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NATIONAL
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Justice denied: Guilty before proven innocent
by Gordon Jackson
DALLAS (NNPA) – Larry Fuller looked calm and serene as he opened up the several boxes of presents he received from the organization that helped free him. They ranged from appliances, cookware and other household items that will help him settle down at home.
He reflected no extreme visible signs or emotions that would be expected from someone who spent almost two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. “This is nothing new to me,” Fuller said, inside an old house in a neighborhood close to Love Field Airport that belongs to his father. He will live there once he cleans it up.
“It’s a new challenge,” he says. His composure is totally opposite of the emotions he displayed on Oct. 31, when the judge ruled that he had been wrongly convicted of aggravated rape in August 1981 and sentenced to 50 years in prison. After suffering years under the weight of a crime he didn’t commit, Fuller chose to express no anger or bitterness.
“There’s enough bitter people out there without my help, don’t you think?” Fuller said. Just months later, James Waller sits in disbelief between his two attorneys at a Frank Crowley courthouse on Jan. 17, taking in every word as Judge John Creuzot declares him innocent from a 1983 rape of a child, with DNA testing being the key form of evidence.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, man,” new District Attorney Craig Watkins said to Waller as he reached out to shake his hand. That motion now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for formal approval. “A lot of times we are tested in life, and you certainly had a terrible test,” Judge Creuzot said.
“On behalf of any and all public officials at that time, I want to apologize.” The fact that the right things are being done today clearly indicates that some very wrong things took place in the past, namely the false conviction of innocent men. DNA testing has resulted in 12 exonerations of falsely convicted men in Dallas County within the past five years, the highest for any county in the country, according to The Innocence Project.
“Unfortunately, it’s part of a pattern in Dallas County,” said Eric Ferrero, Director of Communication for organization. “We work in all 50 states and this is very unlike what we have seen in the country.”
The Innocence Project used a private company to conduct Fuller’s prison-freeing test, after the one conducted by the Department of Public Safety came up inconclusive. “They couldn’t say whether I did or didn’t,” Fuller said. “That left me out in limbo.” No criminal justice system is perfect and there is bound to be someone falsely accused of a crime. But what is to be said for a court system when it’s at the epidemic proportions of Dallas County?
Mistaken eyewitness identification makes up 75 percent of all such cases, Ferrero said. The Innocence Project, concluded that many of the cases have involved Anglos identifying, or mis-identifying – Black suspects. “We see race play a role in every stage of the process,” he said. “We also see class play a role.” Both Fuller and Waller’s jury took less than one hour to deliberate before finding them guilty. Both of their trials took less than a day. A closer look reveals that 10 of the 12 men were convicted between 1980 and 1988.
Also convicted in that time period were Lenell Geter, who was , convicted of robbing a Balch Springs restaurant and Joyce Ann Brown, who spent nine years in prison for the robbery and murder of a fur store owner. Both made headline news and both were later released when evidence proved them innocent of the crime for which they were incarcerated. The string of exonerations has sparked State Senator Rodney Ellis to action. He’s expected to introduce for the second time, a bill to the Texas legislature that will:
• Increased compensation for the wrongfully convicted from $25,000 a year with a cap of $500,000 a year to $50,000 a year of incarceration and $100,000 a year served on death row, with no cap; • Form a state innocence commission to examine cases of innocent Texans who have been wrongfully convicted, identify the causes of those convictions and recommend changes in the criminal justice system.
Search for reforms in eyewitness identification procedures being successfully implemented.
“If our state continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build more prisons, then I believe we should at the very least create some improved criminal justice policies that lock up the right people and not let the real bad guys run free on the street,” Ellis said. “We need a system in place that sets in motion an in-depth investigation when an innocent person is wrongfully convicted to ensure that this injustice is not repeated and the guilty are sent to jail.”
Ferrero agrees, especially with the state innocence commission. “Certainly, these Dallas cases point to the need for one in Texas,” he said. An Innocence Commission is being used in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and California. With how DNA testing has contributed to so many exonerations, it would be expected that all district prosecutors would be eager to implement it into their system. Not always the case. “Unfortunately, many prosecutors still resist granting DNA testing,” said Ferrero who added that otherwise, a defendant would have to file to get a judge to grant testing but the red tape could take several months to a few years.
Compensation is not automatic either. While Texas is one state that has such a program, for the victims to receive their money, they need either a pardon from the governor or a decision from the Criminal Court of Appeals. Neither Waller nor Fuller has either as of now, which means they’re virtually on their own. “They need an awful lot of help,” said Ferrero. “There’s not a support system in place.” “There are other guys who behind me who have been out and exonerated and they haven’t received their pardon,” Fuller said. “They’ve been out a lot longer than I have. After 18 years, I still had unfinished business because I was convicted for a crime I did not commit.” Fuller finished: “You have to understand, what happened to me could happen to anybody.”=
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