Take Action: DNA Test Jerry Connor
Submitted by Lance on Sat, 03/25/2006 - 10:39am
I just wanted to highlight the post below about Jerry Connor, and to offer this compilation of contact information (based in part on attorney Mark Kleinschmidt's work at Justice for Connor):
- Contact Mike Easley
- Contact AG Roy Cooper
- Use the BlueNC form to contact your state Senator
- Use the BlueNC form to contact your state Representative
- Contact House and Senate leadership and the members of the House Capital Punishment Study Commission
- Call Gates County Frank Parrish's office: (252) 331-4743
- Write a letter to the editor.
I'm working my way down the list, myself. Here are the emails I've sent so far (first one to Easley, second to Cooper); feel free to use them as templates. Share your letters in the comments!
Jerry Connor should get a DNA test using today's technology. The cost of the test and the small potential for delay in the judicial process should be weighed against the moral, social, and legal cost of executing a man who might be innocent. Connor's earlier DNA test shouldn't give much comfort to the state: it relied on now-outdated technology, and was handled by Brenda Bissette (who resigned from the SBI lab after she mishandled DNA evidence in as many as 50 cases).
Gov. Easley - this is a no-brainer. I can understand a desire to fully support the DA in death penalty cases, and to leave this case to the judicial process. But when evidence that could mean so much and would cost so little by comparison is being kept from the court, it is the role and responsibility of the office of the Governor to step in and ensure that justice is done.
Jerry Connor should get a DNA test using today's technology. The cost of the test and the small potential for delay in the judicial process should be weighed against the moral, social, and legal cost of executing a man who might be innocent. Connor's earlier DNA test shouldn't give much comfort to the state: it relied on now-outdated technology, and was handled by Brenda Bissette (who resigned from the SBI lab after she mishandled DNA evidence in as many as 50 cases).
Attorney General Cooper: I understand your responsibility to ensure that every case is prosecuted vigorously and completely. As an officer of the court, you also have a responsibility to the process. The costs of the test can't be very much in comparison to the value of a potentially innocent life cut short and the consequent public loss of respect for the NC justice system. I beg you: test Jerry Connor.
Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.bluenc.com/trackback/1692
- Lance's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Done.
I see this as a Governor thing, pure and simple. I have given my advice to Mr. Mike: Remove this shadow of doubt.
And an LTE thing.
Of course.
Here is my letter to the Governor.
I'll get the rest done in a bit.
Dear Governor Easley,
I won't argue today about whether the death penalty is right or wrong. I do believe that if we are going to kill someone as a punishment for a crime, then we need to use every resource at our disposal to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person our state is about to kill, is indeed guilty - even if the trial is over.
Jerry Conner is asking that DNA evidence be retested before he is killed. Methods have improved since his DNA was tested 15 years ago. It is my understanding that his original tests were inconclusive and were handled by an SBI officer later dismissed for mishandling several dozen DNA cases. I don't want to have the testing done after we've killed Jerry Conner.
I'm not asking for clemency. I do not know every detail of this case. I do however, believe that if this last step isn't taken to prove his guilt or innocence using all the technology currently available, then we are killing Jerry Conner for the wrong reason. It will now turn into a matter of saving face and protecting prosecutors from embarrassment instead of serving justice.
If Jerry Conner is killed and at some later date it is determined he was innocent of rape and murder, every person who could have prevented his death should be then charged with his murder. I realize that you would be protected by your office and official duties, but wouldn't it be sad to have every good thing you've accomplished for North Carolina get overshadowed by the fact that the only thing keeping you from accepting responsibility for the death of an innocent man is a mere technicality?
Please do what is in your power to approve and expedite the retesting of Jerry Conner's DNA so that the state of North Carolina doesn't kill a man who may very well be innocent.
Thank you for your service to our great state.
Sincere regards,
B K M
Thanks!
Keep it up!
Letter to the Governor
Dear Governor,
I am a big support of yours, I wish you would run against Elizabeth Dole in 2008 and give us a Democrat in the Senate. However, your stance on the death penalty is nonsensical. There have been hundreds of prisoners released from death row because of faulty cases, faulty evidence, and in the case of Alan Gell, faulty testimony.
Now Jerry Conner sits awaiting his death and comes up with a request for DNA testing on samples from his 1991 case. As a molecular biologist, I can tell you that the tools we have available today were in their infancy and the Nobel prizes earned by their discovery - years away.
At the worst, Mr. Conner will waste a year of the criminal justice system and about $60K being housed in prison. That's a lot of money. But, is it more than his life is worth if he is innocent? Because the worst that could happen to YOU is for Jerry Conner to be executed and then to have some outside group test the evidence and find he was innocent. Not only would your career forever be remembered as the heartless Governor that put an innocent man to death, but your soul would be forfeit.
Are you willing to take that chance?
Slightly edited email to Hackney and Kinnaird
I'm writing to ask you to stand up for Jerry Conner. For most of my life I have been pro-death penalty or at least I waffled on it. Until the last four years when it became clear that innocents are dying. There have been hundreds of prisoners released from death row because of faulty cases, faulty evidence, and in the case of Alan Gell, the guilty parties lying in their testimony.
Now Jerry Conner sits awaiting his death and comes up with a request for DNA testing on samples from his 1991 case. As a molecular biologist, I can tell you that the tools we have available today were in their infancy and the Nobel prizes earned by their discovery - years away.
At the worst, Mr. Conner will waste a year of the criminal justice system and about $60K being housed in prison. That's a lot of money. But, is it more than his life is worth if he is innocent? Because the worst that could happen to the state of North Carolina would be for Jerry Conner to die and an outside agency to test the DNA and find him innocent by reasonable doubt. We would be forever lumped in with Texas as a state that would rather kill than find out the truth.
The entire penal system is awful, but we shouldn't save a few bucks at the expense of a man's life.
Thank you.
Great job, Robert!
Maybe I should repost my letter to the Governor in the comments. I haven't finished following through on this action plan, but I intend to over the next few days. I think it helps save others some time if they can pull from our letters.
Duh - I meant
atttach it to the comments of the relist of the action plan...just so people don't have to search to find it.