Man freed from death row after 15 years

[xynthee]

Source: The News & Observer (McClatchy subsidiary)

RALEIGH - Glenn Chapman waved to reporters today as he was released from Central Prison after 15 years on death row.

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Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin ordered a new trial for Chapman in November, saying evidence had been withheld, a lead investigator gave false testimony at trial, and his trial attorneys didn't represent him properly.

Ervin, who issued a 186-page ruling, said that Chapman's trial attorneys missed critical evidence, including that one victim was alive after Chapman last saw her and may have died of a drug overdose.

One of the two defense attorneys, Tom Portwood, admitted that he was an alcoholic who drank every evening during several death penalty trials. He died in 2003.

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Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/1022232.html

[laylah]

1. Thank you for this

post and welcome. Too many have been innocent victims of our "justice" system.

[xynthee]

3. I shudder to think of how many more there are just like him

I really need to become more involved in death penalty abolition. This sort of thing happens way too often (putting innocent people on death row, not exonerating those on death row, that is).

All the stories are disturbingly similar, too. Crooked cops, witnesses perjuring themselves, drunk public defenders, suppression of exculpatory evidence . . . .

[High Plains]

2. One more reason to oppose the death penalty.

Will the state reimburse him?

[flashl]

4. K&R

[rcsl1998]

5. "...lead investigator gave false testimony at trial..."

Since there is obviously a death penalty in North Carolina, will the 'lead investigator' be charged with attempted murder (and perjury)?

[saigon68]

6. No he's retired sitting with a drink on the deck of his boat in Boca Raton

[davidinalameda]

8. when donkeys fly

and even then I doubt anything will happen to this guy

statute of limitations and all

[jtrockville]

7. Just finished John Grisham's "The Innocent Man"

Most of his work is fiction, but this gripping real-life drama was chilling. Downright frightening. Even though it's based on the premise that it's better to let 10 guilty people go free than punish 1 innocent person, it's clear that our system is fallable.

Until we devise a way to resurrect those we've executed, should we later find them not guilty, we NEED to abolish the death penalty. Of course, I'd still oppose the death penalty on principle, even if we could reverse it in cases were it was administered in error.

[GleninDublin]

9. I agree...

No legal system can be infallible. Corruption, personal motivations, incapacity are always going to skew the outcome. We abolished the death penalty some forty or fifty years ago, and looking back through murder cases, it's obvious that some people were executed wrongly. It's a harrowing thought, especially as in those days, people were hanged.

[defendandprotect]

10. If we had a Supreme Court that wasn't an embarrassment to our nation . . .

they would STOP all executions and shut down all the prison "death rows" ---

This has always been wrong and there is no way it will ever be right ---

Our Supreme Court is supposed to be providing moral leadership and, rather, it supplies
criminal example ---

Meanwhile, we have human error playing a role in putting innocent people on death row
and we have malicious intent putting people on death row ---

while, obviously, our police enforcement is always under pressure to match up every new crime
with a perpetrator.

Sad, sad America ---

[sam sarrha]

11. this case alone should stop the death penalty.. and it isn't alone.. there is NO scientific proof

that Death is any sort of penalty

but when a Politician promises to kill prisoners in custody if elected, then it becomes a BLOOD SACRIFICE for votes..

[IowaGirl]

12. The death penalty is wrong on so many levels, not least of which......

is that the more expensive a lawyer you can afford, the less likely you are to be sentenced to death. :puke:

[xynthee]

13. National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

http://www.ncadp.org/

from their web page:
First and foremost, the death penalty devalues all human life - eliminating the possibility for transformation of spirit that is intrinsic to humanity.

Secondly, the death penalty is fallible and irrevocable - over one hundred people have been released from death row on grounds of innocence in this "modern era" of capital punishment.

Thirdly, the death penalty continues to be tainted with race and class bias. It is overwhelmingly a punishment reserved for the poor (95% of the over 3700 people under death sentence could not afford a private attorney) and for racial minorities (55% are people of color).

Finally, the death penalty is a violation of our most fundamental human rights - indeed, the United States is the only western democracy that still uses the death penalty as a form of punishment.

[struggle4progress]

14. Death row is for the poor and powerless: the wealthy and connected are not sent there