half full, enormous amounts of crime and criminals go unpunished and continue to threaten our communities daily. for every crime that was punished there were 10 or more that were never apprehended or discussed.
its like when you catch somebody telling a lie. do you think its the first time they did it? you have got to practice if you expect to get any good at it.
stephen s
san diego ca

[Redrover]

You can't paint the entire state of Texas with the same brush. Sure, you will always find examples of that backwards mentality you describe in any area of the country. You are just as likely to find it in New Jersey or Montana as Texas but because it is so egregious, the public scrutiny is more often brought to bare here in Texas as opposed to other parts of the country. We don't tolerate that kind of nonsense here but in other locales it is just the way things are done and have been for generations. It is true that small towns are much slower to change but please don't think that is unique to Texas. The very fact that such mis-applications of justice are reported and scrutinized is far better than all the ones that never see the light of day in other parts of the country.

[jfre81]

*points at Jena, Louisiana*

Here in Texas you just have the guilty-until-proven-innocent mob mentality...just look at the Chron.com article comments...

[tstone]

There was a 20/20 investigation about a Texas judge in the 70s or 80s giving a life sentence to a black guy for simply smoking a joint.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by tstone

There was a 20/20 investigation about a Texas judge in the 70s or 80s giving a life sentence to a black guy for simply smoking a joint.

thats one hippie off the streets

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

thats one hippie off the streets

How about we just allow cops to put a bullet in the back of somebody's head for possessing some weed...?

[OneDayInSomewhere]

Originally Posted by jfre81

How about we just allow cops to put a bullet in the back of somebody's head for possessing some weed...?

Now that's some backward mentality....haha....I do pick up on the sarcasm. I do believe in the death penalty but I also believe it is applied too liberally. I do not believe it is a "backward mentality".

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by jfre81

How about we just allow cops to put a bullet in the back of somebody's head for possessing some weed...?

caught red handed or just bummed out to smoke it in public? yeah lock them up. and if it so happen that some girl was attacked around the same time and the attacker matches the description of the pothead and he got pulled into some line up while he's locked up then thats tough luck. I highly doubt this will happen to a casual pot smoker that does his thing in private

[texas7]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble - but just about every state in the country has a Project Innocense program at a University - it isn't about injustice in Texas - there are injustices done in every state and there are school programs who try to right them. There was even a short lived show about one such project - the tv show was "Injustice".