Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 5:34:54 GMT -5
The State of Florida wronged ex-death row inmates
In 1963, in north Floridas panhandle town of Port St. Joe, one of this
states most egregious miscarriages of justice was carried out by a legal
system that failed at every step.
2 black servicemen home on leave, Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee, were
convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of two gas station
attendants.
The injustices that riddled that case were later corrected when a former
governor set the 2 men free.
Now, a Cape Coral man wants those who know nothing about that case to
believe they did it and that they should not have been pardoned in the
1970s by then-Gov. Reubin Askew.
He claims in a Sept. 22 letter to the editor that to believe otherwise is
a lie.
Whats most scary about Mark Mensers claims is that he once worked in the
Florida Attorney Generals Office. You know, that office where everyones
rights are supposed to be protected and preserved, and where injustices
are supposed to be recognized and corrected.
Mr. Menser claims that Pitts and Lee were misrepresented by the media as
innocent black men because, he says, its sexy to stereotype innocent black
men in southern jails, whatever that means.
What Mr. Menser fails to mention is all of the background that led to that
pardon Reubin Askew decided to do the right thing and save their lives
because of an overwhelming amount of evidence that north Florida judges,
cops and prosecutors refused at the time to pay any attention to even as
compelling evidence continued to unfold while Pitts and Lee languished on
death row.
What about facts?
The evidence, polygraphs and testimony werent that hard to understand. The
north Florida cops beat phony confessions out of the 2 black men.
A Port St. Joe white man, Curtis Adams Jr, who had a history of robbing
gas stations and killing the attendants, confessed to the murders and
provided the details.
His girlfriend supported his confession and described how he showed her
the stolen money.
Oh, yeah, and a north Florida judge allowed a self-proclaimed psychic to
be placed in a trance on the witness stand in order to testify.
It hadnt been done before, or since, that anyone could remember.
It was a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Miami Herald, Gene
Miller, who spent months investigating the convictions and raising all of
the necessary questions about it to get it eventually to Askews desk.
Thats something north Floridas legal system should have done but was
either unwilling or incapable of doing.
Even after Curtis Adams Jr. confessed to the Port St. Joe murders in
detail after his arrest in Broward County, Gulf County lawmen refused to
go there and interview him.
Pitts and Lee were forced to remain on death row only feet from the
electric chair for nearly eight more years.
Reubin Askew didnt pen his name to that pardon in a vacuum, Mr. Menser.
By the way, it was also a student newspaper at Northwestern University
near Chicago whose investigations led to the release of dozens of death
row inmates in Illinois, convictions that also had once been upheld by
courts.
Todays DNA technology, which wasnt available to Freddie Pitts and Wilbert
Lee, has shown us all how wrong the judicial system can be at times, yes,
even all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And how wrong prosecutors and former prosecutors can be for stubbornly
defending the flawed convictions that have sent innocent people to death
row and beyond.
Does the state of Florida owe Pitts and Lee compensation for what was
allowed to happen to them?
You bet it does.
Why? Because the state of Florida in 1963, with all of its power and
resources, failed to provide what it owed them an honest day in court.
(source: Lee Melsek, Opinion, The News-Press)
In 1963, in north Floridas panhandle town of Port St. Joe, one of this
states most egregious miscarriages of justice was carried out by a legal
system that failed at every step.
2 black servicemen home on leave, Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee, were
convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of two gas station
attendants.
The injustices that riddled that case were later corrected when a former
governor set the 2 men free.
Now, a Cape Coral man wants those who know nothing about that case to
believe they did it and that they should not have been pardoned in the
1970s by then-Gov. Reubin Askew.
He claims in a Sept. 22 letter to the editor that to believe otherwise is
a lie.
Whats most scary about Mark Mensers claims is that he once worked in the
Florida Attorney Generals Office. You know, that office where everyones
rights are supposed to be protected and preserved, and where injustices
are supposed to be recognized and corrected.
Mr. Menser claims that Pitts and Lee were misrepresented by the media as
innocent black men because, he says, its sexy to stereotype innocent black
men in southern jails, whatever that means.
What Mr. Menser fails to mention is all of the background that led to that
pardon Reubin Askew decided to do the right thing and save their lives
because of an overwhelming amount of evidence that north Florida judges,
cops and prosecutors refused at the time to pay any attention to even as
compelling evidence continued to unfold while Pitts and Lee languished on
death row.
What about facts?
The evidence, polygraphs and testimony werent that hard to understand. The
north Florida cops beat phony confessions out of the 2 black men.
A Port St. Joe white man, Curtis Adams Jr, who had a history of robbing
gas stations and killing the attendants, confessed to the murders and
provided the details.
His girlfriend supported his confession and described how he showed her
the stolen money.
Oh, yeah, and a north Florida judge allowed a self-proclaimed psychic to
be placed in a trance on the witness stand in order to testify.
It hadnt been done before, or since, that anyone could remember.
It was a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Miami Herald, Gene
Miller, who spent months investigating the convictions and raising all of
the necessary questions about it to get it eventually to Askews desk.
Thats something north Floridas legal system should have done but was
either unwilling or incapable of doing.
Even after Curtis Adams Jr. confessed to the Port St. Joe murders in
detail after his arrest in Broward County, Gulf County lawmen refused to
go there and interview him.
Pitts and Lee were forced to remain on death row only feet from the
electric chair for nearly eight more years.
Reubin Askew didnt pen his name to that pardon in a vacuum, Mr. Menser.
By the way, it was also a student newspaper at Northwestern University
near Chicago whose investigations led to the release of dozens of death
row inmates in Illinois, convictions that also had once been upheld by
courts.
Todays DNA technology, which wasnt available to Freddie Pitts and Wilbert
Lee, has shown us all how wrong the judicial system can be at times, yes,
even all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And how wrong prosecutors and former prosecutors can be for stubbornly
defending the flawed convictions that have sent innocent people to death
row and beyond.
Does the state of Florida owe Pitts and Lee compensation for what was
allowed to happen to them?
You bet it does.
Why? Because the state of Florida in 1963, with all of its power and
resources, failed to provide what it owed them an honest day in court.
(source: Lee Melsek, Opinion, The News-Press)