Post by sclcookie on Jan 19, 2006 4:45:40 GMT -5
Well, honestly, I wasn't anticipating Coleman to be proven innocent by the DNA tests. Esp. with him having a prior rape charge.
Now, since they are testing inmates DNA in order to "prove" that no one innocent has been executed, it would be cool if they check out Johnny Frank Garrett's.
Hmmmmm, I think Texas is scared to do tests.....esp. since Erdmann was the forensic scientest on that case.
****************************************
Dec. 4, 2004, 7:42PM
Lawyer takes executed man's case
He says evidence will clear Garrett of nun's murder
By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press
Sister Tadea Benz was sound asleep in her second-story bedroom in the St. Francis Convent in Amarillo on Halloween night in 1981 when Johnny Frank Garrett slipped into the room.
According to his confession, which he never signed, Garrett raped the 76-year-old Roman Catholic nun and choked her to death. Garrett, 17 at the time, told police that the Swiss-born nun recited the Lord's Prayer during the attack.
Now, 22 years after jurors convicted him and 12 years after Garrett was executed for the slaying, an Amarillo attorney is trying to prove his innocence.
"No reasonable mind would believe otherwise," Jesse Quackenbush said. "The old and newly discovered evidence of Johnny Frank Garrett's innocence is so compelling it will cause even the most bloodthirsty proponents of the death penalty to shake their heads in doubt."
Retesting evidence
Quackenbush, hired by Garrett's family, questions whether evidence was ignored, the authenticity of the confession and the handling of DNA evidence. He wants to retest DNA evidence on a man charged with a similar rape and killing.
Quackenbush asked Potter County District Attorney Rebecca King in a Nov. 23 letter to release evidence for testing. King said her office will provide whatever evidence a judge finds should be released.
"But there are procedures of criminal and civil law that have to be met," she said. "We're not trying to hide anything. It's whether the case needs to be reopened or not. That's for a judge to determine."
Leroy Matthiesen, the former bishop of the Amarillo diocese who knew Benz for decades, said the sisters at the convent are "distressed" that the case is being revisited.
"I know it upsets the sisters very much," he said. "If the wrong person was convicted, that has to be recognized and his good name restored."
Garrett had reprieve
Garrett proclaimed his innocence to the end. He did not write or sign the confession, Quackenbush said. In the confession, Garrett indicated he was drunk and high on LSD when he broke out a convent window to steal a stereo.
At the urging of Pope John Paul II, Gov. Ann Richards granted Garrett a 30-day reprieve shortly before his 1992 execution. It was the first time since Texas resumed executions in 1982 that a governor intervened.
But the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commutation despite arguments that Garrett was mentally ill as a result of physical and sexual abuse as a child. His sister, Janet Dobbins, said her brother didn't finish high school and had a history of petty crimes. He was "always a little slow" and was a follower, she said.
Quackenbush's letter draws comparisons between Benz's slaying and that of Narnie Box Bryson, 77. The two were slain three months apart in a similar manner in the same part of town, the letter states.
The similarities were so striking that the district attorney at the time, Danny Hill, and detectives were convinced the same man killed both women, the letter states.
Leoncio Perez Rueda, 54, remains in jail in Bryson's slaying. Quackenbush said that during a recent interview, Rueda described raping and beating a nun on Halloween night in 1981. Rueda, a Cuban refugee, was indicted in July after authorities matched his DNA with semen samples collected during Bryson's autopsy, the letter states. Rueda's attorney, Maria Lopez, declined to comment.
Forensic problems
Quackenbush said Amarillo police at the time concluded a Hispanic raped and beat 10 women in their homes. Also, black hairs were found at the scene of both slayings; Garrett was white and had brown hair.
But police deny that assertion.
"I was the chief here then, and I don't know where he's coming up with that," Amarillo Police Chief Jerry Neal said.
Garrett's case involved Ralph Erdmann, West Texas' main forensic pathologist in the 1980s who pleaded no contest to falsifying autopsies and tampering with evidence after serious omissions were found in about 100 cases. Erdmann's felony conviction raised questions in dozens of cases he had handled.
Quackenbush said Erdmann discarded semen samples taken during Benz's autopsy. At Garrett's trial, Erdmann testified he threw the samples away because no one told him to save them, Quackenbush's letter states.
Erdmann, who lives in San Antonio, said Friday that he does not recall the case.
