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<DIV>So - seven people are lieing. They are "opening up their life" to the courts at the expense of lieing. Wait - 8 people are lieing. Including Mubita.</DIV>
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<DIV><EM><FONT size=2>"Mubito's alleged crimes amount to nothing more than failing to utter certain statements mandated by law for those HIV positive who know they are positive, in special circumstances, or uttering false statements about ones HIV status in the same special circumstances. You, and apparently many others, believe they have enough evidence to feel reasonably certain, before the evidence has been presented in a court, that Mubito both knew that he was HIV positive, and either kept quiet about this, or deliberately misled one or more of his sexual partners, regarding his HIV status."</FONT></EM></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Once again............. he should not have "uttered" "certain statements" to his partners? </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Once again, the media is reporting, along with the police department that MUBITA KNEW HE WAS HIV POSITIVE!!!!!! Oh wait! They could be lieing????? They almost always do, according to your analogy???</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Regarding face to face counseling, if you would have done your homework before posting such ridiculous statements you would have known it was a "counselor" that reported to the police to do a "well check" regarding Mubita possible being suicidal. Who cares "how" he was notified of his status? HE WAS NOTIFIED!!!! 5 TIMES!!!!!!! OH wait! The Health Department are also liars.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Sorry Ted.................. the facts are out there. Especially regarding Mubita as he "willingly" subjected individuals to a possible life of hell. Granted, there are many drugs available and more on the rise to help insure a prosperous life with HIV. I STRONGLY believe Mubita's name and photo need to be out there to notify the possible victims THEY NEED TO BE TESTED. Why can't you see this? Do you fully understand HIV? Maybe you should call the Health Department and tell them everything you are stating here and see how they react? Or better yet............... ask them all your questions. Oh wait .... they will probably lie to you.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>If we cannot believe in our elected officials, why should we believe in a jury? Or a judge? Why bother?</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Shelley Roderick</FONT> <BR></DIV>
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<DIV id=IncrediOriginalMessage><I>-------Original Message-------</I></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>From:</B></I> <A href="mailto:Tbertruss@aol.com">Tbertruss@aol.com</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Date:</B></I> 12/22/05 22:44:28</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>To:</B></I> <A href="mailto:CJs@turbonet.com">CJs@turbonet.com</A>; <A href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A>; <A href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">deco@moscow.com</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Subject:</B></I> Wayne's Analysis of Criminal Innocence</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR>Wayne, Shelley et. al.<BR><BR>In your example of the driving habits of some who reside near where you live, you witnessed the alleged wrong doing. Your certainty that this wrong doing occurred is thus at a very high level, unless you are to question the reliability of your perceptions or memory, or maybe your speedometer.<BR><BR>You did not witness, as far as I know, the alleged crimes Mubita is charged with committing, so the parallel between the dangerous drivers you describe with your eye witness accounts, and your knowledge chain regarding the facts of the Mubito case, is not exactly analogous. <BR><BR>Mubito's alleged crimes amount to nothing more than failing to utter certain statements mandated by law for those HIV positive who know they are positive, in special circumstances, or uttering false statements about ones HIV status in the same special circumstances. You, and apparently many others, believe they have enough evidence to feel reasonably certain, before the evidence has been presented in a court, that Mubito both knew that he was HIV positive, and either kept quiet about this, or deliberately misled one or more of his sexual partners, regarding his HIV status. <BR><BR>Much of this evidence I do not have access to, and reports in the newspapers, or police reports, or rumors around the Palouse, are for me only a starting point to investigate the truth, especially at this point in my life, after observing numerous times the inaccuracies and flat out falsehoods that get into print and other media and, yes, falsehoods from law enforcement. Even my best friends recall events we shared with serious inaccuracies! See book review at bottom for more info on how faulty memory impacts guilt or innocence in our legal system.<BR><BR>One question I pondered about the Mubito case was whether he received any in person face to face counseling regarding his alledged HIV positive status, or was he contacted only by phone, e-mail or snail mail to inform him of his HIV status? He may have not received all the proper information regarding what it means to be HIV positive. Also, what are his capacities to understand the full implications of what it means to be HIV positive? But I digress! I am starting to litigate the case on Vision2020.