Republican US Supreme Court "justices" Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist issued an opinion championing "Finality of Verdict," which severely limited appeals from people facing the death penalty or long sentences in prison. Even if you have absolute proof of innocence, Scalia and Rehnquist argued it is far better for the system to EXECUTE AN INNOCENT MAN OR KEEP AN INNOCENT MAN/CHILD IN PRISON FOR LIFE than to make "pro-life" REPUBLICAN "christian" judges, making $100,000's of dollars a year, have to review their cases and evaluate any new evidence, regardless of how reliable and absolute the proof was.
DNA from a six-year-old's rape kit was not enough to convince police, the Republican DA and Republican Judge that they had arrested, prosecuted and convicted the wrong man. So no one looked for the man whose sperm matched the six-year-old girl's rape kit, for them, Case Closed!
DNA was retrieved from both a grandmother who had been raped and murdered and a six-year-old girl who had been raped, strangled and severely beaten. After years of lobbying, a test was run on the two rape kits which PROVED THAT THE RAPIST/MURDERER/CHILD MOLESTER/ASSAILANT'S DNA DID NOT match the man imprisoned for the crime, Clarence Elkins. But an Ohio Republican Judge refused to consider the DNA proof as evidence of innocence. Whichever man's sperm was found in the six-year-old girl's vagina, with her torn and bleeding hymen, was the rapist/murderer, period, end of discussion. Because of the police mistake, the judge's injudicious decision, the rapist murderer got away scot-free. But Elkin's ex-wife, Melinda Elkins Dawson, REFUSED to accept this decision and immediately started a campaign to free her husband from whom she was separated at the time, pending divorce.
On December 15, 2005, a Summit County, Ohio, judge vacated Clarence Elkins’ 1999 conviction for the rape and murder of Elkins’ 68-year-old mother-in-law and the rape of his six-year-old niece. Hours later, Elkins walked out of prison, having served more than 6 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
On the night of June 7, 1998, Clarence Elkins’ niece, Brooke, was sleeping at her grandmother’s house. The girl was awakened during the night to hear her grandmother, Judith Johnson screaming. She ran into the dimly lit kitchen and found her grandmother fighting with a man who was raping and beating her; the little girl ran back into her bedroom to hide but the man followed her. At which point she was sexually assaulted and beaten. Her next memory is waking up the next morning to find her grandmother dead. She ran to a neighbor’s house. Republican Police, DA's and Judges have NO problem sending INNOCENT people to prison for crimes they did NOT commit. That way they can close the case and the child rapist can rest easy, they got away with their horrific crime. https://innocenceproject.org/cases/clarence-elkins/
The neighbor, Earl Mann and his common law wife, Tonia Brasiel, told police that the little girl had told them that her Grandmother's rapist/murderer and her rapist "looked like" her Uncle Clarence. The six-year-old girl was knocked unconscious during the rape/beating and her memory of the incident was a blur. After she woke up the next morning, she ran to her grandmother's neighbor, who told her to wait on the porch of his house.
Brooke then walked to a neighbor's house, the home of Earl Mann's common-law-wife Tonia Brasiel, and knocked on the door. Brasiel came to the door, told the nightgown-clad, bruised and bloody child she was cooking breakfast for her children and told her to wait on the porch until she could call police and drive her home, which she did approximately 45 minutes later.
Years later, Brooke said she had grave doubts about the identification at the time but went along with it. "I just wasn't sure it was Uncle Clarence or not," Brooke said. "But I was too afraid to say anything". Elkins was arrested on the basis of this identification. She later described the situation on Larry King: "I woke up and I found my grandma dead, I went to a next door neighbor's house and I told her that it looked like my uncle Clarence and it sounded like him. So, she took me home and she told my mom that -- what I told her and then everyone just started freaking out. And then my mom and dad called the police and my mom and dad told the police that it was my uncle Clarence who did it." When asked how the identification could go so wrong, she replied, "Well, I told people that it looked like him and they just went like it was him. They didn't even listen to what I was saying." Wikipedia
Confronted with absolute PROOF, DNA from the two victims' RAPE KITS, that Clarence Elkins was INNOCENT, Summit County Ohio Common Court Republican Judge Judy Hunter denied Elkins' motion for a new trial and REFUSED TO ISSUE a directed acquittal in July 2005. There is NO DEFENSE OR INNOCENT EXPLANATION to a man's sperm being found in a six-year-old girl's vagina, after she had been raped and strangled. This judge's decision meant that the rapist, child molester and murderer could rest easy, no police officers were looking for him, thanks to Republican Judge Judy Hunter and Republican Supreme Court Judges William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia.
