December 26, 2006

Exonerated Prisoner Embraces a New Life

Miami Herald, December 26, 2006

By LISA ARTHUR

MARATHON - The first time Orlando Boquete walked into P. Morgan Hill's kitchen last summer, she handed him a cup of coffee. He cradled the ceramic mug in his hands, feeling the warmth against his palms. Tears welled up in his eyes.

''A real cup,'' he said. In prison, dinnerware had been plastic. He hadn't held a mug in years. That August morning -- his first full day of freedom after DNA evidence cleared him of a 1983 sexual assault conviction -- was a morning of firsts.

He swam in the ocean off Sombrero Beach. He caught a sand grunt after borrowing a fishing line from a man on the shore. He did his first radio interview and talked about his legal odyssey: a wrongful conviction, 12 years in prison, two escapes, 10 years as a fugitive and three months spent at the Krome detention center as lawyers fought a deportation order.

In some ways, Boquete is like many of the other 187 exonerated prisoners across the country. He's catching up on so many lost years. He missed watching his family grow up. And even the simplest pleasures, like sipping coffee in a real cup, were taken from him.

But he's also different. He doesn't have the haunted eyes and expression that many exonerees wear for months -- and sometimes years -- as they struggle to make peace with injustice and reconnect with society. And he's not bitter.

''I'm enjoying my life now,'' he told The Miami Herald in an interview in early December as he prepared to celebrate his first Christmas outside of prison in 11 years. ``Everything makes me happy, even driving my bike.''

SETTLED IN KEYS

In the four months since his release from Krome, Boquete has found a new life and settled into a community in the Keys. The city of Marathon has embraced him, easing his reentry into society.

Home is a comfy two-room bungalow in Marathon, where he's living rent-free courtesy of Hill, a well-off real estate entrepreneur and her business partner Paula Nardone. The women own three Exit Realty offices in the Keys. They pay him $10-an-hour to do landscaping on their properties.

''God blessed me and he brings love into my life through all these people who have helped me,'' Boquete said ``I had a lot of bad luck in the past. But now I have nothing but good luck.''

He still juggles two lives -- his past and present.

Each week, he takes a three-hour bus ride to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Miami to check in with immigration authorities. It's part of a supervised release program negotiated by his lawyers to defer action on a deportation order and free him from Krome. Because he's Cuban, it's unlikely under current law that Boquete would actually be deported, but the order could keep him from becoming a U.S. citizen.

But he also meets with movie producers who are interested in the rights to his life story and a reporter from The New York Times who is writing a piece for the paper's Sunday magazine chronicling Boquete's daring escape from prison and his life on the run.

``I tell those movie producers that that guy in The Fugitive has nothing on me because my story is real. You know, if they ever make a movie, I think Johnny Depp should play me. He looks like me when I was younger, really. Don't you think?''

It's all a little overwhelming for the former ship engine mechanic who arrived in Miami at age 26 during the Mariel boatlift.

Two years later, police charged him with the sexual assault of a Stock Island woman after she pointed him out on the street as the man who had just attacked her in her bed. In 1983, a jury convicted him based on the victim's ID. He escaped two years later and ran for a decade before he was caught and sent back to prison. In 2003, he saw a television show about the Innocence Project and asked the organization for help.

He knew he'd get out one day, but said he never expected all the interest in his story. He says he can be shy sometimes, but he does enjoy the attention being paid to his prison break. The usually humble Boquete has a bit of a swagger about his resourcefulness in busting out, an adventure that included a dangerous encounter with an alligator in a canal and a long trek through swamp lands. He never really felt free, but at least he wasn't in prison, and he's proud he was able to stay out for so long.

RADIO INTERVIEW

He ended up working for Hill after she heard his radio interview in August. She called his attorney Hal Schuhmacher, an old friend.

''Is there anything we can do to help him?'' asked Hill. When she heard Boquete was starting his new life living in a cramped public housing apartment with his brother and sister-in-law, his niece, her husband and their three children, she offered him the empty bungalow.

Boquete's reaction to the ceramic mug the first time she met him instantly melted through her feisty wise-cracking tough-talking outer layer.

''I was amazed that he wasn't bitter. He just wanted to work and fish,'' she said. The two have become fast friends.

Following Hill and Nardone's lead, many in Marathon rallied around Boquete. He walked out of Krome only with the clothes on his back, an extra pair of shoes and a Bible. He didn't even have identification -- during his first few days of freedom he carried around a newspaper with his photograph on the front page so he could explain to people who he was.

The staff in their three real estate offices pitched in, donating two pick up trucks of pots, pans, dishes, linens and lace curtains to help furnish his place. A local merchant donated a bed. An optometrist made him a set of stylish and expensive rimless glasses for cost. Others bought him clothes.

