Man convicted in Colorado freed by DNA evidence

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 1, 1:59 AM EDT
Man convicted in Colorado freed by DNA evidence

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) -- Robert Dewey was 33 when he went to prison for the 1994 rape and murder of a Colorado woman. The 51-year-old walked away free Monday, after new testing of DNA evidence pointed to someone else as the suspect.

At a court hearing Monday, a judge dismissed charges against Dewey and declared him a free man. Dewey flashed a small smile through his trim beard.

~snip~
Dewey was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without parole after he was convicted of killing 19-year-old Jacie Taylor, who was found dead in her bathtub in Palisade on June 4, 1994.

DNA technology at the time gave jurors conflicting information to consider, according to news accounts at the time. At his sentencing hearing, Dewey had said there was still a killer out there.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DNA_MURDER?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[sendero]

1. They just freed two more men..

.. here in Texas.

I wonder when there is going to be some kind of accountability for the scam-artist railroading prosecutors that put all of these innocent men in jail.

Here is Tx they have freed a lot of folks. I hope the idiots that sat on these juries get to reflect on how important "beyond a reasonable doubt" is, because unless they were presented with fabricated "evidence" I'm pretty sure a lot of them have plenty to answer for as well.

Americans' sad belief in a justice systems that works is being dismantled piece by piece.

[progressoid]

3. And how many innocent people were put to death.

This is troubling indeed.

[pipoman]

2. A very important decision

Do we, as a society, wish to place a low burden on prosecutors or a high burden? The result of placing a low burden is high conviction rate of those accused of a crime, and a high probability of putting innocent people in prison or worse. Placing a high burden on prosecutors results in a lower conviction rate, some crimes going unpunished, less innocent people punished for crimes they didn't commit, and some guilty going free.

These are questions we must answer as a society, then live with the results. Personally, I would rather some guilty go free than to make the burden lower and punishing innocent people. Imagine the horror of being sentenced to prison when innocent as Mr. Dewey was in this case.

What if Mr. Dewey was defending himself from physical harm back in 1994? He actually did kill someone, but the motive of the killing was fear of death or severe bodily harm...Would imprisonment of Mr. Dewey be any less unjust?

[saras]

5. Bullshit. A false dichotomy is not going to help anything but the status quo.

Way back when, I expected law enforcement to adopt the same quality improvement systems that business was, with a similar expectation of getting to a sigma-six error rate or better.

Then the Reagan eighties happened, and America chose violent criminals as heroes over law-abiding citizens.

The obvious answer is to share the burden, so the public gets the benefit of a very low conviction rate for innocents and a very high conviction rate for the guilty, and the prosecutor doesn't have an impossible, conflict-of-interest-ridden job to do. The problem is that, in general, the prosecutor (or their team, far too few people in any case) are making decisions that should be more public and democratic.

Like going after pot smokers instead of violent felons. Gotta keep enough violent felons free to keep the fear rate up.

[pipoman]

6. Come back and tell me about the "bullshit"

after you've spent an hour or two across from an inmate in a maximum security prison who didn't commit the crime he/she is there for. I have done this on more than 1 occasion. I have worked with many people who had been wrongly accused and charged with crimes. Go on thinking that the criminal justice system has a "sigma-six error rate" what ever in the hell that has to do with our justice system..most people feel better believing that there is a way to "very low conviction rate for innocents and a very high conviction rate for the guilty", they just can't sleep knowing the truth..

[duhneece]

4. I keep thinking that if DA's & law enforcement spent less time on drug possesion charges

there would be more resources for crimes against people.