Collin County DA John Roach has, after 18 months in which his office spent 5,000 man-hours and more than $47,000 re-investigating the case, announced that there is no longer a good-faith basis for upholding the conviction of Michael Blair:
Therefore, under my duty to not only uphold the law but to see that justice is done, the State is joining today with the defense team in its request for relief.
(As a longtime member of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, I never thought that I would say “good for John Roach.”)
I doubt that anything near $47,000 was spent on the culpability investigation by the defense in 1994 when Blair was sent to death row. I also wonder how many other capital cases would benefit from 5,000 man hours being spent on the culpability investigation before the death sentence is handed down.
(H/T Liberally Lean from the Land of Dairy Queen)
Tags: actual innocence, death penalty, Uncategorized
This entry was posted by Mark Bennett
on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, actual innocence, death penalty.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
About The Author
Mark Bennett got his letter of marque from the Supreme Court of Texas in May 1995. He is famous for having no sense of humor when it comes to totalitarianism.
Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :.Skype me. :.
[...] “Collin County DA John Roach has, after 18 months in which his office spent 5,000 man-hours and more than $47,000 re-investigating the case, announced that there is no longer a good-faith basis for upholding the conviction of Michael Blair:” [here] [...]
I am such a dork. I thought I had linked to this post not only when I first posted it but again after you brought it to my attention. I am adding my failure to adequately link back to this post to my ever growing hall of shame posts.
[...] Kansas City Star is announcing the Missouri capital rape statute has failed in the legislature. In Collin County, Texas the local DA after 18 months, 5,000 man-hours and more than $47,000 re-investigating the [...]