Clarence Elkins DNA PROVED HE WAS NOT THE MAN WHO RAPED THE SIX-YEAR-OLD AND HER GRANDMOTHER. His family asked the REPUBLICAN Judge to consider the fact that denying Clarence's appeal would mean the real rapist, child molester and murderer would get away scot free. She didn't care. After the second failed appeal, the family hired a private investigator, who uncovered relevant information. He discovered that Brasiel's common law husband, Earl Mann, was a convicted sex offender from Florida who had been released from prison just two days before the murder, on June 5, 1998. The court chose to ignore Mann's wife Tonia left Brooke, crying and bleeding, alone on her porch while the family finished breakfast for 45 minutes, odd treatment of a severely beaten and bloody 6-year-old in need of IMMEDIATE medical care, instead of telephoning 911 immediately. It is believed that someone may have tried to coach the child to implicate her uncle as the assailant.
Earl Mann left Florida and moved to Ohio in the mid 1990's after he was implicated in criminal activity in Florida. After their appeal was quashed, the detective Clarence's family hired turned up the information about Earl Mann raping his daughters, which led to his prosecution for child rape/molestation. In 2002, Mann was convicted of raping his three girls. Earl Mann was sentenced to the same prison Clarence Elkins was serving time. Clarence was in the same wing of the prison as Mann. At one point, Clarence noted Earl was a smoker who was careless with his cigarette butts. Clarence retrieved one, got it to the INNOCENCE PROJECT, which had taken up his case. While the Republican Ohio judge REFUSED to consider the evidence that the two rape kits DNA proved Clarence Elkins was not the rapist, now they had new evidence. When the INNOCENCE PROJECT ran DNA tests on the cigarette butt, it MATCHED the rape kits, proving Earl was the rapist/murderer.
It is now believed that, at the behest of Mann, Braziel may have coached the confused six-year-old, she was in shock from a beating and rape, planting the seed for the girl to pick out her uncle as a suspect, saying something like did he look like your uncle. They knew he was getting divorced from her aunt and there were the typical bad feelings, but they never counted on an ex-wife, daughter and aunt who would not help frame her ex-husband.
Why is it easier to frame an innocent man for a crime he didn't commit, even when DNA proved his innocence, but it is nearly impossible to get a Michigan Republican DA to indict and prosecute a man who murders a whole family.
By the same token, one might ask why would an obvious suspect be given the benefit of the doubt by the police. The Robison Family was murdered in their vacation cabin near Good Hart Michigan on Lake Michigan and the local DA apparently didn't care.
A note left on the front door of the cabin, as the family lay dead inside.
Richard Robison was an advertising executive of his own successful firm and published a local Arts Magazine. Dick and Shirley took their four children, 19-year-old Richie, 16-year-old Gary, 12-year-old Randall and 7-year-old Susan on vacation to their isolated cabin at Good Hart, Michigan on Lake Michigan. There was no phone in the rustic cabin.
A broken window in the front of the cabin indicated someone shot into the cabin possibly aiming at Dick Robison, then entered the cabin. It is suspected that this happened at twilight while there were still active hunters in the area.
The murders were discovered on July 22, 1968, when the care taker was told that a horrible smell permeated the whole area. Police were called shortly after he peered into the family cabin and saw the bodies. The family's luggage in the front hall of the cabin, surrounded by 1000's of dead flies. Police had to wear gas masks, the smell was horrendous and decomposition was very far advanced in the 90 degree temperatures the area had been experiencing at the time of the murders. It is estimated that the family had been dead for over three weeks when their bodies were discovered. The Robinsons had planned to continue their vacation after a couple of weeks at their cabin, so no one noticed their absence until weeks later.
