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To: Bill who wrote (3613)	3/20/2002 9:24:06 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

You say that and yet you just wrote these words! But some people see what they want to see. You've seen a good deal of evidence that it would be virtually impossible for there not to have been innocent people put to death, given certain [already explicated here] factors, but you don't "see" it. You don't "see" that there is a built-in problem about the "proven innocent" condition you are enamored of, which has also been explicated; that one I'll explain again: Once a person is dead, their case is closed! Their family can't save them even if they were innocent, because they are now a dead body. Neither can anyone else. The time of volunteers concerned with innocence, and DNA, and perjured testimony for rewards, etc, etc, will be taken up not by the demands of dead bodies, but by the demands of living individuals. And third, although after the execution of Jesse Tafero no new trial was scheduled that might "prove" anything, you seem not to have "seen" this case: In 1990, Jesse Tafero was executed in Florida. He had been convicted in 1976 along with his wife, Sonia Jacobs, for murdering a state trooper. In 1981 Jacobs' death sentence was reduced on appeal to life imprisonment, and 11 years later her conviction was vacated by a federal court. The evidence on which Tafero and Jacobs had been convicted and sentenced was identical; it consisted mainly of the perjured testimony of an ex-convict who turned state's witness in order to avoid a death sentence. Had Tafero been alive in 1992, he no doubt would have been released along with Jacobs.41 Tafero's death is probably the clearest case in recent years of the execution of an innocent person.

To: Bill who wrote (3613)	3/20/2002 9:31:45 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

This was a publicized case. This innocent, law abiding man (I read about the case at the time), would have been put to death had it not been for the efforts of the usual outside (non-DA; law enforcement is happy to have a case closed. They are going to "prove" their convictions erroneous? Please!) volunteers, in this case Centurion Ministries. Bill, why can't you "see" that there are those whom Centurion Ministries can't get around to, who die. It's there to be seen, unless you are among those who see what they want to see: In 1980 a black high school janitor, Clarence Brandley, and his white co-worker found the body of a missing 16-year-old white schoolgirl. Interrogated by the police, they were told, "One of you two is going to hang for this." Looking at Brandley, the officer said, "Since you're the nigger, you're elected." In a classic case of rush to judgment, Brandley was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. The circumstantial evidence against him was thin, other leads were ignored by the police, and the courtroom atmosphere reeked of racism. In 1986, Centurion Ministries – a volunteer group devoted to freeing wrongly convicted prisoners – came to Brandley's aid. Evidence had meanwhile emerged that another man had committed the murder for which Brandley was awaiting execution. Brandley was not released until 1990.39 [Bedau]