Tomorrow night we'll have the attorney from The Innocence Project who won the freedom of yet another man convicted of a crime he did not commit. Here's the article:

DNA test frees NJ man convicted of killing two children
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NJ_CHILDREN_MURD...OME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Byron Halsey was granted a new trial and the guilty verdict that was given to him more than 20 years ago was thrown out.

The new hearing was granted because new evidence from DNA testing would probably change the verdict against him according to Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim.
His new hearing will be July 9th and at that time they will decide to either drop the charges or have another trial.

Halsey was found guilty in 1988 of murdering and sexually assaulting Tyrone,8,and Tina Urquhart,7. They were the children of his girlfriend that he lived with.

He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 20 years. The jury had the choice of the death penalty but chose the life sentences. People in the courtroom were upset by this sentence.

He made a confession before the trial after 30 hours of interrogation over a 40-hour period.
Barry Scheck,co-director of Innocence Project said "It would be a stretch to say that Byron Halsey even confessed to this crime given the state of mind he was in, the length of the interrogation, the tactics police used, and the words he actually said,"

Now because of DNA, the semen that was found is now confirmed to be from a neighbor in the rooming house, Clifton Hall, 49. Hall is the one who testified against Halsey at his trial.
Hall is currently in prison for 3 sex crimes in early 1990's.

Halsey is now allowed out of prison but must wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and bail was set at $55,000.

Once out of court, he hugged his mother and brother and was crying.
He said "I wasn't going to let anybody take my life," "I wasn't going to give up."

Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with the Innocence Project said

"Today, we can say with scientific certainty that Byron Halsey is innocent. Every piece of physical evidence connects Cliff Hall, not Byron Halsey, to these murders," "It has taken more than two decades, but DNA has finally revealed the truth in this case.""They tried DNA testing at the time of the trial on one piece of evidence, on the girl's underwear that was found stuffed in her mouth," But it was inconclusive, since more sophisticated testing was several years away. So they tested the semen for blood type, which matched Halsey - but also matched Hall



The Innocence Project became involved in 2004 because Halsey wrote them claiming his innocence. He is now able to apply for compensation of $25,000 for each year he was in custody. He will also get job training and therapy for being an innocent man in prison since 1985.

Margaret Urquhart, mother of the children said she always doubted Halsey did the crime.

"I knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina," "It didn't make sense to me that he could have done this. I always had my doubts, but I didn't know what to do about them. I'm thankful that the DNA testing has identified who really did this to my children and that Byron is being released today. I want justice done in this case."



This is one reason why the death penalty is not always the answer. DNA testing is helping to free a lot of innocent men that are behind bars. This case also shows that after being interrogated long hours by police, they can get even an innocent man to admit to something he did not do.

He is now able to apply for compensation of $25,000 for each year he was in custody. He will also get job training and therapy for being an innocent man in prison since 1985.---article

I find myself wondering if taxes are assessed against such an award....particularly State taxes.

I can see the State of Pennsylvania arguing for such monies.

We live in such a 'Blue State'.

PEACE

Jim Chester

Good show - Just finished listening to the podcast.

Maybe you need to start offering money to get people to call in!

DON'T BE SCARED Y'ALL!!!

Yeah - we had a great show last night. I was disappointed that more folks didn't (and don't) call in. I guess it takes time for people to get acclimated to calling in - particularly if they have never done so before. We're all family here though so I hope everyone listens in live and then calls!!!

I'm also thinking that the vast majority of people know that they can listen to the podcast at any time, so they don't make the effort to catch the show live and thus can't call in. I really hope we can get more people to participate. It really makes the over-all experience so much richer for everyone.


Either way, we had a great show last night I think. The attorney from The Innocence Project was really interesting. She highlighted the structural problems that exist in our legal system and talked about the way they exonerate wrongfully convicted people. Also - Joe and I talked about the recent suspensions in the NBA and then I talked about some events I participated in earlier in the week.

Check out the show via the links at the top of most pages! I think you'll enjoy it!

Erm...

We waited for you in the chat room the whole show! I asked where you were several times...

geesh!

I was there chatting with AudioGuy prior to the show, but it appears that I was booted out and didn't know it. Because it was working with AG earlier, and because I had never had problems with it before, I had no idea that there was a problem.

Thanks for listening though!

Thanks to the time change, I was able to listen live and was there in the chat room when you got the boot!

Because I have a personal involvement with the whole 'wrongful conviction' situation within my family, I was very interested in the show and as AG and I were chatting about it, he was trying to convince me to call in! And he almost managed to do it!

The thing is, though, that every question that I would have had for her was asked by you and Joe anyway! I think you all covered all bases extremely well ... and the bottom line for me is that she and her organization couldn't be of any help to us because as she stated several times, they only work with cases where there is DNA evidence, and in my cousin's case, none was collected!

But, again, it was a great show!! Just try not to disappear in the middle of it next time!