The execution of Troy Davis in Georgia has people across the nation riled up about the state of American justice. And here in Utah, the recent exoneration of two people who spent several years in prison has shined a spotlight on our state’s justice system.
A Louisiana man convicted of an aggravated robbery that took place eight years ago in Salt Lake City has been found factually innocent of the crime. 3rd District Judge Royal Hansen overturned Harry Miller’s conviction Monday, officially exonerating him after a jury found the 57-year old guilty of stealing a woman’s purse at knifepoint. Miller’s defense attorney, Jensie Anderson, says evidence showed Miller was in Louisiana recovering from a stroke on the day of the crime, but that didn’t stop him from being convicted.
The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that criminal defendants who can’t afford a lawyer must be provided one by the court. But a new report from the ACLU of Utah says the state is woefully lacking in both providing funding and oversight of its public defender system, and that means indigent defendants aren’t getting justice.
Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher will spend two years in prison for disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction back in 2008, after a federal judge sentenced him Tuesday. The 29-year-old University of Utah student placed phony bids on oil and gas parcels near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks as a way of protesting the controversial auction. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, DeChristopher’s supporters say justice has not been served.
In the hours leading up to environmental activist Tim DeChristopher’s sentencing this afternoon, dozens of supporters gathered across the street from the federal courthouse. Ashley Anderson, director of Peaceful Uprising, a non-profit group co-founded by DeChristopher two years ago, says it’s not an end to their call to action.
The Utah Chapter of the American Civil liberties Union says the Salt Lake County Jail is illegally holding suspected illegal immigrants. The group filed suit against the jail, saying it violates the due process rights of detainees by keeping them locked up regardless of bail, so federal agents can check their immigration status. But as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, Salt Lake County Sherriff Jim Winder says the ACLU aiming that arrow at the wrong target.
It wasn’t hatred of illegal immigrants but the desire to return a favor. That’s what Leah Carson, one of the two former state workers convicted for her role in compiling and distributing a list of 1,300 purported undocumented residents, told the Utah Attorney General’s office while being questioned. It came in three-and-a-half hours of video obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune, which has reported on it extensively and posted the interviews online.
Some Utahns who have committed crimes are finding their past is coming back to haunt them – even though their records were officially expunged. While the courts may have deleted records of the crimes they’ve been convicted of, the same is not true for private firms hired to do background checks. Salt Lake Tribune crime reporter Nate Carlisle has been researching this for a story that will appear Sunday in the newspaper.
After being found factually innocent after serving 17 years behind bars, a Logan woman may have to return once again to the courtroom. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is reversing a decision he made two weeks ago, and will now appeal a judge’s decision to declare Debra Brown innocent of a 1993 murder. But as KCPW’s Jessica Gail reports, Brown’s lawyers say the decision to appeal amounts nothing more than a tragic case of sour grapes.
Brian David Mitchell, the man recently convicted of kidnapping and sexually abusing Elizabeth Smart nearly nine years ago, will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Mitchell was sentenced by a federal judge yesterday, putting an end to an ordeal that has plagued Smart since she was just 14. KCPW’s Jessica Gail was in the courtroom as Smart addressed Mitchell for the first time since being held captive.
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