Court Watch

One of the problems facing those who believe that the problem of wrongful convictions is far deeper that statistics currently available would indicate, is the dearth of reliable longitudinal data.

However, a new study that involved the DNA testing of hundreds of old Virginia homicide and sexual assault cases supports the exoneration of at least 38 suspects, according to a study released Monday by a national policy group that examined the test results.

The Three Strikes Reform ballot initiative will not fix all of the problems associated with the three strikes law.  What it will do is fix the problem of people charged with minor crimes such as stealing a package of shredded cheese, then facing a 25 year to life sentence.

In 2010, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office, led by Deputy DA Clinton Parish, sought to put Robert Ferguson, charged with the theft of a package of shredded cheese, into prison for life under California’s three strikes law.

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of attending the Justice Summit put on by the Public Defender’s Office in San Francisco.  They had three panels, and one of the most interesting spoke to alternative approaches to gang prevention efforts.

One of the most compelling speeches was the “keynote” by UCLA Professor Jorja Leap, author of Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love and Redemption.

One race that clearly lacked drama was the race for Yolo County Judge, where Judge Dan Maguire easily retained his seat defeating Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish.  With the latest update from the Yolo County Clerk Recorder’s Office, Judge Dan Maguire holds an overwhelming 55.4% lead in the election for Yolo County Superior Court Judge. Judge Dan Maguire currently has 20,543 votes (77.2%) compared to Clint Parish who has 6,054 votes (22.8%).

The atmosphere was a bit different than the typical day in Yolo County.  Judge David Reed’s department six was packed full of 12 defendants, five attorneys, and countless supporters, to the point where the court’s capacity was maxed and throngs of supporters overflowed into the lobby, where some briefly verbally skirmished with private security personnel who staff the exterior portions of the courthouse.

The launching of the National Registry of Exonerations, a new joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, actually reminds us of just how little we actually know about wrongful convictions, where and when they occur, and how many have occurred.

What we do know ought to alarm and frighten people far more than they are.  The reason we are not utterly alarmed on a global scale is that we are comforted by the relatively small number of false convictions.

Brian Banks was a star linebacker that every major college program in the country wanted to have play for them.  However, it was all taken from him when he was accused of rape and his lawyer convinced him to take a plea bargain even though there was no physical evidence of the crime.

Without that plea bargain, California Innocence Project Director Justin Brooks wrote last month, “he might have spend the rest of his life in prison even though the case was built on the shaky testimony of his alleged victim, a fellow high school student.”

Edward Carter was a 19-year-old African-American man.  He was convicted of the rape of a pregnant woman in Detroit in 1974 and sentenced to life in prison.  That conviction, researchers Samuel Gross and Michael Shafer say, was based entirely on the cross-racial identification by the white victim.

But Mr. Carter was one of the more fortunate people to have been wrongly convicted, because there was DNA evidence in this case that would exonerate him.

Clinton Parish’s candidacy for judge effectively ended the moment that he made unchecked and unsupportable charges against his opponent, Judge Dan Maguire.  The fact that they were so quickly and easily brushed aside shows either a level of desperation or just plain amateurism by the candidate.

Mr. Parish wants the voters to believe that he is a good attorney who exercised some indiscretions as a political candidate.  The truth is that Mr. Parish is in fact the person that we saw this week.  That is the view that everyone in the courthouse got, that is why Public Defender Tracie Olson, normally cautious, early on signaled that her office would simply not trust him to preside over their cases.

Clinton Parish Acknowledges Some Accusations Baseless But Does Not Go Far Enough for His Opponent

On Wednesday, Clinton Parish, whose candidacy for judge in Yolo County can only be described as on life support, acknowledged that he failed to properly vet charges that were launched in his mailer.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Parish admitted that he “did not verify claims in an attack mailer that alleged campaign rival Judge Dan Maguire was involved in corporate fraud and bribery while working at a Colorado law firm in the mid-1990s.”