For all the (rightful) criticism CNN gets over its silly coverage of the missing jetliner.....
....I will say last night I did see something on CNN that was very well-produced and presented and worth watching.
It was called "Death Row Stories", a documentary series focusing on individuals wrongfully placed on Death Row only to later be exonerated. Susan Sarandon--who portrayed capital punishment opponent Sister Helen Prejean in the movie "Dead Man Walking"--narrates the series.
The focus last night was on the case of Joe D'Ambrosio, an Ohio veteran who was convicted of a 1988 stabbing of a man only to be set free over 20 years later after clear prosecutorial misconduct where key evidence was withheld from the defense. Helping the lead the charge to D'Ambrosio's exoneration was an attorney turned Catholic priest who had visited D'Ambrosio in prison after the death of his mother.
The actions by prosecutors in that case are enough to make you sick (as is the lead prosecutor's continued insistence that he had done nothing wrong), and it's enough to at least raise questions as to the use of the death penalty in this country if not its actual existence.
A write up on the D'Ambrosio case:
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http://www.cleveland.com/brett/blog/index.ssf/2014/03/dambrosio_case_is_riveting_in.html
Joe D'Ambrosio case is riveting in CNN documentary: Regina Brett
Regina Brett, The Plain Dealer By Regina Brett, The Plain Dealer
on March 22, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated March 22, 2014 at 5:15 PM
D'Ambrosio spent 22 years on Ohio's death row before he walked out a free man. He was convicted of the 1988 murder of Klann, whose body was found in Doan Creek. Klann's throat was slashed from ear to ear. There were three knife wounds in his chest, yet not a drop of blood was found at the scene. The first police on the scene noted that they thought Klann had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the creek.
The first police on the scene noted that they thought Klann had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the creek. D'Ambrosio's attorney never heard that.
D'Ambrosio's attorney never heard that.
The police had no leads until Lewis called them out of the blue to finger D'Ambrosio for the murder of Tony Klann. Klann was the only witness subpoenaed to testify that Lewis had raped Longenecker. Two weeks after Lewis pinned the murder on D'Ambrosio, the rape charge against Lewis was dismissed. Longenecker, who is legally blind, misread the court date.
Along the way, Cuyahoga County prosecutors withheld 10 key pieces of evidence that might have exonerated D'Ambrosio, including a tape recording police had of an informant saying "other people" were involved in the murder. It vanished.
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