''People here have taken to him,'' said Schuhmacher, the local attorney who worked with the New York-based Innocence Project to free Boquete. ``He's sort of become a semi-celebrity.''

WORKING OUTSIDE

It's a warm December afternoon and Boquete is planting shrubs at Hill and Nardone's one-acre waterfront estate. He relishes working outside, with the Atlantic Ocean as his companion. The view, however, is a constant reminder of the one thing about his freedom that upsets him. He's not allowed to ride in a boat.

Even though the sexual assault conviction was cleared, he pleaded guilty in Miami-Dade to burglary and dealing in stolen property under an alias while he was on the run. He served six months in a Miami-Dade jail for the third-degree felonies.

Those convictions triggered deportation proceedings after he was freed from prison in May. His lawyers struck a deal with federal officials to get him released from Krome and defer the deportation hearing. But he had to agree to a number of conditions, including not leaving Florida and not getting on a boat.

''It hurts me,'' he said. ``I appreciate ICE deferring deportation orders. But I wish they would let me get on a boat.''

There are no restrictions on riding his bike, his main mode of transportation.

In prison, Boquete said, he would have a recurring nightmare. He was in Cuba, running barefoot through the countryside.

'All these people kept passing me by on their bicycles. I couldn't keep up with them. And in the dream I would think `I should have brought a bicycle.' Now, I'm so happy to finally have my bike.''

The 52-year-old is wearing cargo pants that fit loosely around his 28-inch waist and a tank top T-shirt that shows off his well-defined upper arms as he rakes pebbles to fill in between the plants.

"I'm a little man, but I'm strong. I kept my body in shape in prison. My face got old, though.''

He says he really saw his face for the first time in more than a decade in May, at the Marathon courthouse the day a judge overturned his sexual assault conviction.

''In prison, you only have those little steel mirrors, so I never got a good look,'' he said. His reflection in a courthouse bathroom mirror stunned him.

'I was standing there talking to myself in that mirror: ``Oh my God, look at me.' But that's OK.''

After work Boquete makes a quick stop at his bungalow to clean up. A string of Christmas lights hangs from the awning. He put them up before Thanksgiving.

'Ms. Morgan, she said to me `Orlando, it's too early for Christmas lights.' Not for me. It's not too early.''

He showers and then it's off to his niece Danay Rodriguez's house.

She's been his champion for years, the one in the family who regularly wrote to him in prison. She formed her bond with him while he was on the run and would visit.

Her three children rush to the door to greet him. ''Tio, Tio,'' they yell. Allan, the 2-year-old, wraps his arms around Boquete's leg.

''That makes me feel good that an innocent child love me so much,'' he said.

Rodriguez, 23, smiles.

"He's finally home for Christmas and that's just awesome.''

They banter about Christmas gifts and how they'll spend the holiday.

''You should have seen him at Thanksgiving. He danced like a crazy man with his friend he brought,'' Rodriguez said.

A girlfriend?

''No. No,'' Boquete said.

''Uh, for him to get a girlfriend, I have to approve,'' Rodriguez said.

"I don't need girlfriends right now. I need lady friends. And family and all the wonderful people who are helping me get to my dreams.''

January 16, 2007

Dallas County to exonerate another man based on DNA evidence

Associated Press, January 16, 2007

By JEFF CARLTON

DALLAS — A man convicted of raping a child in 1983 is expected to be formally exonerated Wednesday, officials said, making him the 12th Dallas County man since 2001 to be cleared based on DNA evidence.

Only New York and Illinois have more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, a trend that state Sen. Rodney Ellis said is an "international embarrassment."

"These are appalling mistakes and in the case of Dallas County, there have been so many," Ellis, a Houston Democrat, said Tuesday.

James Waller spent 10 years in prison after he was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse and sentenced to 30 years in connection with the rape of a 12-year-old boy. He has been out on parole since 1993.

"It's been a long, horrible road," Waller, 50, said in a statement. "I am finally having my day in court, and I will be able to clear my name at long last."

Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, there have been 26 defendants cleared in Illinois, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Seven cases involving 11 defendants were in Chicago's Cook County. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida.

In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners who filed wrongful conviction claims have received DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. New Dallas County DA Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago, is determined to look into the underlying causes, she said.

"DNA testing is to make sure innocent folks are not in jail," Allen said. "If you are not guilty, we want to get you out of jail. We're not going to be the DA that stands in the way."

The number of exonerations in Dallas County "demands a closer look and statewide action," said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project.

