The Jackson Free Press wrote up the Innocence Project’s move for Dr. Hayne’s medical license. But the article also includes some info about Cedric Willis, the third exoneration in Mississippi this year–one we haven’t heard nearly as much about.

Exonerated Jacksonian Cedric Willis spoke to the audience about spending 12 years behind bars, nine of them in Parchman, for a murder he did not commit—even as Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter made no move to exonerate him during those years he spent wrongfully serving time, despite the existence of evidence that could clear him.

“He had a motion on my freedom for years, and I never got a response from him. The judge had a right to say, ‘this is not right,’” Willis said, earlier questioning how DeLaughter could “sleep at night” knowing he’d sent an innocent man to rot in prison.

Here’s how:

DeLaughter was the assistant district attorney at the time, working under District Attorney Ed Peters, who prosecuted Willis. Judge Breland Hilburn was the judge in the Willis case; neither he, DeLaughter or Peters pushed to allow DNA evidence and witness testimony that could have proved Willis innocent. The real killer remains at large.

So the judge who heard most of Willis’ appeals was an assistant DA in the office that prosecuted him. Lovely. Oh, and then there’s this:

DeLaughter is currently under investigation for allegedly taking bribes from Peters, on behalf of attorney Dickie Scruggs, to influence cases. The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance recently suspended DeLaughter from the bench while the federal investigation continues.

This is worth noting, too:

“When Cedric Willis was prosecuted, the state of Mississippi knew full well that they had an innocent man,” Maw said. “This was not a case where the prosecutor thought he maybe had a weak case but … went ahead with the prosecution with some reservations.”

Maw added: “They knew outright that Cedric Willis did not commit this crime and they said so themselves in the newspapers—then they willingly kept out evidence that would have proved him innocent, and they let him sit in jail.”

“They should be punished for that and probably never will be because state law says that if the prosecutor does something wrong they have almost absolute immunity.”

It’s way past time to start rethinking absolute prosecutorial immunity.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under General Criminal Justice, Innocence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.