Merry Christmas, Mr. Madoff

When I heard about the Madoff scandal, I was irritated. It bothers me that people are so greedy. It bothers me that our capitalistic society has driven people to "capitalizing" in order to benefit themselves. It bothers me that we take so much pride in this capitalization.

My dad asked me if I knew of anyone who had lost money and was hurt due to Madoff. (I assume he was asking about wealthy people.) At this point, as far as I know, no one I know invested with Madoff and our non-profit was not affected by that... as far as I know. But as I was driving home last night, I heard something very troubling. Dallas County's Innocence Project has been affected by his panzi scheme.

I have written about the Innocence Project before. Since 2001, 20 convictions have been overturned in Dallas County solely because of the tireless work of the Innocence Project. Twenty innocent people spent years in jail but have now been freed. How many are still out there who have yet to receive their exonerations??

I think of James Woodard, a man who served 27 years for a crime he didn't commit. I met Mr Woodard at an Innocence Project press conference and asked him to come speak to a group of students at our Urban Experience program. Mr. Woodard was gracious enough to drive from Fort Worth to Dallas to do just that. Most amazing to me was his kind spirit and lack of bitterness. I can't imagine not having met him. I can't imagine him still being in prison for something he didn't do...all because someone named Bernard Madoff used and abused people and their money for his own benefit.

What he has done may seem like it has to do with money. It may seem like greed and something that should be punished. But his crime is much greater than that. Because of Madoff, many innocent people will lose their life, their families, their livelihood. Not only that, as innocent people spend their lives in jail, their children are also affected... by not having an available parent... by not having the income that a second parent could provide... by facing stigmatization because their parent is in jail.

The JEHT (Justice, Equality, Human dignity, and Tolerance) Foundation that supported the Dallas County Innocence Project was in talks with Dallas County and DA Craig Watkins to give as much as $15 million to fund more of these efforts. All has been halted now.

Maldoff deserves a very harsh punishment... many life sentences for his act. It's Christmas and it seems crass to be wishing someone many life sentences. But then I think of the families who are spending Christmas without their innocent mother or father... and may never get to enjoy that feeling ... or the people who are sitting in a jail cell year after year, wishing they could be with family and friends on the holidays.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Madoff.

Guilty...until proven innocent

Think about the last 27 years.

If you're my age, that's the majority of your life. In my younger years, we used to talk about the changes our grandparents had seen over their lifetime. But, truly, the last 27 years have been no less amazing.

We now have cell phones...3-D video games...high speed (and small) computers and laptops...ipods...Internet...email...and those are just the technology advancements.

Along with all of the new technology, of course, jobs have changed as well. Even jobs at fast food restaurants require a basic knowledge of technology. What you have to know in order to get a job is very different than it was 27 years ago.

Imagine being frozen in time for those 27 years. What do you do when you wake up today? What kind of clothes do you wear? How do you quickly acquire new job skills in order to work and survive? If you knew anything about computers at the time, they were probably large main frame computers that filled an entire room. How do you learn to function in a world that most jobs require online submission of resumes and applications? How do you even know where you're going...since major land development has restructured the entire landscape since you were last familiar with it?

Some people are in that very situation.

James Woodard served 27 years of time in prison for a murder charge...a crime he didn't commit.

Billy Smith served 19 years for sexual assault...a crime he didn't commit.

Charles Chapman was misidentified in a photo lineup and served 27 years for rape...a crime he didn't commit.

How can I be so sure? Because DNA evidence cleared them.

In Dallas County, DNA evidence has cleared these three men, along with 15 others. The Innocence Project, Dallas DA Craig Watkins, and Dallas Judge John Creuzot are working tirelessly to reclaim fairness and justice in our "justice" system.

So far in Texas 33 people have been exonerated on account of DNA evidence...a total of 427 years of innocent time served!!

How did this happen?

• 82% were misidentified (supposed eye witness accounts)
• 18% convicted on false forensic testimony
• 15% convicted on "snitch" testimony
• 9% gave false confessions to reduce their time
• I didn't catch the percentage, but others were simply prosecutorial misconduct (despite our "justice" system)

Finally, there are people in office who are listening. Finally, there are people in office who recognize that our system isn't always "just" to everyone. But more than that...they are not just listening. They are using their position in our goverment to create change...to create fairness.