Ellis is sponsoring a bill for the third time that would create a Texas Innocence Commission to examine exonerations and determine what "errors and defects in the criminal justice process" led to them. California, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have such commissions.

A similar bill failed to reach the floor in the last two legislative sessions, Ellis said.

"My colleagues in the Senate, in particular, are beginning to see these are human lives we are talking about," Ellis said. "There are times when we make mistakes, and when we do, we ought to be big enough to admit it."

Scheck said there is no clear reason why there have been so many wrongful convictions in Dallas.

"Many of the cases have to do with eyewitness identification," Scheck said.

That was true with Waller, who was 26 when accused of the rape. He was standing behind the boy at a convenience store the day after the rape. The boy heard his voice and thought he sounded like the attacker. When he turned around to look at Waller, he was convinced, according to the Innocence Project.

Earlier, the boy had told police he never saw the attacker face-to-face and that the man had worn a bandanna covering most of his face. Waller was also heavier and taller than the initial description of the attacker.

Waller and his family lived in the same apartment complex as the boy and were the only black residents there, according to the Innocence Project.

Waller began seeking DNA testing in 1989. Since his release in 1993, he has had to register as a sex offender. It is unclear whether the state will require Waller to continue to do so. His lawyers are asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to suspend that requirement, Scheck said.

January 18, 2007

Pentagon Sets Rules for Detainee Trials

Washington Post, January 18, 2007

By WILLIAM BRANIGIN

The Pentagon today issued rules for conducting trials of terrorist suspects before special military commissions, implementing a law enacted last year and enabling the prosecution of detainees at Guantanamo Naval Base to go forward.

The rules, contained in a new Manual for Military Commissions, permit the admission of hearsay evidence, as well as coerced detainee statements that were obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, in accordance with the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a law that was signed by President Bush in October.

Pentagon officials insisted, however, that the procedures would guarantee fair trials for the accused.

The new rules, along with the underlying law that they implement, are considered likely to be challenged in federal court. A leading Republican senator predicted last year that the military commissions law would be struck down by the Supreme Court on constitutional grounds because it does not contain habeas corpus protections.

In a Pentagon news conference today, Daniel J. Dell'Orto, the Defense Department's principal deputy general counsel, said the new procedures faithfully follow the Military Commissions Act and ensure that "alien unlawful enemy combatants" who are suspected of war crimes receive "all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people."

Dell'Orto also announced that Susan J. Crawford, the former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces, will serve as "the convening authority for military commissions." Crawford formerly worked in the Pentagon, serving for a time under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Air Force Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway, legal adviser to the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, said detainee trials at Guantanamo that had been suspended will now go forward before the special military tribunals. He said 10 cases had been underway when the process was halted by a challenge in federal court and that a total of 14 cases had been "in various preparatory stages."

The trials of 14 "high-value detainees" who were moved to Guantanamo last year from secret CIA-run prisons abroad will "take some time" to organize because the cases are complex and "have to be developed carefully," Hemingway said. These detainees include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, two of the top alleged planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

An estimated 60 to 80 of the detainees at Guantanamo are subject to war crimes charges, Hemingway said. About 400 people are held at the U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.

While the new manual contains some "exceptions that are necessary to comport with the careful balancing of interests" in the Military Commissions Act, Dell'Orto said, it generally applies the same "principles of law and rules of evidence" that are used in military court martial cases.

"The statute provides for the admissibility of hearsay evidence, to take into account . . . the unique conditions under which evidence will be obtained on the battlefield," Dell'Orto said. He added that both sides would have an opportunity to present hearsay evidence, which he said "levels the playing field, if you will, on that particular issue," and both sides can attack the credibility of such evidence. Ultimately, he said, only evidence that the judge determines to be "reliable and probative" can be admitted at trial.

Hemingway noted that although hearsay evidence is generally barred from civilian courts, it is permissible in courts martial.

Dell'Orto cautioned against putting "too much emphasis on hearsay" in the military commissions. "There will be some hearsay introduced, but I think you'll see a lot of live witnesses," he said. He said there was "certainly a preference for having live testimony if it can be obtained."

The new rules bar evidence obtained by torture, and statements obtained from detainees through coercion are governed by the Military Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, Dell'Orto said.

Under the Military Commissions Act, information obtained from a detainee by torture would not be admissible, but statements extracted using harsh interrogation methods that violate a ban on "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" would be allowed if they were obtained before the Detainee Treatment Act went into effect on Dec. 30, 2005, and if a judge found them to be reliable and in the interests of justice.

