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Wrongfully Convicted Former Marine Freed After 24 Years
April 2, 2004
Mr. Goldstein was freed from prison today after serving
24 years for a murder he did not commit. The cause of his wrongful
conviction: an unreliable jailhouse snitch and an eyewitness,
both of whom subsequently recanted.
In recent years, five federal judges all agreed that Goldstein's
constitutional rights had been violated by the Los Angeles County
district attorney's office....
Goldstein, who has always maintained his innocence - and reiterated
it today - looked numb as his 24 years in custody came to an
end after a two-minute hearing. His defense lawyers, Dale Rubin
and Charles Lindner, briefly embraced him as Goldstein, dressed
in an orange jail jump suit, left the courtroom.....Reached by
phone in Kansas, Goldstein's 78-year-old mother Geri was jubilant.
There's more to the story. Notwithstanding the findings of five
federal judges, the LA District Attorney's office refused to
free Goldstein and recharged him with the murder after the conviction
was set aside:
The district attorney's office grudgingly gave up the case four
months after a federal appeals court ruled that Goldstein had
been wrongfully convicted of shotgunning John McGinest to death
in Long Beach on Nov. 3, 1979. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals also ruled that Goldstein should be immediately released.
State and local officials, however, did not comply with the order,
leading to a criminal investigation that is now pending in Los
Angeles federal court.
Goldstein's attorneys said they were pleased at the outcome but
both expressed disgust that Goldstein had been imprisoned for
so long on such thin evidence, even after the five federal judges
had ruled that his constitutional rights had been seriously violated.
Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's office re-charged Goldstein, contending
that they had a strong case that never materialized. "They
had nothing. No fingerprints. No forensic evidence. No gun,"
said Rubin. "This was nothing but pure, outrageous false
imprisonment," Linder said.
In continuing to push the case the past four months, the district
attorney's office engaged in "display of prosecutorial chutzpah
nearly equal to the mendacity it employed to secure the defendant's
original conviction," Lindner said outside the courtroom.
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 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How to walk yourself through the justice system
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- Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
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- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
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Blogging
Blogging has been in the news.
It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created
each day. I established a blog for this website last September
and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the
pages with ongoing discussions.
- Tasering Mary Lutz
- Saskatchewan Centenary
- Quint Blog discussion
- Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police
- Blogging for choice
- Michael Cardamone witch hunt
- Implement recommendations of public
inquiries
- Stealing from the poor
- Vancouver's killer cops
- Tisdale rapists appeal
- Winnipeg police misdeeds
- Milgaard Inquiry
- Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?
- The Old Boys' Club Must Go!
- Vancouver activists
- John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie
- City of intolerance
- Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!
- Eric Cline
This is a great way for like-minded
people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than
making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.
People who want to contribute
simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will
be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their
comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment
to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine,
I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.
Please, please give it a try.
The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is
really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express
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-- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it
has ever seen.
Come on. Don't be shy. Join
the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005
Toronto
Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five
years
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