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Conviction for a Murder Charge That Was Dismissed
Earlier this week, Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice posted here about a criminal defendant who nearly spent 30 years in jail for conviction on a murder charge that had previously been dismissed. The tragic events and inexcusable conduct that almost lead to this result included (a) a DA who proceeded to prosecute the murder case when she knew the charge had been dismissed; (b) a defense attorney who didn't read the file and didn't realize that the murder charge had been dismissed; (c) the judge, who refused to vacate the erroneous conviction when it was brought to his attention by a court clerk; and (d) the appellate court that wouldn't reschedule oral argument to accommodate the defense attorney's temporary loss of his eyesight. Fortunately, (d) didn't matter, as the appellate court vacated the conviction even though the defense attorney did not appear at oral argument.
Needless to say, Greenfield's post has made the rounds on the blogosphere. And in this follow-up post, Greenfield responds to some of the comments about the case.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on September 21, 2007 at 06:23 PM | Permalink
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