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Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peterson

by TChris

Last year, TalkLeft discussed the inability of prosecutors to admit their error in convicting Larry Peterson, despite the mountain of new evidence (including DNA) that proved he wasn't the person who raped and murdered Jacqueline Harrison. Although Peterson was granted a new trial on the strength of the new evidence, the TalkLeft post predicted that prosecutors would drop the case in the face of overwhelming evidence of Peterson's innocence. Happily, that happened on Friday, but as this editorial opines, it took much too long.

After initially opposing Peterson's requests to conduct DNA tests, the prosecutor's office received clear scientific evidence in February 2005 that Peterson was wrongly convicted. Yet [prosecutor Robert] Bernardi effectively prevented Peterson from being released on bail for six more months.

Peterson remained charged, awaiting possible retrial, for 15 months after the DNA results were known. That's a disturbing application of the prosecutor's power. Once he possessed such urgent information, it shouldn't have taken an officer of the criminal justice system so long to conclude this case. Bernardi should have moved as swiftly as if it were his own brother behind bars.

Even more disturbing than the prosecution's refusal to concede its mistake is the role it played in obtaining Peterson's conviction.

A witness, who testified in 1989 that Peterson confessed, now admits he lied and that he learned key, unpublicized details of the crime from two investigators who still work in the prosecutor's office.

There is no excuse for the prosecutors' continued refusal to admit they pursued the conviction of an innocent man. As long as the prosecution refuses to admit that it railroaded Peterson, the police will feel no compulsion to search for the real killer. As the editorial suggests: "New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber should open an investigation into the prosecutor's handling of this case, from 1987 to the present."

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    I see you have a Dylan quote just to the right, "The pump don't work..." Perhaps a more timely quote from Bob D. would be: "To see him obviously framed Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land Where justice is a game." That's from Hurricane. Different crime, different black man, same injustice, same Racism American Style.

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#2)
    by swingvote on Wed May 31, 2006 at 09:12:32 AM EST
    But they'll keep right on refusing to do so. No prosecutor can admit he convicted an innocent man, and none will ever admit he did so knowingly.

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#3)
    by roger on Wed May 31, 2006 at 09:25:42 AM EST
    And now, if a persecutor suspects that the police are lying, and voices his concerns, he can be fired.

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Wed May 31, 2006 at 09:42:31 AM EST
    Beyond the usual intransigence of those who make no mistakes, the prosecutor is trying to avoid the State being on the hook for some money. The editorial you link to got that part only partly right - while Larry might be entitled to a maximum of $360,000 or so (the higher of $20,000 or his annual salary for the year prior to incarceration/year of incarceration), plus his attorneys' fees, he can't just show up and get a check. He has to sue. Fortunately, New Jersey is one of the few jurisdictions with a statute providing compensation for persons mistakenly imprisoned. Problem is, to get compensation, the person has to prove the following:
    a. That he was convicted of a crime and subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment, served all or any part of his sentence, and b. He did not commit the crime for which he was convicted, and c. He did not by his own conduct cause or bring about his conviction. N.J.S.A. 52:4C-3
    That "own conduct" subsection c is sure to impale a lot of cases*, where there's a confession, bogus or not. *The law is from 1997, but has not been the subject of any reported decisions. The burden of proof is "clear and convincing evidence", i.e.,
    "...evidence which produces in the mind of the trier of fact a firm belief or conviction as to the allegations sought to be established, evidence so clear, direct and weighty and convincing as to enable the factfinder to come to a clear conviction, without hesitancy, of the precise facts in issue."
    In so many words, it ain't easy at all. And, if you read the prosecutor's words, he's trying really hard to avoid giving Larry a shred of a chance to get anything usable from his being released. I speculate Larry will sue and it will come down to a negotiation over how much the State will pay - a fraction of what the statute allows. The State wants to avoid precedent applying the statute, and Larry will likely want to avoid the chance of losing on some b*s*t reason (like pro-cop judges or lying law enforcers or such).

    Another fine example of the state setting a fine example of "taking responsibility" and "showing remorse." If Bernardi were facing a criminal sentence, his lack of remorse would get him the max.

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#6)
    by weezie on Wed May 31, 2006 at 11:02:05 AM EST
    How about we forward this nugget to Mike "Da DA Dopester" Nifong?

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#7)
    by cpinva on Wed May 31, 2006 at 12:30:09 PM EST
    Even more disturbing than the prosecution's refusal to concede its mistake is the role it played in obtaining Peterson's conviction.
    without belaboring the obvious, might not the one have a great deal to do with the other? weezie kind of beat me to it, but i find the comparison between the two cases rather compelling. one, a poor black man, without significant resources for defense, tried and convicted, in fairly short order. two, several reasonably well off white men (i use the term in its loosest sense), able to afford good reps, investigators and so on, arrayed against a small town DA and his budget. a trial is not in the offing anytime soon. not that the color of a poor man's skin makes much difference, the true color in question is green, that of money. in case one, there wasn't any. in case two there's a fair amount. care to hazard a guess on who has the better chance in court?

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#8)
    by Sailor on Wed May 31, 2006 at 03:08:25 PM EST
    Until we sentence DAs and cops to the same prison sentences that the wrongly convicted person got the system won't change.

    Sailor gets it right. Certainly the Police and Prosecutors make mistakes, but when it is established they did so knowingly and willfully (or with a reasonable belief they are wrong), or when the evidence that they did do wrong is overwhelming, they should have to serve the same amount of time as the defendant. Sailor, I agree with you. The system would then change, and only people that were known to be guilty would be tried. I know a lot of people don't like that idea, but I'm not partial to just having a case closed for the sake of some cop or DA's evaluation. That means a killer or rapist may still be on the street. Also, I have to agree with one of our founding fathers who said something to the effect of, "better a guilty man go free than an innocent man be falsy imprisioned."

    Re: Charges (Finally) Dropped Against Larry Peters (none / 0) (#10)
    by Johnny on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 06:16:48 AM EST
    Innocent after innocent released, and still, somewhere, some wrongwinger is adamantly claiming that no innocent person has ever been murdered by the state. This man deserves something beyond a punitive award-perhaps, in this revenge driven justice system, a public flogging of the DA, prosecuting attorney, judge, jury and police associated with the case would soothe the wrongwingers thirst for revenge.