A .22 caliber rifle semi automatic rifle and a .25 caliber semi automatic handgun had been used to massacre the family. A bullet hole in a door glass panel investigated by police. Only one person's unaccounted footprints were found on scene. Below the footprint tied to a shoe which was worn by #1 suspect. The duplicate pair of new shoes the suspect kept in his closet in his home.
Author Mardi Link wrote in his book When Evil Came to Good Hart: “It looked like someone shot at the family while they were in the cabin from across the road through the window and they came around and came in through the lakeside door with a handgun and finished them off.”
Shirley, 40: "Was found lying on her stomach on the floor in the southeast section of the living room. A plaid blanket was covering her body, except for the area below her knees." She was shot once in the head. A .25-caliber slug was found in the first autopsy. Press reports indicate that her body was posed in a sexually suggestive way. Police quickly concluded that was staged to throw investigators off.
Dick, 42: "Was found lying on the floor in the hallway, over the hot air register." He was shot once in the head. A .25-caliber slug was found in the first autopsy. He also had skull fractures and evidence of blunt-force trauma. During the second autopsy, a .22-caliber slug was found. Investigators believe he initially was shot in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle, then in the head with a pistol.
Richard, 19: The student at Eastern Michigan University "was found in the northwest bedroom of the structure, partially in the hallway and partially in the bedroom. His legs were extended out into the hallway." The couple's oldest son had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, linked to .25-caliber slugs.
Gary, 16: The student at Southfield-Lathrup High School "was found lying on his back along the east wall of the northwest bedroom." The teen had two gunshot wounds to the head, both linked to .25-caliber slugs. The second autopsy found a .22 caliber slug and evidence that he was also shot in the back.
Randall, 12: "Was found lying on top of his father. A lavender colored rug from his shoulders down to his buttocks." The youngest son's cause of death is listed as a gunshot wound to the head. No bullet was recovered during the autopsy.
Susan, 7: "Was found lying on her back in the hallway, at the south side of her father." The couple's youngest child was shot in the face. A .25-caliber slug was recovered from her clothing. She also had a skull fracture, possibly from a claw hammer found at the scene.
Investigators later determined someone had shot through a cottage window with a rifle, killing Dick Robison and one of the boys. The others were chased down and shot one by one. The killer closed the curtains, locked the door, turned up the heat, then tried to cover the bullet holes in the window with a piece of cardboard.
The Emmet County Michigan DA never filed charges on this murder, which is an interesting phenomenon. A cursory investigation by Oakland County Prosecutors, the family lived in suburban Detroit in Oakland County, turned up damning evidence.
Joseph Raymond Scolaro III worked for Dick Robison at his advertising agency and helped published Dick's Travel magazine Impresario. He knew when and where the family was going on vacation. Turns out, in the days before the murders, Dick Robison had found out that Scolaro had embezzled $60,000 from the advertising agency. Robison gave Scolaro until he got back to pay the money back. Scolaro was broke. Oakland County police found out that Scolaro wore the same size shoe as an unattributed bloody footprint at the cabin. He also wore the same shoe, model and manufacturer, as the murder scene footprint. In his closet, the police found a brand new shoe matching the same model and manufacturer. Friends said Scolaro would buy multiple shoes of the same model and manufacturer, if he liked them, when they went on sale.
When asked to account for his activities on the suspected week of the murder, there were 12 hours for which he could not account. Police asked him to take a lie detector test, which he flunked. After being told that he flunked, he asked for another chance, which he also flunked. A third test, he claimed he had been unnerved because he was suspected. His 3rd lie detector was labeled inconclusive.
