And Charles Sebasta chose to pursue the death penalty? That should be a crime.

That court also found that Sebasta withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and knowingly put on false testimony.

What a shock.

Pikett has testified in court (in a matter unrelated to Graves) that there is no need for formal training or for scientific rules or protocols when conducting such lineups, and Pikett has rejected the importance of scientific studies regarding scent identification.

Evidence schmevidence who needs that bullshit. Just beat the guy with a rubber hose till he confesses.

BTW the links to previous scent line ups/police dogs articles aren’t working.

Staff director self-describes the group as: “ALEC is the conservative, free-market orientated, limited-government group.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

Any bets on his punishment? Oh wait, there won’t be any! Nevermind.

“- – - – - – - – - – - – End Footnotes- – - – - – - – - – - – - -
[**18] Perhaps even more egregious than District Attorney Sebesta’s failure to disclose Carter’s most recent statement is his deliberate trial tactic of eliciting testimony from Carter and the chief investigating officer, Ranger Coffman, that the D.A. knew was false and designed affirmatively to lead the jury to believe that Carter made no additional statement tending to exculpate Graves. District Attorney Sebesta asked Carter to confirm that, with the exception of his grand jury testimony where he denied everything, he had always implicated Graves as being with him in [*342] committing the murders. Carter answered in the affirmative. Sebesta also asked Ranger Coffman, after Carter testified, to confirm that all of Carter’s statements except the grand jury testimony implicated Graves. Sebesta also confirmed through Ranger Coffman that he understood his obligation to bring to the prosecutor’s attention any evidence favorable to the defense. Although there is no factual finding regarding whether Ranger Coffman knew of Carter’s statement that he committed the crimes alone, Sebesta clearly knew of the statement and used Ranger Coffman as well as Carter to present a picture of Carter’s consistency in [**19] naming Graves that Sebesta clearly knew was false.”

Imagine that, a prosecutor knowingly presenting false evidence to a jury who will ultimately decide whether a person lives or dies. And it’s Texas so that means most likely death.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – Footnotes – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
4 District Attorney Sebesta contradicted Graves’ counsel and testified at the habeas hearing that he told Graves’ defense counsel Garvie of this statement outside the courtroom the morning after Carter made the statement. The district court did not find Sebesta credible on this point.

Imagine that, a prosecutor who is not credible. In otherwords, he’s a liar and under oath.

The Office of the Fairy-Dust Princess, Austin, Texas?

Funny, in Europe the testimony of jailhouse snitches is afforded no credibility by the courts. None. Here, they are common.

Yeah sure. Think it through. A guy awaiting trial for murder spills his inner most thoughts and confesses to a fellow jail inmate. Happens all the time here. MUST be true. And, just coincidentally, the charges against the snitch are dropped or reduced immediately after he convicts his fellow inmate.

One more problem. Our state judgeships are dominated by former prosecutors. Wouldn’t that give you a warm feeling knowing that the judge hearing your case made a living putting people on Death Row……?

Welcome to our system of injustice…..

So the former DA takes out adds in the newspaper calling for the guy’s execution, coz he believe it in his heart, while the Fifth Circuit finds that the DA withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and knowingly put on false testimony.

So, can someone remind me why we have prosecutorial immunity?

So DAs can take out ads calling for executions, while at the same time withholding exculpatory evidence and deliberately promoting false testimony, and get away with it?

Are you some sort of D&D playing Satan worshipping anarchist? I don’t even want to think about what kind of world this would be if prosecutors had to worry about honesty, integrity, ethics, disclosing exculpatory evidence, and refraining from turning matters of justice and law into matters of public opinion.

So the former DA takes out adds in the newspaper calling for the guy’s execution, coz he believe it in his heart, while the Fifth Circuit finds that the DA withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and knowingly put on false testimony.

So, can someone remind me why we have prosecutorial immunity?

So DAs can take out ads calling for executions, while at the same time withholding exculpatory evidence and deliberately promoting false testimony, and get away with it?

Are you some sort of D&D playing Satan worshipping anarchist? I don’t even want to think about what kind of world this would be if prosecutors had to worry about honesty, integrity, ethics, disclosing exculpatory evidence, and refraining from turning matters of justice and law into matters of public opinion.

The only thing worse than the fact that prosecutors rely so heavily on pure junk “science” is that they’re so successful in doing so. Really, if you’re sitting on a jury, how do you not just laugh out loud at some of this shit?

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/os-innocence-bain-20101023,0,634595.story