The legislation also set the parameters for interrogating terrorism suspects. It prohibited the president from authorizing any interrogation techniques that amount to war crimes, including torture, murder, mutilation or maiming, rape, sexual abuse, serious bodily injury, hostage-taking, biological experiments and cruel or inhuman treatment. However, the law allows the president to interpret the meaning and application of Geneva Convention standards regarding less severe interrogation methods.

The law passed the Senate after senators narrowly rejected an amendment regarding the writ of habeas corpus. The writ, which is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, allows people to challenge in court the legality of their detention, essentially meaning that they cannot be held indefinitely without charge or trial. The bill contained a provision ruling out habeas corpus petitions for foreigners held in the war on terrorism, and the defeated amendment would have deleted that provision.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time the bill was considered and is now the ranking Republican on the committee, introduced the amendment, warning that denying a basic constitutional right to detainees was "unthinkable." Without habeas corpus protections, he predicted, the law would be struck down by the Supreme Court and Congress would have to rewrite it.

Dell'Orto said today that the new rules for the military commissions provide for "a jury system comparable to that used in general courts martial," require that the accused be provided in advance the evidence to be used against him and include the "protection from self-incrimination."

Each court will have at least five commissioned officers as members, with a military judge presiding, Dell'Orto said. He said there are "many more similarities" between the commissions and traditional courts martial than there are differences.

The military commissions can impose the death penalty, but there are tough requirements for the prosecution in obtaining that sentence. Dell'Orto said the government must prove not only that the defendant committed an offense that carries the death penalty, but "also must prove aggravating factors associated with that offense." Twelve members of the court must unanimously find the defendant guilty of the offense and the aggravating factors, and all must agree on the sentence, he said.

Hemingway said he was confident that the rules would ensure fair trials and that the accused would not be "disadvantaged" under the procedures for military commissions compared to those for courts martial.

January 19, 2007

Morocco Acquits Five Former Guantánamo Inmates

Reuters, January 19, 2007

RABAT (Reuters) - Five Moroccans sent home from the Guantanamo U.S. military camp in 2004 were acquitted on Friday of terrorism charges leveled at them on their return.

The five had been in and out of detention and questioning by police, accused of criminal gang membership, failure to denounce crimes harming state security, funding criminal organizations and passport forgery.

They were acquitted by Rabat's criminal appeal court, Moroccan state news agency MAP said. Two of them are still being held on a separate charge of trying to recruit volunteers to fight in Iraq.

The U.S. government, a staunch ally of Morocco, has repatriated nine Moroccans from Guantanamo since August 2004 and all of them were put on trial.

Many of the inmates at Guantanamo were captured by U.S.-led forces fighting the Islamist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Moroccan analysts say relatively few people from the North African kingdom fought for the Taliban, compared to the number of fighters from Egypt and the Arab Gulf states.

Four Moroccans remain at the maximum-security prison, according to the government, although rights activists say there are more.

``The fact the Americans released the five from Guantanamo already proves their innocence,'' said Moroccan analyst Mohamed Darif.

He said there may also have been less pressure to find the five guilty than after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and suicide bombings in the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca in 2003.

Moroccan authorities say they have broken up more than 50 radical Islamist cells and rounded up thousands of people since the 2003 attacks, which killed 45 people.

Earlier this month the government said it had dismantled a radical Islamist cell recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and arrested 26 people.

Dallas County records 12th DNA case

Associated Press, January 19, 2007

By JEFF CARLTON

In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence.

That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states — a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment."

James Waller, 50, was exonerated by a judge earlier this week and received an apology from the district attorney's office after a new type of DNA testing on hair and semen showed he was not the rapist who attacked a 12-year-old a boy living in Waller's apartment building in 1983. The boy had been the chief witness against him.

"It's been a long, horrible road," said Waller, who has been out on parole since 1993.

Only New York, Illinois and Texas have had more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, which has a population of 2.3 million, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.

"These are appalling mistakes, and in the case of Dallas County, there have been so many," said Democratic state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, who is sponsoring a bill to create Texas Innocence Commission to scrutinize the state's criminal justice system. Ellis serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Innocence Project.

A similar bill failed to reach the floor in the past two legislative sessions. But "my colleagues in the Senate, in particular, are beginning to see these are human lives we are talking about," Ellis said. "There are times when we make mistakes, and when we do, we ought to be big enough to admit it."

Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, 26 defendants have been cleared in Illinois, including 11 in Chicago's Cook County, according to the Innocence Project. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida, the organization said.

In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners who filed wrongful-conviction claims have received DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. New District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago, is determined to look into the underlying causes, she said.

"DNA testing is to make sure innocent folks are not in jail," Allen said. "If you are not guilty, we want to get you out of jail. We're not going to be the DA that stands in the way."

Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, said the number of exonerations in Dallas County "demands a closer look and statewide action." He said there is no clear reason there have been so many wrongful convictions in Dallas, but "many of the cases have to do with eyewitness identification."

That was true with Waller. A day after the rape, the boy was at a convenience store when he heard Waller's voice and became convinced Waller was the man who attacked him in his apartment.

Earlier, the boy had told police that he never saw the attacker face-to-face and that the man had worn a bandanna covering most of his face. Waller was also heavier and taller than the man described by the youngster.

Waller and his family were the only black residents of the apartment complex, according to the Innocence Project.

He began seeking DNA testing in 1989. Since his parole, he has had to register as a sex offender, but his lawyers are trying to get that requirement lifted.

January 21, 2007

New Orleans of Future May Stay Half Its Old Size

New York Times, January 21, 2007

By ADAM NOSSITER

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 20 — The empty streets, deserted avenues and abandoned houses prompt a gnawing question, nearly 17 months after Hurricane Katrina: Is this what New Orleans has come to — a city half its old size?

Over and over, the city’s leaders reassure citizens that better days and, above all, more people are in the future. Their destiny will not merely be to reside in a smaller city with a few good restaurants and curious local customs, the citizens are told.

But some economists and demographers are beginning to wonder whether New Orleans will top out at about half its prestorm population of about 444,000, already in a steep decline from its peak of 627,525 in the 1960 Census. At the moment, the population is well below half, and future gains are likely to be small.

“It will be a trickle based on what we know now,” said Elliott Stonecipher, a consultant and demographer based in Shreveport, La. “Low tens of thousands, over three or four or five years, something in that range. I would say we could start losing people, especially if the crime problem doesn’t get high visibility.”

The new doubts, surprisingly, are largely not based on the widespread damage caused by the flood. Rather, crippling problems that existed long before Hurricane Katrina are mostly being blamed for the city’s failure to thrive.

In this view, the storm was merely a grim exclamation point to conditions decades in the making. Before the storm, some economists say, New Orleans may have had more people than its economy could support, and the stalled repopulation is merely reflecting that.

Hurricane Katrina may have brutally recalibrated the city’s demographics, setting New Orleans firmly on the path its underlying characteristics had already been leading it down: a city losing people at the rate of perhaps 1.5 percent a year before Hurricane Katrina, with a stagnant economy, more than a quarter of the population living in poverty, and a staggeringly high rate of unemployment, in which as many as one in five were jobless or not seeking work.

Political leaders, worried about the loss of clout and a Congressional seat, press for people to return, but a smaller New Orleans may not be bad, some economists say. Most of those who have not returned — 175,000, by Mr. Stonecipher’s count — are very poor, and can be more easily absorbed in places with vibrant job markets, they say.

Large-scale concentrations of deep poverty — as was the case in New Orleans before the storm — are inherently harmful to cities. The smaller New Orleans is almost certain to wind up with a far higher percentage of its population working than before Hurricane Katrina.

“Where there are high concentrations of poverty, people can’t see a way out,” said William Oakland, a retired economist from Tulane University who has studied the city’s economy for decades. “Maybe the diaspora is a blessing.”

Others, however, worry that permanently losing so many people threatens the city’s culture — its unique way of talking, parading and eating.

“Culture is people,” said Richard Campanella, a Tulane geographer who has written extensively about the city’s neighborhoods. “If half the local people are dispersed and no longer living cohesively in those social networks, then half of local culture is gone.”

The new doubts also take into account the current barriers to repopulation, including the well-documented failure of the state’s Road Home aid program for homeowners, the loss of tens of thousands of jobs since the storm, the crime problem and delays in rebuilding moderately priced housing. Official efforts — local, state and federal — to rebuild the network of hospitals, schools and public housing projects that once served the city’s huge poor population have been faltering. But they also look at what New Orleans was before the storm.

The low population figure, 191,000, which was reported by the Louisiana Recovery Authority in November last year in the most credible survey to date, was about half the 444,000 count in a Census estimate before Hurricane Katrina. The number was surprising, dashing expectations of a “big return,” as one economist put it, and was hotly disputed by local officials. Still, upticks, if there are any, are imperceptible: the percentage of prehurricane gas and electric users who were getting service, for instance, remained the same between April and November 2006, the Brookings Institution reported last month.

“Our expectations were just wrong,” said James A. Richardson, an economist who directs the Public Administration Institute at Louisiana State University. “I don’t believe it will ever be 450,000 again. I think New Orleans did not need 450,000 people to support the economy you had at that time.”

With no real place for the poorest of the evacuees in the economy before the storm, New Orleans may have permanently lost that part of its population. Supporting that notion is an unpublished analysis by Mr. Oakland, the former Tulane economist, which shows unusually low rates of participation in the labor force before Hurricane Katrina.