Saturday evening, Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson convened a panel including Chairman of the House John Conyers, Houston Senator Rodney Ellis, DA Craig Watkins, co-founder of the Innocence Project, Jeff Blackburn, and the exonerees.

Part of their purpose was to listen. They wanted to know, "Where do we start? How do we dig in?" ...and they wanted to hear from people who had been directly affected.

Several spoke about moving our prison system from a punishment system to a restoration system with one person explaining..."because they will be out eventually."

Judge Creuzot brought up the fact that we need a process that will allow formerly incarcerated individuals to move on once they are released. (currently, convicted felons who have already served their time have little ability to get jobs or even find places to live...yet we expect them to come out and be productive members of society and are irritated when they aren't...without realizing why).

An attorney thought it was necessary and crucial that our system begin to fund well-paid, criminal defense, court-appointed attorneys due to the fact that low-income people are many times provided with the least competent attorneys (since more capable attorneys want to profit from their expertise).

In combination with that, others talked about the need for federal mandates to fix the system because we don't have the will to do it on our own.

Evidently some people are angered by the efforts to reform the system. Evidently, it sounds better when prosecutors, judges, and politicians talk about being "tough on crime"--the more convinctions, the better we feel. However, it's also important to realize that for every wrongful conviction, the real criminal goes free.

This is an issue that affects all of us...not just in Texas. Dallas happens to have kept more evidence over the years than most places...which has now allowed for 18 wrongful convictions (to date) to be overturned based on the evidence. Other states and counties have not been immune to these wrongful convictions...but may not have the evidence needed to overturn the cases as readily.

This is an issue we would all be better for if we educated ourselves and got involved. Unfortunately, most of the cases are having to be re-opened by people outside of the system. The lack of will of our political system, at this point, has not provided the funds, despite the mistakes made.

If you would like to help this effort continue, donate to The Innocence Project, write your congressperson, and do what you can to help fix the system.

Convicted...but not guilty

What could it possibly be like to be accused...and convicted...of something you didn't do?

In today's New York Times, there is an article about our very own Dallas County--A 12th Dallas Convict is Exonerated by DNA.

I can remember when I used to work at a gas station in college. The lady who owned the gas station was extremely particular (anal might be a more fitting word) about everything. I used to dread picking up the phone at my apartment...yes, this was before the days of Caller ID...for fear she would call. I knew if she called it wasn't good. Most of the time it was because she wanted me to work on my day off. But I can remember a time when she called me early in the morning to tell me that the cash drawer was something like $2 off and she wanted to know what had happened. To me, it sounded and felt like an accusation. It was only $2! Besides that, it's not like I came up short every time I worked! I knew I hadn't taken $2. Perhaps I miscounted someone's change, but I hadn't taken her $2! The point is, I was being accused of something I didn't do. I didn't like that feeling and dreaded being around her after that.

The situation in Dallas County is much worse. In Dallas County, at least twelve people have been accused and convicted (!) of something they didn't do. ...And these are just the innocent cases they've discovered since 2001! How many more are there??? Twelve innocent people are a LOT of innocent people to be serving behind bars for a false conviction! The sentences aren't short either.

James Waller just lost over 10 years of his life to a false conviction. He says he's not angry. I can't say that I would feel the same way. The fact that they convicted him (albeit, falsely), his name and reputation have been, are, and probably always will be questioned. A good name and a reputation is a hard thing to get back.

I understand that jurors have to make a decision based on the information they are given (though in this particular case it seems like they made a decision based on way too little evidence!). Is this "tough on crime" bravado that Texas shows off really working? Twenty four people were executed in Texas last year. How many of those were innocent? Does legally killing people and wrongfully convicting people really deter crime--especially considering what we are finding out about how many of those people are innocent? Or does it just give us a false sense of taking "bad" people off the streets?

I'm glad that The Innocence Project is out there advocating for people and challenging courts to go back and test DNA evidence. I would like to think that their findings are beginning to change some of the ways we handle situations in our court rooms.

I hope it makes us all question the assumptions we sometimes make about people.