Comments on: MS Attorney General Jim Hood: Forrest Allgood a “Straight Arrow”

By: MS Willie

MS Willie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:45:40 +0000

This is sad! I agrre so much with the statement, we care more about making an arrest, placing someone in jail, than ensuring we as law enforcement really follow the established law. the citizens voices are no longer heard after election. Vague promises. I recently became aware of a very crooked scam including MBN and law enforcement in a few counties in MS. It just seem like a predator out to get a prey at any cost. So many innocent people are spending time in jail. This is sad, all because they could not afford the best attorneys or was not friends with the clicks of law enforcement. Wrongful scams, drug schemes within the law, you name it we have problems. Mr. Hood, be advised you were appointed to do thorough investigations, prior to sentencing. A man spent time for a crime, he did not comitt. the question is how many more, especially minority people. Are you really practicing justice for all. What do you say now, with this rush investigation? This does not appear to be justice.

By: Lloyd Flack

Lloyd Flack — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:21:18 +0000

Allgood looks like a plain case of tunnel vision and unwillingness to admit that his first impressions may have been wrong. Keeping Brewer in prison despite the DNA evidence is a clear example of this. He came up with a contrived scenario so that he wouln’t have to admit to himself that he had got it completely wrong. In a civil case this would be desribed as willful blindness.

By: TC

TC — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:02:25 +0000

“America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”

Is it?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:02:12 +0000

Garrett,

In Radley’s November Reason piece about MS criminal justice, there’s an excellent aside by some guy about reforming the forensics system. I think they’re exactly the kind of institutional reforms you’re getting at.

By: Mississippi Attorney General Blind to Wrongful Convictions and Ethics | OpenMarket.org

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:33:52 +0000

[...] attorney general, Jim Hood, is praising a shady prosecutor who put innocent people in jail, calling him a “straight [...]

By: Grant Gould

Grant Gould — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:52:21 +0000

The straighter the arrow, the more it matters which way it’s pointed.

By: Garrett J

Garrett J — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:12:31 +0000

Radley,

Even if we take the Mississippi AG at his word- there was no misconduct, any jury would have reached the same verdict based on the circumstantial evidence Allgood believed to be true, and there was no rush to judgment- doesn’t this indicate a severe malfunction in the system itself.

If the AG wants to defend his prosecutor, that’s all good and well, but that just means that the problem is bigger than one bad egg.

From everything you’ve written, there seems to be a lot of shady goings on, but just like all your SWAT forced entry work, the real problem here seems to be exasperated by guys like Allgood and Hayne. The root of the problem seems much, much deeper, in which our criminal justice system places a priority on prosecutions over the search for truth. Getting a perp in jail is more important than actually getting the right perp off the street. In a civil case, some of these tactics might be good lawyering, but it’s a huge problem in the criminal system where everything is already weighted againast the defendant.