For prison inmate Jimmy Lee Page, a "not guilty" verdict did not mean freedom

[Joanne98]

Source: AMERICAN-STATESMAN

It was August 1987, and prosecutors vowed to see Page put to death. When pretrial publicity forced the trial's move from East Texas to Austin, Page's lawyer was delighted. Austin, he thought, would give a fair shake to a black man accused of killing a white woman and nearly killing a child.

Sure enough, jurors were swayed by the lack of evidence against Page and found him not guilty. Afterward, several even shook the defendant's hand.

But while everybody else filed out of the courtroom, Page did not go free — not that day nor any other. Almost 20 years later, he remains Prisoner 258222, still doing time despite the not guilty verdict.

Now 52, Page is in prison today because state officials revoked his parole — trumping the jury's verdict with their own finding of guilt. It's a common practice. Last year, 91 Texas parolees were returned to prison after being charged with a new crime, even though the charges against them were later dropped or they were acquitted in court.




Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/15/15page.html

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I really think it's time to start seriously thinking about giving Texas back to Mexico!

[LiberalFighter]

1. Only if every Bush family member descended from Prescott is included in the deal

And they all lose their citizenship.

[Joanne98]

2. Good idea. Let's do it!

[youngdem]

3. The probation/parole system in this country is the new slavery

[Joanne98]

4. Your right and I'm really sick of it! It's time something was done.

This is an outrage!

[LiberalFighter]

5. When it happens like that it is.

If they want probation and parole to work correctly they need to do the job right. That means having the manpower to review the data. And making sure there is a procedure in place to ensure honesty.

I would think that if those finding themselves being on probation or parole know that the system works against them they won't bother going straight.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. same with a plea of a sex crime.

Even if you were railroaded into the plea.

Sex crimes are the big taboo these days, and when a couple of teens experiment, and the black male is charged with rape because of consensual sex, you know the system stinks.

no more than 10% of those charged/convicted/pled are actually a risk to society, but 100,000 are now tarred with reporting, residential, work and other restrictions for life. It is insane.

[acmavm]

6. You're funny. I asked if we could return that place to Mexico the other day

and no one answered. We would be better of it we could make the Mexican government take Texas and the Cubans can have Florida.

[Joanne98]

7. Sorry. I must have missed it... Cuba taking Florida. What a good idea!

[cigsandcoffee]

11. Too late. Florida has been taking Cuba for years. n/t

[1monster]

10. Ahem! Not all of Florida, please! Fllorida is a state that has people

from all over, including people from other parts of the United States. We also have those from Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceana.

During the Elian Gonzales caper, it was reported that there were only about 800,000 Cubanos in the Miami/Dade area (which has the laagest concentration of Cubanos in Florida), many of them born in the country, AND a good percentage of them are not rabid Castro haters who are only waiting for him to die to go take Cuba back for themselves.

While the Cubano community is very vocal in Florida, they are by no means he largest group, nor are they the biggest block of voters.

Stop dissing Florida. Didn't we get it bad enough when Jebby and his cronies took over the Governor's Mansion and the Legislative Branch in 1999?

There hasn't been a fair and uncorrupt election in this state since then. The results have been pretty much predetermined. Any time a Democrat won, it was because the race was too overwhelming to throw, didn't matter to the Republcan machine, or the election fixers miscalculated.

[razzleberry]

8. if Richards wouldn't help ...

don't expect anything from Goodhair.