<BR><BR>I agree that the public health issues should be addressed aggressively, regardless of Mubito's guilt or innocence. This can be done with no impediments resulting from giving the Mubito case all the time it needs for all the facts to be examined and logically assessed for truth or falsehood in our legal system. <BR><BR>The one issue that should immediately concern the public regarding the legal issues in the Mubito case is bail, where some harm to the community might result from the accused being released, or where the accused may flee. House arrest is another option, as has been discussed. If someone is carrying a potentially lethal virus that they may have been spreading with willful intent, is it outrageous to suggest bail should be denied, till the potential risks such an individual poses to others is fully assessed?<BR><BR>What I find troubling is why so many people are so quick to need to achieve certainty that Mubito is guilty? I can understand this motivation when someone is committing crimes and getting away with them, like the dangerous drivers in your example. But in Mubito's case, he is confined, apparently not able to make bail, and of no threat to the public at this time. <BR><BR>If we trust our legal system, why not respect the very important principle of innocent until proven guilty, and let the system do its job? <BR><BR>There is no doubt that too much discussion of the certain guilt of an accused facing charges can hamper the legal system in assuring a fair trial. Prosecutors and judges can feel pressure from the public to make decisions based on a kind of mob frenzy, rather than the guide of lady justice blindfolded holding the scales (fairness) and sword (the power of the legal system). Unbiased jurors can be hard to find when the press and media and even list serves create a bias in huge numbers of people regarding a specific criminal case. Potential jurors need to state honestly that they can listen to the evidence with an open mind in a trial.<BR><BR>If I was a defense lawyer, Wayne, I'd reject you from serving on the jury, if there is one, in the Mubito case, absolutely, based on your statements on Vision2020.<BR><BR>When the actual details are examined of the numerous criminal cases where it has been proved that innocent people have been sentenced as guilty in a court of law, many of the complexities are revealed regarding how this can happen when so many people are so certain that someone is guilty.<BR><BR>I encourage everyone to read this book review, if not the book itself:<BR><BR>
<P align=center><B>The National Center for Reason and Justice <BR><BR>
<P align=left></B>[Copyright 2000 Mark Pendergrast. First printed in the <I>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</I> and the <I>Philadelphia Inquirer</I>, 27 February 2000. Posted here with explicit permission from Mark Pendergrast. </FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Arial color=#000000 size=5 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="16" BACK="#ffffff"><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10" BACK="#ffffff"><B>Book Review <BR><BR></B><BR>
<DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; rem_BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; rem_MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; rem_PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE"><I>Actual Innocence: Five Days To Execution, <BR>And Other Dispatches From The Wrongly Convicted. </I><BR><BR></DIV><BR>
<P align=center>by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, & Jim Dwyer. <BR>Doubleday, 2000. $24.95. 298 pages. ISBN 0-385-49341-X. <BR>
<P align=left><BR>
<P align=center>Reviewed by Mark Pendergrast <BR>
<P align=left><BR>Chilling. Disturbing. Terrifying. Appalling. These words describe not only the gruesome rapes and murders detailed in this book, but the fate of the innocent men who were accused of these crimes, convicted, and ultimately cleared by DNA evidence. What emerges from these pages is a chilling, disturbing, terrifying, and appalling portrait of the much-touted United States legal system. While the accused are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, it appears that the convicted are presumed to be guilty even when proven innocent. In case after case, prosecutors and judges have attempted to keep innocent men locked behind bars, citing the need for "finality," a word that is all too real for those on death row. <BR><BR>Why? Although it defies common sense, the law of the land was stated by Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1993: "A claim of actual innocence is not itself a constitutional claim." Thus, the title of the book, <I>Actual Innocence</I>, is ironic. It is a technical legal term used dismissively by many judges. In a recently aired <I>Frontline</I> documentary, <I>The Case for Innocence</I> -- which featured lawyers and authors Scheck and Neufeld -- filmmaker Ofra Bikel asked Texas Judge Sharon Keller whether a man cleared by DNA tests might be innocent. "If you're talking about the point of view of <I>actual</I> innocence?" Keller asked, clearly startled by the notion. "Oh! Um, I suppose that is a possibility." But that wasn't the point for her. Whether the convict was actually innocent was irrelevant. <BR><BR>Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, offer compelling case histories of men such as Walter Snyder, convicted of raping Faye Treatser in Virginia. They document how, once police zero in on a suspect, everyone recasts the evidence and their memories to make him match. