Prosecuting offices around the nation have instituted Conviction Review Units.
And guess what? Even Broward County- the land where justice goes to die- has one.
But Miami Dade does not. Either they are that good that they do not ever wrongfully convict someone, or they just don't care.
On Monday Sidney Holmes, age 57, was exonerated in Broward County, after assistant state attorney Arielle Berger acknowledged that only one faulty identification tied Mr. Holmes to a robbery in 1988. It being Broward in 1988, although no one else was prosecuted, and only one witness gave an identification of Mr. Holmes as the get-away-driver, Mr. Holmes was convicted and sentenced to...steady yourself- 400 years- at age 23.
We could engage in a lengthy exposition at the shocking abuse of the criminal justice system and a judge that sentences a 23-year-old young man to 400 years for being, at worst, a get-away-driver. But as we said, this was Broward 1988, and that's how they treated young 23-year-old black men who fell within their dastardly clutches.
Instead, we will congratulate Seth Miller of Florida's Innocence Project, the State, Judge Edward Merrigan for granting the order vacating the conviction, and for the prosecution for then nolle prosing the charges.
Here is the Herald article (sans Mr. Ovalle who is now a Washington Post hot shot reporter) on the events in court Monday.
Dade does not have a specific unit but they have assigned experienced prosecutors to review convictions. I think Gary Winston did some work in that regard
ReplyDeletelmao. KFR needs to go.
DeleteIsn’t that special. Gary’s been retired for like five years.
ReplyDeleteWho was the "genius" judge who gave a 400 year sentence for an alleged getaway driver and who was his attorney?
ReplyDeleteJudge hanzman has resohned!!+
ReplyDeleteWe do have one and plenty of defendants regularly mail us correspondence to the unit. It’s called the Justice Project and is part of the Legal Unit.
ReplyDeleteLOL. They just exonerated Thomas Raynard James last year. And, for those of you complaining about the office, try taking cases in other jurisdictions. Miami is the best by far. You've had it so good for so long that you've lost perspective.
ReplyDelete