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Jury Acquits Man Who Spent 15 Years on Death Row

By Jeralyn, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 11:09:29 AM EST
Tags: wrongful convictions (all tags)
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A Tennessee jury has found Michael Lee McCormick not guilty following a retrial of his murder case. McCormick spent 15 years on death row.

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    Jury Acquits Man Who Spent 15 Years on Death Row | 11 comments (11 topical)

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    Heh Parsing are you? (1.00 / 0) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 07:18:27 AM EST
    of course kerry never claimed to be cambodia,

    You didn't understand what I wrote? And here I was thinking you were one of the smarter ones around here.. Oh well, you did and I know you did....so..

    "Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia."

    Note that the end source is the Congressional Record

    Learn something everyday, eh??

    hehe

    (Just razzing you cp... hope this finds you well...and able to understand...)

    And, as I noted, making false claims of being in Vietnam(or Cambodia)proves nothing but that the person lied. The reason may not be apparent, and it may not make sense, but it doesn't prove that they are insane.

    CSI aside, all crime scenes do not have forensic evidence of the perp's previous presence....

    The guy said he did it. The motive was fear that the victim was going to rat him out on the robbery.... and a jury juggled the facts in their heads...

    Luck counts.

    innocent? no-"not proven" (none / 0) (#1)
    by diogenes on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 11:26:48 AM EST
    Basically, there was no physical evidence. He gave a detailed confession/description of knowing the victim, killing her, etc, but his lawyer said that he was a "habitual liar".  There was no physical evidence.  The case remains unsolved.  
    Maybe there isn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt (if you believe that people make lying confessions to murder), but he probably did it, and the Scottish verdict of "Not Proven" may be the best one.

    Mike McCormick (none / 0) (#6)
    by tennessee on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 03:35:10 PM EST
    Mike was and is mentally ill.  He has made claims that we knew were untrue such as being wounded in Viet Nam.  He was never there.  It's one of those things where you would just have to know him.

    Parent
    Can you be more specific?? (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 04:08:05 PM EST
    Claiming to have been in Vietnam is not an indication of mental illness, but of dishonesty.

    As was Kerry's claim of being Cambodia.

    And then we have the question, did he know he was lying when confessed??

    All in all, since the motive is claimed to be that the victim found out about a robbery, this appears to be about shutting up a witness to a criminal act.

    Parent

    Help me understand (none / 0) (#2)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 11:33:21 AM EST
    This man decided to lie and say he killed her.

    Absent any proof that he is mentally incompetent or that he was tortured, I think this is purely nuts.

    maybe they waterboarded (none / 0) (#3)
    by jondee on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 12:20:14 PM EST
    him; which wouldnt have been torture.

    What continues to nag at me is how the prime beneficiaries and enablers of a system that breaks down time and time again such as Doug "Thin Blue Line" Mulder from "the great state of Texas" continue to not only skate with the bare minimum of accountability, but are, in effect, rewarded for their reptilian standard of what constitutes justice.

    Parent

    Try this help (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dadler on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 12:54:50 PM EST
    Confessions do not always mean the crime has been solved.

    Another piece.

    Parent

    Yes, I understand the theory (none / 0) (#5)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 01:26:58 PM EST
    but nothing of that nature was introduced. Plus, we have this:

    Cindy Reed Kennedy, cousin and best friend to the victim, said the family is sure McCormick carried out the murder. "We know things that were not allowed in court. There's no doubt he did it," she said.

    Ms. Nichols was killed in the early morning of Valentine's Day 1985. She was apparently shot in her car after leaving the Brainerd Beach Club, then her body was dumped on the parking lot of Eastgate Mall.

    Authorities said McCormick had carried out a burglary with Ms. Nichols' brother and she had found out about it.

    Link

    Nothing inspires Jim (none / 0) (#11)
    by jondee on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 01:42:46 PM EST
    like a misguided campaign of persecution; that much should be obvious at this point.

    Out, damn spot!

    Parent

    wrong again diogenes! (none / 0) (#8)
    by cpinva on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 12:39:18 AM EST
    you do this for sport, don't you? the apparent complete absence of any physical evidence linking mr. mccormick to the crime, and physical evidence linking someone else entirely, is evidence in and of itself of his innocence, in this particular case. people always leave and take something from everywhere they go, that's a basic premise of forensic science.

    as usual, jim sticks his foot in his mouth, then twirls it, with his multiple times disproved, swiftboatian claim that:

    As was Kerry's claim of being Cambodia.

    of course kerry never claimed to be cambodia, he's not nearly big enough. cambodia has a lot of rivers running through it, kerry would never be able to stay dry. and yet, he does.

    just razzing you jim, but it's sooooooooooooo easy! lol

    This man decided to lie and say he killed her.

    yeah, geez, that's never happened before, in the annals of human history! of course, since the "confession" wasn't videotaped, well never know for sure exactly what might have prompted him to do so; a stunning bout of remorse, or maybe a hint of coercion from the police.

    "a hair" (none / 0) (#12)
    by diogenes on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 08:54:40 PM EST
    Please add a link; the news stories I saw do not say "There was a pubic hair found on her proving that she was with a different man at the time of the killing".  Where was this hair found, was there only one hair, could it have come off of her dress if she danced with someone else at the club, and is there anyone else with any plausible motivation to have killed her?
    I'm sure that you could have found a hair that didn't belong to OJ Simpson in Nicole Brown's apartment too-does that prove his innocence too?

    Jury Acquits Man Who Spent 15 Years on Death Row | 11 comments (11 topical)

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