Oakland County, suburban Detroit Police used the four .22 caliber spent shells found at the cabin murder scene to forensically compared by their ballistic markings to several .22 caliber evidence shells known to have been fired by Scolaro at a family firing range in 1967 at which time Scolaro used his missing .22 caliber ArmaLite rifle #75878. The two sets of shells were found to be an exact match. Although Scolaro claimed to have given this weapon away, a neighbor had told police he had seen the .22 caliber AR-7 rifle in Scolaro's house not long before the Robisons were killed...During the lengthy murder investigation it was determined by a forensic accountant that more than $60,000 was missing from the two combined businesses of Richard Robison. The two Robison businesses had been left in the care of the suspect Scolaro prior to the murders. The two investigating police agencies involved in the case presented their combined Evidence Case Report CR 4114-08-785-66 to the jurisdictional prosecution on December 17, 1969. The detailed report implicated Joseph Scolaro as the sole perpetrator of the mass murder crime. In mid-January 1970, Emmet County Republican DA Donald C. Noggle decided not to bring charges against Scolaro at that time, citing the two missing murder weapons and the absence of his fingerprints from the crime scene. Wikipedia
Since Emmet County had jurisdiction and did nothing, finally Oakland County Prosecutors decided to act. Since they believed the crime was planned by Scolaro and was tied to his embezzlement, giving them jurisdiction as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Oakland County was days away from filing murder charges. Scolaro committed suicide on March 8, 1973, almost five years after the Robison family massacre.
New Mexico Republican Governor Susana Martinez spent $100,000's of dollars to keep a 13-year-old Albuquerque boy in a Republican Private for Profit Prison for BURPING in Class
A 13-year-old boy was horsing around in a PE Class in Albuquerque New Mexico. The teacher became frustrated, so he called the Campus Cop who promptly arrested the boy, took him to a Republican Private for Profit Juvenile Prison where he was stripped naked and subjected to a cavity search and then throw in a prison cell with rapists, burglars and murderers. Boys get RAPED AND TORTURED in Juvenile Prisons. At his first juvenile court appearance, the juvenile court judge threw the case out of court and let the boy go free. Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM) DEMANDED the Republican NM Attorney General take up prosecution of the boy. After losing in court after court, Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM) appealed all the way to the REPUBLICAN US 10th Circuit, which held that boys can be sent to prison for BURPING in class. If you listen you can hear their screams as they are tortured and raped. Forget Detention, Forget Suspension, Forget Expulsion, Prison for Serial Burpers! And remember if you invest in Republican Private for Profit Prisons, Rapists, Murderers, Burglars and Muggers take extra guards eating into profits, but Serial Burpers are PURE PROFIT if you can stand their screams.
What should have happened, the boy should have been taken to the principal's office, his parents should have been called. He should have gotten detention, suspension or if after several incidents expulsion to an alternative school for troubled or disciplinary problem kids. PRISON WAS NOT THE ANSWER.
A couple of years ago, Pennsylvania Republicans began to privatize juvenile prisons. Turns out a company which ran several of them began bribing juvenile court judges to send boys and girls to prison for long sentences, six months and above, for crimes which were rarely even prosecuted before. But it was worse than that, the senior judge in Lucerne County, removed funding for the county publicly funded juvenile prison, which would only have left the REPUBLICAN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT PRISON. Mandating all kids would be sent to the facility. This CEO bribed the juvenile court judges to send as many kids as possible to prison. Boys who ran away from home, argued with a teacher or parent, rode a bike in a closed park after dark, even "crimes" for which a spanking was a more appropriate punishment, like shoplifting a candy bar or stealing a $5 DVD, riding a bike on the sidewalk, arguing with your parents, getting in a fight at school or even creating a phony Myspace or Facebook page, which was used by a student to mock teachers and staff were punished by these bribed judges by being sent to Republican Private for Profit Prison for a minimum six month sentence to a year or more. There seemed to be only one criterion, the boy or girl had to be poor and not be able to afford a lawyer, whether the kid was black or white did not appear to matter. That is until one of the boys committed suicide. Listen to one of the judges who took the bribes and his defense: https://www.npr.org/2014/03/08/287286626/kids-for-cash-captures-a-juvenile-justice-scandal-from-two-sides
Robert Powell, an attorney and co-owner of the two juvenile facilities at the heart of the scandal, pleaded guilty on July 1, 2009, to failing to report a felony and being an accessory to tax evasion conspiracy, in connection with $770,000 in kickbacks he paid to Judges Ciavarella and Conahan in exchange for facilitating the development of his juvenile detention centers. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court temporarily suspended Powell's law license on September 1, citing his criminal conviction.
