Louisiana man exonerated of rape crime after 30 years in prison

[NoGOPZone]

Source: Yahoo! News

Henry James maintained his innocence all during the 30 years he's spent in Angola prison in Louisiana after he was convicted for the rape of his neighbor. Today, he will finally walk free, his conviction overturned by a Jefferson Parish judge.

A jury convicted James in 1982 after his neighbor picked him out of a lineup as the man who raped her. The Innocence Project, a nonprofit group that works to exonerate falsely convicted inmates, says the woman had earlier told police that she didn't know or recognize her attacker. James argued that she did know him, and that he had contact with both the victim and the her husband. His lawyers also produced three witnesses to back up his alibi, but James was still sent to prison at the age of 20 with a life sentence.

The Innocence Project tried to find DNA evidence from the rape in order to test it and confirm whether James was innocent. But the original evidence had been lost. It wasn't until May of last year that a lab tech accidentally stumbled upon a slide of evidence while researching a different case. The ensuing DNA testing excluded James as the rapist.

"His first request was that we take him to get some jumbo shrimp; so that's what we'll be eating for dinner," Jene O'Keefe Trigg, director of The Innocence Project New Orleans, told the AP.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/louisiana-man-exonerated-rape-crime-30-years-prison-153555387.html

[suston96]

1. Misplaced evidence? In this case it was indeed misplaced....

....but luckily for the falsely convicted and imprisoned, found and his innocence settled.

I wonder how much more "misplaced evidence" there is, or is happening as these embarrassing episodes surface?

[Lucinda]

2. I'm glad this group does what they do and that he's free. Be careful with the shrimp sir!

Wasn't there another oil resurfacing last month? I'm still seafood shy...

[Kingofalldems]

3. He was convicted by a jury, he's guilty.

He said smugly. :sarcasm:

[harmonicon]

4. ok...

will people now recognize that not all accused rapists are guilty if even some convicted rapists aren't?

[DirkGently]

5. 20 years old. Now 50. The bulk of a man's life stolen. (nt)

[RebelOne]

9. I hope he can sue for false imprisonment. n/t

[pitohui]

12. he can sue all he likes, he can't get his life back, nor can he fix the corruption in jefferson

my guess is that if he tries a lawsuit against jefferson parish, the odds are very high that he will be framed up for some other crime to get him out of the way

the corrupt officials and sheriffs in jefferson go back decades, let me guess...did this guy happen to be BLACK? in the 1980s sheriff lee was on a mission to run all the blacks out of jefferson, he even built the notorious fence between jefferson and orleans

no way to sue the evil mr. lee, who died, surrounded by sycophants saying wonderful things about what a wonderful guy this evil monster was

i stay out of jefferson parish but i see the same last names in politics there, so nothing has changed, it's a culture of corruption being passed down through generations

[Gregorian]

6. Visual evidence shouldn't be allowed.

Whatever the terminology is, we must stop putting innocent people behind bars. This is sick.

[defendandprotect]

7. And W Bush and Cheney are free ---!!

[cpwm17]

8. So what's going to happen to the woman who falsely accused him of rape

I assume nothing

[geomon666]

10. Being raped wasn't enough? n/t

[Posteritatis]

14. Her assault and her crime are independent of one another. (nt)

[pitohui]

13. i hope nothing, sounds like she was intimidated by the prosecutor into changing her story

at first she didn't know the guy, then she did know the guy

there was an evil sheriff and some evil prosecutors, utterly without conscience, in jefferson parish in the 1980s, how do i know? i lived there and i wouldn't live there again

the fear was very real, i could tell some tales if i was tired of living

[Lance_Boyle]

15. You assume correctly.

Nothing ever happens to the vermin who falsely accuse men of rape. Unless they go on to murder someone later on in life, like Crystal Mangum. But they are almost *never* punished for their life-stealing crimes of false accusation.

[NoGOPZone]

16. Cooper's decision not to prosecute Mangum has been explained here many times

as for the present case, unless it can be shown that the woman's incorrect identification was intentional, I don't see what she's going to be prosecuted for.

[Lyric]

19. Do you have evidence that she deliberately falsely accused him?

Or are you cool with prosecuting a woman who simply made a tragic error?

[duhneece]

11. I love The Innocence Project

Doing such good work, working for justice.

[tawadi]

17. Good

Can't even imagine the horror of being wrongly convicted.

[Hydra]

18. It's pretty easy, actually

First you think there's been a mistake. You think you can prove your innocence. Then you realize that the court doesn't really care about your innocence...and it all goes downhill from there.

Occasionally, you get rescued. This poor guy had to wait more than half his life for it...but at least he didn't die "guilty."