3/27/18: The president is having trouble finding topflight lawyers to defend him in the Russia investigation. Trump, however, is telling loyal fans he can hire any lawyer he wants, including Perry Mason, Matlock, or Saul Goodman, from Better Call Saul. Aides decide not to tell him those are fictional lawyers.
In other crime-related news, consider the case of Nevest Coleman. He was arrested and convicted in 1994 on charges of murder and rape. Coleman, 25, had two children, attended church regularly, had no previous criminal record and worked on the Chicago White Sox ground crew.
Well, off to prison you go, scumbag. We should note that Coleman
just happens to be African American.
Mr. Coleman is now a free man.
Twenty-three years later, what do you know! DNA evidence not available at the time of his arrest proves Coleman was innocent. A suit filed on his behalf against the city, Cook County and members of the Chicago Police Department alleges he was coerced into confessing and punched in the face. “Some of the detectives named in the suit procured confessions in more than a dozen murder cases in which charges were dropped or the defendant was acquitted at trial, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2001.” Semen samples from the victim were tested in 2016, after the case was reopened. They belonged to a serial rapist, who had attacked three more women after Coleman was sent to jail.
This makes Coleman one of 2,192 men and women (representing more than 19,000 lost years) who have had sentences overturned, many on the basis of irrefutable DNA evidence. Almost half of all those wrongly imprisoned individuals (1,019) “just happen” to be African American.
Coleman walked out of prison into the arms of his now-adult children. The last time he walked free they were 2- and 3-years-old.
The White Sox did give him his old job back.
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Oops! Wrong guy in jail! Oopsie. |
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