TheAgitator.com
This Week in Innocence
Thursday, April 30th, 2009More problems with the Houston crime lab, as a man in prison 22 years after being convicted of a rape and robbery looks to be innocent.
A jury convicted Gary Alvin Richard in a 1987 attack on a nursing student in a trial based largely on blood-typing evidence from the Houston Police Department crime lab. But, prosecutors and the defense attorney agree, new tests completed Friday show that an HPD analyst misled jurors at Richard’s trial and failed to report evidence that may have helped him.
Based on the new tests, both sides will ask a judge next week to release Richard on bond while they sort out what happened in his case.
“This is a new chapter, among many, of mistakes that were made, of sloppy work at the crime lab,” said Bob Wicoff, Richard’s lawyer. “Most troubling are the results that were not passed on to people who needed them.”
Richard’s case abounds with issues common to wrongful convictions. Among them:
The victim identified him some seven months after the attack. HPD crime lab analysts came to conflicting conclusions about the evidence, but reported only the results favorable to the case. Physical evidence collected in what is known as a “rape kit” has been destroyed, a victim of poor evidence preservation practices, leaving nothing for DNA testing now.
“The real crime is that another rape kit has been destroyed or discarded,” Wicoff said. “The standards for preserving evidence were less stringent in 1987, but that is no excuse.”
Without the rape kit, analysts at a California lab tested Richard’s body fluids and drew conclusions that Wicoff said establish his innocence.
“He could not have been the source of the semen at the crime scene,” Wicoff said.
Prosecutors have agreed that Richard should be released for the time being, but aren’t yet conceding that he’s innocent.
Richard’s case is one of more than 400 reviewed after investigators found evidence of corruption, mishandled evidence, and general incompetence in the Houston crime lab. So far, at least three other people have been wrongly convicted because of mistakes by the people working in it.
If only there was any justice, the HPD analyst who misled the jury would get 22 years in jail. It’s only fair.
Yet another guy in Texas railroaded with shoddy evidence?
Do I even have to look?
Oh look at that! He’s a black guy! Who’d a thunk that?
“…at least three other people have been wrongly convicted because of mistakes by the people working in it.”
A ‘mistake’ is when you open a can of Chicken Noodle soup instead of the Clam Chowder you wanted.
This looks like intentional tampering to appease your masters. It’s impossible to ignore all vindicating evidence in deference to the evidence that’s in favor of prosecution by mistake.
FFS.
This is how pathetic the Judicial system is, and how easy it is to get a false conviction.
In a nutshell:
Cops get 3 possible suspects (The victim randomly selected 3 different people over the span of a few months)
Lab guys determine that 1 in 5 guys could have done this crime.
The 3rd guy is in the 1 in 5 range. (Except that he’s not… there’s the lying part)
He’s railroaded through the courts and convicted.
If it wasn’t him, it would be the 4th guy… or the 5th… whatever it takes. Plenty of black men to pin crimes onto out there!
The one guy it WASN’T going to be? The guy that did it. He’s free to rape again, generating even more business to keep these asswipes employed.
Oh, I get it now! Aren’t they just following that motto of the justice system? How does that go again? Better that ten innocent men go to jail than one cop or prosecutor be found to be corrupt?
Ah, the spirit of Judge Roy Bean is alive and well…
Oh, fuck. 22 years in jail after being railroaded.
There is no way to compensate this guy. A billion dollars would not compensate him.
He’s been robbed of 22 years of his life.
And I bet those responsible did not lose a moment’s sleep over it. I’d like to think they’re sweating now, but I’ll bet there is some law which grants them immunity.
Andrew S. That’s the trouble-there is that immunity rule which makes for absolutely no accountabilty for them. No consequences for ruining people’s lives.
#4 Dave Krueger. I have been reading this blog for a couple of months now and I don’t think I’ve ever read a post from you that wasn’t brilliant!
Andrew S. That’s the trouble-there is that immunity rule which makes for absolutely no accountabilty for them. No consequences for ruining people’s lives.
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Agreed 100%. This is behavior that’s encouraged, not punished. And there’s a good portion of the public that thinks that “well, he probably did something bad anyways to deserve to be in jail” (see some of the comments on Radley’s linked article)