Inmate Freed From Death Row: Creates Questions On Adequate Defense System
By: Tommy Elder, Jr.
Excitement reigned in the household of freed North Carolina Death Row inmate Levon Jones. Shaila Dewan of the New York Times writes that Mr. Jones received his release from North Carolina`s Death Row recently. This freedom for an inmate on North Carolina`s Death Row totals up to the third prisoner freed from this state`s Capital Punishment Corner in six months.
Tragically, the Appeals Courts discovered that materials that could have assisted the defendants was withheld from the defendant`s lawyers by the prosecution or investigators. Levon Jones obtained his release on Friday following fourteen years on Death Row. The Judiciary noted that the defendants` attornies lacked ``an adequate defense.`` For the entire United States- Mr. Jones`s freeing from Death Row totaled the sixth time in a year.
Concerning the confinement of innocent people on the various Death Rows around the country- John Holdridge, director of the American Civil Liberties Union`s Capital Punishment Project stated that the victory in Mr. Levon Jones` appeal demonstrated that the difficulty with the death penalty does not relate to the procedure in the killings- the most salient issue involves `poor people getting lousy lawyers.`
In 2000- the Charlotte Observer of North Carolina demonstrated that sixteen Death Row Inmates` lawyers` law licenses were later taken away from them.
Following one Death Row Inmate`s release- Judge Robert C. Ervin of the State Superior court decreed in April- ``that Mr. Chapman`s lawyers had failed their client, noting that one of them could recall interviewing only one witness and had visited the crime scenes for the first time two weeks before trial. The lawyers had admitted to heavy drinking during other trials.``
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