Robert Mericle, the prominent real estate developer who built the two juvenile facilities, pleaded guilty on September 3, 2009, to failing to disclose a felony. Mericle had failed to tell a grand jury he had paid $2.1 million to Ciavarella and Conahan as a finder's fee. As part of his plea, Mericle agreed to pay $2.15 million to fund local children's health and welfare programs. Mericle faced up to three years in prison and a $250,000 maximum fine. Mericle was released from federal custody in 2015 after serving a one-year sentence.
Sandra Brulo, the former Deputy Director of Forensic Services for the Luzerne County Juvenile Probation Office, agreed to plead guilty in March 2009 to federal obstruction of justice. Those charges stemmed from actions Brulo took after she became aware she had been named in the federal civil action. Brulo backdated her recommendation of a placement she made concerning a juvenile defendant in September 2007, and changed her original recommendation of placement to probation. Wikipedia
On March 26, 2009, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Judges Ciavarella and Conahan had violated the constitutional rights of thousands of juveniles. They then overturning hundreds of juvenile delinquency/convictions. But no child who served sentences in these prisons will ever get over the nightmare of their time in prison or the beatings, torture and rapes they suffered while serving their sentences. Juvenile Court Judge Conahan, Real Estate Developer Robert Mericle who built the Republican Private for Profit Prisons in Lucerne County and Private Prison Executive Robert Powell who bribed Judges Conahan and Ciavarella, all of whom have been released early from prison. Judge Ciavarella is still serving his 28 year sentence, but is still appealing his sentence.
Sandy Fonzo's son was 17 and an all-star wrestler with a chance at a college scholarship when he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom on a minor drug paraphernalia charge for a blunt. In almost any other jurisdiction, he would have gotten probation. Though the teen, Edward Kenzakoski, had no prior criminal record, he spent several months in REPUBLICAN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT PRISONS, missing his senior year of high school. When he got out the boy's life was ruined, eventually he committed suicide. Most states no longer prosecute marijuana possession, some issue tickets instead.
There is NO justification for arresting a 13-year-old boy for BURPING in a PE Class. That is what school detention, suspension or expulsion are for. Boys should not be beaten by police for coming home late. If campus cops have times for this, then we have too many police. If we have room in prisons for burpers or 12-year-old boys who come home late, then there is something wrong with us. Did you know police only solve 58% of all murders? That means 42% of murders are never solved. I suggest we IMMEDIATELY transfer all campus cops from school campuses to Police Homicide Bureaus.
Republican Private for Profit Prisons are a crime. A few years ago, staff, guards and administrators at a Republican Private for Profit Juvenile Prison out west, were discovered to have allowed big, 200 pound 16-17-18-year-old boys to have involuntary sex/RAPE boys, 10-12-14-year-old truants, shoplifters and status offenders. In exchange for this free sex, the older boys used violence to keep things quiet and other boys in line and compliant with the staff orders and directions.
A boy from Harry Potter whose end was NOT MAGICAL, teenager Rob Knox came to his brother Jamie's defense against a bully at a neighborhood London Pub, moments later he was stabbed to death.
But that is not to say that some kids should be in prison. Specifically, kids who commit VIOLENT CRIMES. English 14-year-old Karl Bishop was arrested for bringing a knife to school and repeatedly stabbing another 14-year-old boy. Police will tell you, knifing is a particularly vicious crime, you feel the knife going into your victim's flesh as you hear your victim's screams. This is as cold-blooded, cruel and vicious a crime as exists, whether committed by a child or adult. For this crime, Karl received a ridiculously lenient sentence of five years in a juvenile facility, but it is much worse than that. For some reason, inexplicably, to me, Bishop was released after serving only 2 1/2 years.
Rob Knox, 18, died after being stabbed five times outside the "Metro Bar," a neighborhood pub in Sidcup, Southeast London. In May 2007, Rob came to the aid of his younger brother, Jamie, 17. who was being bullied by Karl Bishop, 21. The second Rob intervened, he was viciously attacked by Bishop with a knife. Bishop then proceeded to viciously stab Knox to death. Bishop was convicted of Rob Knox's murder at the Old Bailey.
Rob Knox was an actor who appeared in several Harry Potter movies and was a good and popular kid and student, often described as a gentle giant. Karl Bishop was sentenced to life in prison.