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously fallible, particularly if, as in Snyder's case, his picture is first shown to the victim, then she sees only him sitting on a bench at the police station. Eventually, though Treatser first passed over his picture, she proclaimed herself "100 percent sure" he was her rapist. <BR><BR>Snyder was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Like many innocent men, he refused to take the course for sexual offenders and was consequently denied parole. (Ironically, real sex offenders who play the game are paroled earlier.) Eventually, despite a string of incompetent or greedy lawyers, Snyder got a new DNA test which proved the rape sperm was not his. But in Virginia, as in many other states, a convict has only 21 days after his conviction to prove his innocence. This had taken seven years. The only option was to ask Governor L. Douglas Wilder for a pardon. Despite the support of the state's Attorney General Randy Sengel (unusual, since many prosecutors resist DNA evidence), Wilder waffled until sympathetic news stories on Snyder's case forced Wilder to grant a pardon. <BR><BR><I>Actual Innocence </I>is not an easy read emotionally, but it is very clearly written, with a strong narrative thrust and interesting historical anecdotes that will appeal to lay as well as legal readers. It is gratifying that 64 convicted men have been cleared by DNA evidence. But that isn't the point. "What matters most is not how these people got out of jail but how they got into it," the authors observe. In a succinct summary, they tick off the contributing factors: "Sometimes eyewitnesses make mistakes. Snitches tell lies. Confessions are coerced or fabricated. Racism trumps the truth. Lab tests are rigged. Defense lawyers sleep. Prosecutors lie."<BR><BR>Each of these short sentences summarizes a disturbing chapter in the book. Jailhouse "snitches" frequently fabricate hearsay confessions in order to shorten their own sentences. Police routinely lie and use mind-games to extract so-called "confessions" from innocent people. If you are a black man accused of raping a white woman, you are in deep, deep trouble not only from overt racism but because "they all look the same" to many white witnesses. Before the iron-clad DNA tests arrived, junk science ruled the courts, with ambiguous blood evidence and bogus hair identification, and such evidence is still used. Underpaid public defenders may be overworked idealists, but they can also be incompetent and/or uncaring. <BR><BR>Most disturbing is the callous and sometimes vicious attitude of prosecutors. Take the case of Robert Miller, convicted in 1987 of the rape/murders of two elderly women in Oklahoma City. Miller was sentenced to two death penalities plus 725 years. After Miller's incarceration, the same pattern of rapes of elderly women continued, with the same modus operandi, and the guilty man, Ronald Lott, was captured. Even though prosecutor Ray Elliott knew about Lott, he kept it to himself. The jurors never heard that Lott had admitted to identical crimes in the same neighborhood. And even when DNA evidence cleared Miller and implicated Lott in the murders, Elliott insisted that Miller must have been present. "We're going to give Robert Miller the needle," Elliott gloated. "He's just blowfish." The prosecutor summoned Lott and offered him a deal if he would implicate Miller, but Lott refused. Today, Ray Elliott is an Oklahoma judge. <BR><BR>This book documents several cases like this, in which prosecutors, cops, pathologists,and others either lief or distorted evidence. But why would they do that? Generally, it is because they were truly convinced that this man was guilty, and so a little tweaking of the evidence was justified. Once invested in this belief system, it became very difficult for them to reverse themselves and admit they had incarcerated an innocent man. So they denied it and fought the DNA evidence. <BR><BR>What is to be done about the situation? The authors make specific, workable, common-sense suggestions throughout the book, summarizing them in an appendix. The most obvious recommendation is to use DNA testing wherever possible, within weeks of a crime. And test old evidence. "Hundreds of thousands of rape kits from unsolved cases are thrown out or sit in dead storage for years with no effort made by the authorities to run DNA tests," they write, "squandering opportunities to identify serial offenders and clear the wrongly convicted." Other recommendations include videotaping all police interrogations, limiting the use of snitches, making crime labs independent of police and prosecutors, disallowing junk science, paying court-appointed defenders more, compensating the wrongly convicted, and putting a moratorium on the death penalty. <BR><BR>But until police, prosecutors, and judges are held legally accountable for their actions, their near-absolute power will continue to corrupt absolutely. They are generally immune from prosecution themselves, and until that changes, these travesties of justice are likely to continue, in one form or another. "Under the current setup," write the authors, "a prosecutor can't be sued for knowingly allowing perjured testimony or for deliberately covering up evidence of innocence." <BR><BR>Scheck and Neufeld run the Innocence Project, specializing in cases where DNA can clear the wrongly convicted. But what about innocent people who cannot rely on DNA evidence? After a conviction, it is very difficult to win an appeal without compelling new evidence. <I>Actual Innocence</I> should be required reading for everyone involved in our justice system, but it raises many more questions than it answers. <BR><BR>—Mark Pendergrast is the author of <I>Victims of Memory</I> and, most recently, <I>Uncommon Grounds</I>.<BR>------------------------<BR><BR>Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett</P>
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