Texas execution - DNA evidence debunked 10 years on

[Suddenly]

Why did they think it was empty, and how much checking did they do to confirm it (phone call, knock on the door, surveillance)?

The objective reasonableness of his belief the house was empty was not challenged at trial as the state had no reason to challenge it. It wasn't an issue, so we don't really know.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

gritsforbreakfast on a coerced witness

Claude Jones may not have been a saint, but he damned well deserved the full protection of the law. That's a constitutional reality. I wouldn't have liked the man, and probably would have enjoyed planting a two-by-four across his head, but jamming a needle in his arm just to sate someone's blood-lust, rather than work towards achieving something that resembles justice, is somewhat perverse. I won't lose much sleep over his absence, but knowing how he wound up going out will.

From the Texas criminal justice blog gritsforbreakfast:
"Finally, once again we see the results of informant testimony allegedly secured through threats from prosecutors. According to Time magazine, 'The prosecution's star witness against Jones was a friend of [his alleged accomplice] who later said that prosecutors had coerced him into testifying.' Of course, coercion of a witness by prosecutors is also the main cause of the false conviction in Anthony Graves' case. I haven't read the trial transcript, but I wouldn't be surprised if the informant testimony were as big a factor in Jones' conviction as the flawed forensics."
Time magazine link here.

 

[Rolfe]

The only evidence against Michael Stone was an alleged "jailhouse confession" he was supposed to have made, under frankly incredible circumstances.

During the long-drawn-out Sion Jenkins case, police arranged to have a serial snitch share his cell for a day, at which point the snitch then ran to the cops declaring that Sion had "confessed" to him that he really had battered Billie-Jo to death. That one wasn't believed, in the end.

In both these cases the incentive doesn't seem to have been pressure, but bribery. Want a good chunk off your sentence? Well, off you go....

Rolfe.