Thus, a frequent impression of prehurricane travelers to New Orleans — that there were “a lot of people hanging around, going nowhere,” as the Nobel-winning Columbia University economist Edmund S. Phelps, a sometime-visitor, puts it — turns out to have a statistical basis.

The statistics, which compare the number of people actually working with the total working-age population, suggest “there are a lot of people out there not working,” said Mr. Oakland, referring to the period before Hurricane Katrina. Or, he said, they were working in an underground economy, not measured by statistics. If not actually illegal, he said, it was not very profitable.

In New Orleans, before the storm, about 4 out of 10 men in the working-age population were out of a job or not looking for one, compared with less than 3 in 10 nationally.

Employment had dropped sharply in the city from 1969 to 1999, Mr. Oakland writes. More than half of young black men ages 16 to 24 were not in the labor force. Unemployment rates among young blacks were above 25 percent. “The data is showing New Orleans is really a basket case,” Mr. Oakland said.

In the city’s poorest areas, the numbers were even more discouraging. In places like the Lower Ninth Ward or Central City, half of all working-age people were not looking for work, Mr. Oakland wrote. The real unemployment rate in these impoverished, high-crime areas, which would include those not looking for work, would have been a “whopping” 32 percent, he wrote.

Compounding the city’s difficulties, and, in effect, helping to stem the population loss, was a secondary factor: the direness of the city’s poverty, and its concentration. Those conditions helped make the city’s poor population exceptionally immobile. New Orleans was also poor not only in absolute terms, but also in relative terms. The poorest 30 percent of households had a lower share of the city’s total income than the comparable slice in any other similar Southern city, Mr. Oakland found.

“The job mobility was very low among the poor, so they just stay where they are, and the social welfare system shored them up,” Mr. Oakland said.

The city’s population was thus “out of equilibrium, if you would say that,” Mr. Oakland added. “It’s not normal to have that level of nonparticipation in the labor force.”

Haunting the city’s effort to repopulate, too, is the incalculable toll inflicted by ghosts from its past — a political legacy of corruption and patronage, and a deep racial division with a far more distressing passage toward integration than was experienced, say, in Atlanta.

Looking to the future, another 50,000 people might eventually be added to the city’s population, Mr. Oakland suggested, but there are no guarantees.

There has been little to no construction of cheap housing that would enable the return of the largest category of those still displaced, Mr. Stonecipher noted.

A second category of people, 50,000 or more who have established themselves elsewhere but who could return, may be even harder to recapture, given the combination of past weaknesses and continuing present-day hurdles.

“The longer it lasts, the more likely it is that our population is plateauing, the longer the uncertainty continues,” said Janet Speyrer, an economist at the University of New Orleans.

U.K. Panel Urges Guantanamo Alternative

Associated Press, January 21, 2007

By DAVID STRINGER

LONDON -- A panel of British lawmakers urged the government Sunday to work with the United States to develop an alternative to holding terror suspects at Guantanamo _ aiming to speed up the closure of the much-criticized U.S. military prison.

The Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee released a report that also called for an overhaul of the Geneva Conventions and suggesting Prime Minister Tony Blair lead efforts to update the international standards to reflect the challenge of terrorism.

"The international community as a whole needs to shoulder its responsibility in finding a longer-term solution" to the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo.

"We recommend that the government engage actively with the U.S. administration and with the international community to assist the process of closing Guantanamo as soon as may be consistent with the overriding need to protect the public from terrorist threats," the report said.

About 395 foreign men currently held at Guantanamo are allegedly linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Human rights groups have condemned the U.S. for operating the prison, where most detainees have been held for years without being charged.

The U.S. government has blocked their access to U.S. courts, claiming it has the authority to detain them indefinitely to keep America safe. The military says many of those imprisoned provide interrogators with information about terror networks. The U.S. has operated the prison for five years.

Nine British nationals held at the facility had been released by January 2005, but the committee said it believed another nine former British residents remained at Guantanamo. Human rights lawyers have said they were aware of eight ex-British residents being detained.

Seven panel members visited Guantanamo in September. Though the image of inmates "kneeling in the dirt, shackled and hooded" was no longer accurate, the report said Guantanamo failed to achieve minimum British standards "on access to exercise and recreation, to lawyers, and to the outside world through educational facilities and the media."

In October, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Guantanamo was "unacceptable in terms of human rights" and "ineffective in terms of counterterrorism."

Blair has gone no further than calling the camp an "anomaly" that sooner or later must end.