Quackenbush said he will pursue a civil case against several government agencies if King does not release the evidence.
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2931258
Now, since they are testing inmates DNA in order to "prove" that no one innocent has been executed, it would be cool if they check out Johnny Frank Garrett's.
Hmmmmm, I think Texas is scared to do tests.....esp. since Erdmann was the forensic scientest on that case.
****************************************
Dec. 4, 2004, 7:42PM
Lawyer takes executed man's case
He says evidence will clear Garrett of nun's murder
By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press
Sister Tadea Benz was sound asleep in her second-story bedroom in the St. Francis Convent in Amarillo on Halloween night in 1981 when Johnny Frank Garrett slipped into the room.
According to his confession, which he never signed, Garrett raped the 76-year-old Roman Catholic nun and choked her to death. Garrett, 17 at the time, told police that the Swiss-born nun recited the Lord's Prayer during the attack.
Now, 22 years after jurors convicted him and 12 years after Garrett was executed for the slaying, an Amarillo attorney is trying to prove his innocence.
"No reasonable mind would believe otherwise," Jesse Quackenbush said. "The old and newly discovered evidence of Johnny Frank Garrett's innocence is so compelling it will cause even the most bloodthirsty proponents of the death penalty to shake their heads in doubt."
Retesting evidence
Quackenbush, hired by Garrett's family, questions whether evidence was ignored, the authenticity of the confession and the handling of DNA evidence. He wants to retest DNA evidence on a man charged with a similar rape and killing.
Quackenbush asked Potter County District Attorney Rebecca King in a Nov. 23 letter to release evidence for testing. King said her office will provide whatever evidence a judge finds should be released.
"But there are procedures of criminal and civil law that have to be met," she said. "We're not trying to hide anything. It's whether the case needs to be reopened or not. That's for a judge to determine."
Leroy Matthiesen, the former bishop of the Amarillo diocese who knew Benz for decades, said the sisters at the convent are "distressed" that the case is being revisited.
"I know it upsets the sisters very much," he said. "If the wrong person was convicted, that has to be recognized and his good name restored."
Garrett had reprieve
Garrett proclaimed his innocence to the end. He did not write or sign the confession, Quackenbush said. In the confession, Garrett indicated he was drunk and high on LSD when he broke out a convent window to steal a stereo.
At the urging of Pope John Paul II, Gov. Ann Richards granted Garrett a 30-day reprieve shortly before his 1992 execution. It was the first time since Texas resumed executions in 1982 that a governor intervened.
But the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commutation despite arguments that Garrett was mentally ill as a result of physical and sexual abuse as a child. His sister, Janet Dobbins, said her brother didn't finish high school and had a history of petty crimes. He was "always a little slow" and was a follower, she said.
Quackenbush's letter draws comparisons between Benz's slaying and that of Narnie Box Bryson, 77. The two were slain three months apart in a similar manner in the same part of town, the letter states.
The similarities were so striking that the district attorney at the time, Danny Hill, and detectives were convinced the same man killed both women, the letter states.
Leoncio Perez Rueda, 54, remains in jail in Bryson's slaying. Quackenbush said that during a recent interview, Rueda described raping and beating a nun on Halloween night in 1981. Rueda, a Cuban refugee, was indicted in July after authorities matched his DNA with semen samples collected during Bryson's autopsy, the letter states. Rueda's attorney, Maria Lopez, declined to comment.
Forensic problems
Quackenbush said Amarillo police at the time concluded a Hispanic raped and beat 10 women in their homes. Also, black hairs were found at the scene of both slayings; Garrett was white and had brown hair.
But police deny that assertion.
"I was the chief here then, and I don't know where he's coming up with that," Amarillo Police Chief Jerry Neal said.
Garrett's case involved Ralph Erdmann, West Texas' main forensic pathologist in the 1980s who pleaded no contest to falsifying autopsies and tampering with evidence after serious omissions were found in about 100 cases. Erdmann's felony conviction raised questions in dozens of cases he had handled.
Quackenbush said Erdmann discarded semen samples taken during Benz's autopsy. At Garrett's trial, Erdmann testified he threw the samples away because no one told him to save them, Quackenbush's letter states.
Erdmann, who lives in San Antonio, said Friday that he does not recall the case.
Quackenbush said he will pursue a civil case against several government agencies if King does not release the evidence.
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2931258
