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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

"Douglas Warney, a person of limited mental capabilities... served 9 years in NY prisons for a murder he did not commit..."

And then denied compensation.  Unbelievable.
This Week in Innocence - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:   "Douglas Warney, a person of limited mental capabilities who has been diagnosed with AIDS and AIDS dementia, served nine years in New York State prisons for a murder he did not commit...
If the police are not merely entitled to lie, cheat and steal to get their guy, but encouraged to do so, then there's a perverse logic in the state's argument against Warney's claim. Why blame the cops for manipulating a mentally challenged person into confessing when truth and honesty play no role in their job? They got a man to confess. That's what we pay them to do. That's what the courts tell them to do. Nobody made Warney confess, as the state now argues, provided there's nothing wrong with manipulating the innocent into falsely confessing.
The courts can't have it both ways. It's time to jump off that slippery slope of encouraging law enforcement deceit if they can't embrace the natural outcome."

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