The committee called on Blair and his successor to help change the Geneva Convention that governs treatment of prisoners of war to "deal more satisfactorily with asymmetric warfare, with international combatants and with the status of irregular combatants."

President Bush has said the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Guantanamo detainees, who were classified as "enemy combatants" _ a status that accords them fewer rights than prisoners of war.

Britain's Foreign Office said it would not comment on the report until a formal response had been sent to the committee.

January 23, 2007

102 Sudanese Slaves Freed

U.S. Newswire, January 23, 2007

Christian Solidarity International Press Release

o: RELIGION EDITORS

Contact: Maria Sliwa of M. Sliwa Public Relations, +1-973-272-2861, for Christian Solidarity International

AWEIL, Southern Sudan, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Last week, 102 Black African slaves were liberated from Baggara Arab masters and returned to their homeland in Southern Sudan in an action supported by Christian Solidarity International (CSI).

Most of the liberated slaves -- mainly boys and young men -- had been captured by Sudanese government-sponsored Arab militias during two decades of civil war, pitting the Arab-Muslim dominated Government of Sudan against the predominantly Black African Sudan People's Liberation Front (SPLA).

Interviews reveal a strong pattern of physical and psychological abuse. The overwhelming majority of the liberated slaves had been subjected to beatings, racial and religious insults, forced labor and denial of the freedom to practice any religion other than Islam. Most of the girls and women had been subjected to sexual abuse. Among the slaves were:

16-year-old Agor Deng: Agor was repeatedly raped by her master, Adam Abakir and his associates. Adam Abakir and his wife excised her finger nails with a knife after she failed to obey an order to grind grain. They also forced her, using death threats, to pray like a Muslim.

30-year-old Garang Akot Wiir: Garang's right arm and leg were partially paralyzed after having been beaten and tied up tightly for 24 hours as punishment for attempting to escape. He was renamed Abdelrazik Ezzadin by his master.

45-year-old Achol Loc Wiel: Achol was shot in her leg during a slave raid. She also lost her husband and three children during the slave raid and forced march to Northern Sudan. Achol was gang raped by her master's friends. She was also forced to abandon the practice of her Christian faith and pray like a Muslim.

The liberation and documentation of the 102 slaves was the result of cooperation between Arab-Dinka Peace Committees, the civil authorities in Aweil State, local churches and CSI.

The Sudanese Episcopalian priest, Rev. Tito Athian -- a longstanding local CSI partner -- expressed joy at the liberation and repatriation of the slaves, stating: "Thank you for helping bring back our people from slavery. Now they are free to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and choose their own religion."

After witnessing several CSI slave liberation actions, including last week's, anti-trafficking consultant and author of The Jubilee Prophecy, Aaron Cohen, said: "I have seen first hand, in 23 countries, the positive changes good programs can have in the lives of enslaved people. CSI has created in Sudan a sustainable and effective program which has liberated thousands of slaves, inspired anti-trafficking legislation, and brought hope to people in bondage. CSI's pioneering work in Sudan is an excellent example to all abolitionists."

CSI has been in the forefront of the campaign to eradicate slavery in Sudan since 1995, and is commemorating this year the 30th anniversary of its foundation and the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade.

http://www.csi-int.org

CONTACT: Maria Sliwa of M. Sliwa Public Relations, 973-272-2861, for Christian Solidarity International.

SOURCE Christian Solidarity International

With DNA From Exhumed Body, Man Finally Wins Freedom

New York Times, January 23, 2007

By FERNANDA SANTOS

AUBURN, N.Y., Jan. 23 — Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man’s exhumed body matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene.

After 15 years behind bars, Mr. Brown stepped out of court into a light snowfall and gently pushed his way through a cluster of relatives who vied for his attention. The reception was fine, he said, but he is too sick with liver disease to stand on his feet for long.

“Changes have got to be made, man,” Mr. Brown said later at a lawyer’s office across the street, answering questions in a monotone as he rested awkwardly in a black swivel chair. “They say the wheels of justice move slowly, but you know what? The wheels of justice are flat.”

Mr. Brown, 46, is the eighth person in New York State exonerated through DNA evidence in the past 13 months, more than in any other state during the same period.

The DNA tests that freed him confirmed the results of his own jailhouse investigation, in which he discovered documents that incriminated Barry Bench, a volunteer firefighter, in the murder of Sabina Kulakowski, 49, a social worker who had lived with Mr. Bench’s brother until months before her death. Earlier DNA tests conducted by Mr. Brown’s lawyers linked Mr. Bench’s daughter, Katherine Eckstadt, to the genetic code lifted from the saliva on Ms. Kulakowski’s nightshirt.

