Maybe California isn't much different than a state like China

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I don't normally dog on my state but man this is terrible - and it has Kamala Harris' dirty fingers all over it.

Daniel Larsen had his felony conviction overturned more than two years ago. But the California man continues to sit in a California prison while the state attorney general appeals a federal magistrate's decision to release the 45-year-old from jail.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/california-man-still-prison-two-years-conviction-overturned-182018161.html?_esi=1

[Danno 1,228]

While I have not come close to an answer on how to rectify it...... it seems there is no greater area of unfairness than the court system and huge disadvantage the average person faces there.

Now this guy might be guilty still, these reports are half the time lacking in details which are meaningful.

one more tribute to the brilliance of the founders is that guilt is not determined by a majority on the jury.

I would like to hear some ideas on how legal representation could be made more fair and available.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

While I have not come close to an answer on how to rectify it...... it seems there is no greater area of unfairness than the court system and huge disadvantage the average person faces there.

Now this guy might be guilty still, these reports are half the time lacking in details which are meaningful.

one more tribute to the brilliance of the founders is that guilt is not determined by a majority on the jury.

I would like to hear some ideas on how legal representation could be made more fair and available.

Their appeal isn't even based on guilt or innocence, its on a potential procedural error on the part of the guy's defense. In many court situations I can understand appealing on the basis of such an error when it comes to money, rights etc...but in the matter of criminal convictions this seems...well dirty.

Harris is a TERRIBLE DA.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Sousuke

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

If he was found guilty by a jury, judges are usually loath to overturn a conviction based on the assumption that the jury got it right. Sorry, he has to sit in prison while the case makes it through the appeals process. California judges, however, are an aberration, as is the 9th Circuit, so expect the judge's decision to either be overturned, or at the worse, a mistrial declared. Once a person enters the penal system, he is usually stuck there until some finality is reached. I think Harris is total scum, but she got it right here.

Edited August 22, 2012 by The Patriot

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

If he was found guilty by a jury, judges are usually loath to overturn a conviction based on the assumption that the jury got it right. Sorry, he has to sit in prison while the case makes it through the appeals process. California judges, however, are an aberration, as is the 9th Circuit, so expect the judge's decision to either be overturned, or at the worse, a mistrial declared. Once a person enters the penal system, he is usually stuck there until some finality is reached. I think Harris is total scum, but she got it right here.

But why continue to hold him during the appeal? This I find very unusual.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Sousuke

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

But why continue to hold him during the appeal? This I find very unusual.

Because he is already in prison, he is stuck there until this is all settled. That's the breaks. Due process put him in prison, and he has to wait for due process to get him out.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Because he is already in prison, he is stuck there until this is all settled. That's the breaks. Due process put him in prison, and he has to wait for due process to get him out.

But due process currently says he innocent and the ruling was to allow him out? I understand the state has the right to appeal...but currently he is not guilty...

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

But due process currently says he innocent and the ruling was to allow him out? I understand the state has the right to appeal...but currently he is not guilty...

Once the state was granted appeal, that federal magistrate's ruling was put in abeyance. The courts usually maintain the status quo until the appeal process is completed. The status quo is serving time in prison.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Once the state was granted appeal, that federal magistrate's ruling was put in abeyance. The courts usually maintain the status quo until the appeal process is completed. The status quo is serving time in prison.

Its sounds like something China would do....

[Ban Hammer 13,399]

i have no idea why he's being unlawfully imprisoned when he's been proven innocent. when he finally walks out, he'll be greeted by every lawyer for miles around.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

i have no idea why he's being unlawfully imprisoned when he's been proven innocent. when he finally walks out, he'll be greeted by every lawyer for miles around.

I think this comes it up:

A 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision said that prisoners found to be "actually innocent" should be released even if they had not followed all legal technical requirements. The next year, Congress passed a new law with stringent time limits on when inmates could file habeas corpus cases in federal court. But the nation's highest court has never ruled on whether those deadlines apply in cases in which there is evidence of "actual innocence." Appellate courts across the nation disagree on whether they do.

So, we are having a serious debate in the U.S. justice system over whether prisoners who have been found to be innocent should be kept in jail due to technicalities which having nothing at all to do with guilt or innocence. Which is why Daniel Larsen is still in jail today. And here we are.

http://gawker.com/5936552/the-courts-are-seriously-debating-whether-innocent-prisoners-should-be-kept-in-jail-on-technicalities

Now clearly on an ethics basis he should be let go, and Harris should be recalled or something similar.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I don't normally dog on my state but man this is terrible - and it has Kamala Harris' dirty fingers all over it.

Daniel Larsen had his felony conviction overturned more than two years ago. But the California man continues to sit in a California prison while the state attorney general appeals a federal magistrate's decision to release the 45-year-old from jail.

http://news.yahoo.co...161.html?_esi=1

There's more to the story...

California Atty. Gen.Kamala D. Harris, whose office maintains that evidence still points to Larsen's guilt, accuses him and his attorneys of filing a petition seeking his release more than six years after he was legally required to do so. Prosecutors question whether the judges had the authority to hear Larsen's petition for release.

The standoff offers a window into what is often a defendant's last chance to have a criminal conviction overturned.

Larsen turned to the federal court to file a habeas corpus claim after exhausting his appeals in California state courts. In overturning Larsen's conviction, the federal court found he was "actually innocent" under the law because it had no confidence in the outcome of the original trial.

Prosecutors have long been frustrated by the seemingly endless appeals from inmates claiming innocence, many of whom were convicted on solid evidence. Robert Weisberg, a professor at Stanford Law School, said the attorney general appears to be trying to prevent an onslaught of legal claims by prisoners who have tenuous arguments. States want to make it nearly impossible for inmates to reopen their cases in federal court, which force prosecutors to retry cases in which they have already won convictions, he said.

"What they're saying is, this guy had his chances. At a certain point the music has to stop, and a case just has to be closed," Weisberg said. "We're afraid that lots of people who were not unjustly convicted are going to be encouraged to frame their case as the injustice of the century."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/21/local/la-me-innocent-20120821

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

There's more to the story...

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/21/local/la-me-innocent-20120821

The next year, Congress passed a new law with stringent time limits on when inmates could file habeas corpus cases in federal court. But the nation's highest court has never ruled on whether those deadlines apply in cases in which there is evidence of "actual innocence."

Its sounds to me like its an undefined section of law. Either way while the DA wrangles over the habeas corpus issue it seems like the evidence and the ruling of actual innocence is being ignored.

To push this a bit further its a bit like....oh well todays the day you'll be executed...yes yes we know your dna shows you didn't commit the crime...but you see your lawyer didn't file quick enough...sooooo we're going to flip the switch on you anyway.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I don't normally dog on my state but man this is terrible - and it has Kamala Harris' dirty fingers all over it.

Daniel Larsen had his felony conviction overturned more than two years ago. But the California man continues to sit in a California prison while the state attorney general appeals a federal magistrate's decision to release the 45-year-old from jail.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/california-man-still-prison-two-years-conviction-overturned-182018161.html?_esi=1

Yeah that's pretty outrageous.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-larsen-20120824,0,6574357.story

Just noticed this today - calling on Brown to pardon the guy.