Earlier this week, the State Bar gave the prosecutors in the Alan Gell case a slap on the wrist for nearly putting an innocent man to death. Gell served nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He would have been a free man had the prosecution not withheld evidence that proved his innocence. Statements from witnesses proving Gell’s alibi were deliberately withheld, as was a statement from the prosecution’s star witness saying she “made up a story” for the police.
So Gell gets sentenced to death and goes to prison for nine years. His case gets reviewed automatically and then the charade of justice that was his prosecution gets revealed. When Gell easily won his retrial, he didn’t get so much as an apology from Hoke or Graves.
This week, the State Bar held a hearing on Hoke and Graves behavior. They ruled that while Hoke and Graves did withhold evidence, they really didn’t mean to. Hoke called it “an honest mistake.” The State Bar chuckled and agreed, slapping them on the wrist and telling them not to do it again.
What a load of crock! Hoke almost put an innocent man to death and has the nerve to call it an “honest mistake?” And the two of them are still practicing law? What the hell planet do I live on where this passes for justice?
I support law enforcement. I believe in justice, quaint as it may be. When crooked lawyers cavalierly tilt the balance of justice unlawfully in their favor, I believe they deserve a little punishment for their act, too.
It disgusts me that an innocent man nearly lost his life due to dishonesty and the perpertrators – prosecutors working in the name of our state government – will walk.
Shame on Hoke and Graves. Shame on the State Bar. I honestly wonder how any of them can sleep at night.
Lawsuit
There’s a good argument against the death penalty right there. I bet they wouldn’t have apologized to his family if his innocence had been discovered after they killed him, either!
I was coming here to check and see if Trey and I will be seeing you tonight. We tried to send an updated e-mail but I don’t know if it went through. We just have a couple of other people coming, and one is coming at 8, and the other two are coming at 8:30PM. Debate starts at 9- I’m excited and nervous! I’ll be wearing my Kerry shirt for luck, I think!
The most disturbing part of this is that Hoke was reprimanded in 1993 for withholding police statements in a murder trial.
Hoke and Graves were the prosecutors, not Gell’s lawyers, btw.
Yep, I misstated that in the first sentence but say it correctly through the rest of my rant. Thanks for pointing it out.
that’s what I’m here for. Pointing out your mistakes and generally making fun of you. 🙂