Mr. Bench jumped to his death in front of an Amtrak train in 2003, five days after Mr. Brown mailed him a letter accusing him of the crime.

The Cayuga County district attorney, James B. Vargason, ordered Mr. Bench’s body exhumed after a hearing here last month during which Judge Peter E. Corning declined to vacate Mr. Brown’s conviction. Mr. Vargason, who prosecuted the case in 1992, argued that the earlier DNA tests were irrelevant without a paternity test proving that Mr. Bench was Miss Eckstadt’s father.

But on Tuesday, Mr. Vargason joined the defense’s motion to release Mr. Brown, and Judge Mark H. Fandrich, who took over the case upon Judge Corning’s retirement, offered an apology before setting Mr. Brown free.

“I’m sorry it’s taken such a long time for you to come to this day,” Judge Fandrich said. “I’m happy for you and your family. Good luck to you, sir.”

One of Mr. Brown’s lawyers, Nina Morrison, said he has no money, does not know where he is going to live, and suffers from hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver.

He had been released from jail just days before Ms. Kulakowski’s slaying, after serving eight months for threatening another social worker in her office, a man who had ordered Mr. Brown’s daughter removed from his home. He did not know Ms. Kulakowski, who was found bitten, stabbed, beaten and strangled on May 23, 1991, outside the farmhouse where she lived in the town of Aurelius.

Some new information was disclosed in court on Tuesday. Peter J. Neufeld, another of Mr. Brown’s lawyers, said that Peter J. Pinckney, who investigated the murder, had dismissed a firefighter’s suspicions about Mr. Bench’s involvement because he knew Mr. Bench and thought him incapable of killing anyone. Mr. Pinckney was later elected sheriff of Cayuga County but resigned in 2002 after pleading guilty to stealing from a drug investigation fund.

Also revealed on Tuesday was that one of the nation’s leading forensic odontologists, Dr. Lowell Levine, analyzed the bite marks on Ms. Kulakowski’s body before trial and told the district attorney at the time, Paul A. Carbonaro, that the one mark he could interpret “excluded” Mr. Brown, according to copies of Dr. Levine’s handwritten notes. But Mr. Carbonaro never asked Dr. Levine to file an official report, Mr. Brown’s lawyers said Tuesday. Instead, the prosecutors relied on another expert, a local dentist, whose testimony helped convict Mr. Brown.

Even as he supported Mr. Brown’s release, Mr. Vargason said he would not dismiss the indictment against him, and that he needs another month to reinvestigate the case so as to “follow avenues of inquiry that were possibly underdeveloped or even ignored in 1991.” Judge Fandrich will rule on the indictment on March 5.

Meanwhile, Mr. Brown said he will work on “picking up the pieces.” After his release, he went out to eat lasagna with his stepfather and siblings.

As he was about to leave court, Mr. Brown blurted out, “I can’t wait to play Pac-Man.” He looked sorely disappointed when one of his nieces, a perky teenager, told him that the popular 1980s arcade game is now a collector’s item.

January 29, 2007

The True State of C.S.I. Justice

New York Times editorial, January 29, 2007

Modern DNA testing is steadily uncovering a dark history of justice denied. More than 190 DNA exonerations in 18 years show ever more alarming patterns of citizens, wrongly convicted, suffering in prison. Consider the eight felons finally exonerated through DNA challenges in New York State in just the last 13 months. Or the 12 people who had to fight long and hard to prove their innocence in Dallas County, Tex., alone in the past five years. New York and Texas are, in fact, the leading states in yielding these hard-fought exonerations. This is hardly a credit to their justice systems since the victories are won by dedicated pro bono lawyers, not by state monitors charged with finding injustice.

It’s clearly time for these grim showcase states to join the half-dozen pioneering states that have created what are termed innocence commissions. These are independent investigative bodies of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, police officers and forensic scientists who re-examine case facts after prisoners are exonerated using DNA evidence.

These respected authorities try to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions and propose changes to improve the state of justice. Calls to create commissions in New York and Texas are bogged down in statehouse politics, even as a half-dozen other states are poised to create their own monitors.

The most recent exonerations show how much such commissions are needed. In Dallas, a prisoner was finally proved innocent after laboring for 18 years to win the right to DNA testing and disprove a rape conviction based solely on faulty testimony of a witness. (North Carolina’s innocence commission, led by the state’s chief justice, has already called for police investigators to vet witnesses more carefully.) In New York, a man who spent 15 years in prison on a murder conviction not only proved his innocence, but also tracked the actual murderer through DNA with the help of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.

No one knows the depth of injustice hinted at by DNA exonerations. But it is clear that they demand organized oversight and serious reforms of the criminal justice system.