Possessing a deadly weapon in public, much less bringing a deadly weapon to school, should mandate a five year prison sentence, brandishing it should mandate 10 years, using the weapon with injury, 20 years, killing someone, rot in jail before you rot in hell.
Rob Knox with his Mom and brother Jamie.
But it is FAR WORSE than that, Karl Bishop was a Serial Violent Criminal, He is the kind of young person who should have been in prison for a long, long time when he was 14, if he had, Rob Knox would still be alive.
Karl Bishop threatened a youth with a knife in an attempted robbery two months before fatally stabbing 18-year-old Rob Knox. But detectives never visited his home or tracked him down to arrest him - even though he had come out of jail only months earlier for slashing two other teenagers. This would be his fourth violent knifing. Once you commit your first violent crime, a mandatory LONG PRISON SENTENCE/TWENTY YEARS MINIMUM, no early release/no parole for any reason. A second offense means life in prison so there is not third offense.
The London Metropolitan Police admitted for the first time that Karl Bishop was accused of an attempted armed robbery two months before Rob Knox's murder in an official citizen's crime report, but inexplicably detectives failed to arrest him.
Two weeks later the robbery victim's mother reported a burglary at her son's flat, and named Bishop as the suspect, repeating the accusation that her son had been mugged and threatened with a knife by Karl Bishop previously.
Scotland Yard admitted today that it had blundered in not arresting Bishop. The Metropolitan Police said it took the errors so seriously that it called in the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate.
As a result two police officers, a constable and a sergeant based in Plumstead, have been given written warnings. The London Evening Standard
Rob Knox was described as a gentle giant and a loving big brother, naturally protecting his little brother Jamie's life from a vicious bully, which cost him his life. That makes Rob Knox a real hero for all little brothers everywhere.
Rupert Grint and friends at Rob's Funeral, the pain written on their face.
Police are great at arresting and imprisoning boys who burp in class or come home late from school, but, along with conservative District Attorneys and Judges, show incredible mercy and leniency towards violent criminals, ignoring the suffering of their victims and their families.
NO MORE 13-YEAR-OLD BURPERS IN REPUBLICAN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT JUVENILE PRISONS. No more releasing violent criminals, juvenile or adult, to make room for status offenders and victimless crimes "criminals", like marijuana smokers. That is what fines are for, the appropriate penalty. Prisons must first and foremost be for violent criminals, financial criminals who prey on the vulnerable and drug dealers, Any doubts? If you listen carefully you can hear the screams of 12/13/14-year-old boys being tortured and raped in Republican Private for Profit Prisons for BURPING in class.
I got into a vicious argument over the internet with someone in England about a spate of muggings using battery acid thrown in the faces of their robbery victims. The person, I don't know if they were Tory, Labor or Liberal, black or white, was adamant, 5 years is too long a prison sentence for the crime. I am a liberal Democrat, but, to me, throwing battery acid in someone's face so that you can rob them is pure vicious cruelty and deserves the most severe penalty available. Your victim could be scared for life, they could be blinded, which is a fate worse than death. Mercy should be reserved for the merciful. On the scale of viciousness, throwing battery acid in someone's face is the ultimate in viciousness, giving some of their victims life sentences. And that should be your penalty, life in prison on a first offense and never getting out, except feet first. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/26/europe/london-acid-attacks-2017-intl/index.html
Never forget who the real victims are and their suffering.
Ever met a Democrat that did anything wrong? If your really interested in changing minds......maybe lay off the political attacks. Pretty sure someone fair could find good people on both sides of the aisle, and conversely bad folks too. Sadly your point of justice plays out as a one side petty vendetta, which does a disservice to convincing those who also seek justice.
ReplyDeleteMistakes are one thing, when presented with absolute proof of someone's INNOCENCE and saying they should stay in prison so you can cover up the original mistake, is UNFORGETTABLE! I would condemn anyone, Democrat or Republican, who did this. Show me a Democrat and we'll talk, until then I stand by this.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican party are now the party of Putin. They are actively destroying democracy.
ReplyDeleteReally??!
DeleteThank you for this. I don't understand why people aren't comprehending that the private juvenile prisons are so dangerous and awful. And the people who work for them are pretty rancid in their soul. Same with foster care group homes and stuff.
ReplyDelete