Franky Carrillo, who spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, joined Politics Nation Tuesday to share his experience and to lobby against the death penalty.
Carrillo’s conviction was based on witness identification testimony from six people – five of the witnesses later admitted that they were influenced to point the finger at Carrillo. Carrillo was released just last year.
Carrillo is one of 2,000 people identified as falsely convicted over the past 23 years, according to ExonerationRegistry.org, the largest database of its kind ever assembled, according to its creators from the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.
Rev. Sharpton, during the interview, commented that Carrillo didn't seem cynical or angry about spending 20 years of his life in prison.
“I’m grateful that I’m able to look beyond the hatred,”he told Rev. Al Sharpton.
Carrillo says he has recently been accepted into Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and is trying to get to know his son better. He's focusing on getting acclimated back into society.
He called on Californians to take the opportunity in November to do away with the death penalty. A ballot measure, if passed, would replace capital punishment in the state with life term without possibility of parole. It would make California the 18th state without the death penalty. About 700 people are currently on death row.
“There has to be someone on death row who is innocent and I would prefer that person be able to live out their lives and to be able to prove they are innocent,” he said.
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At least 10 police officers from St Louis County, St Louis, Mo. threw a net around my home with guns pointing at me when my daughter opened the door; according to them, I was wanted in 4 STATES for rape, robbery, armed criminal action and attempted murder. I was dragged out of my home, treated with severe dispespect only to discover that it was all a "mistake" ... I was not the one they were looking for. I retained an attorney who failed to live up to my expectations and the police chief said he looked at the police report(more than half of it was untruthful) and found NOTHING WRONG WITH THE OPERATION. It didn't matter that I was never interviewed by whoever put the "report" together, was never shown any doc that allowed them to violate my civil rights, my private property and the sacred obligation that is mine to DUE DELIGENCE.... no rearch went into my home invasion, the cars parked in the drive way, the ownership of the house, not even to speak with my next door nieghbors but rather they put the worst, the most traumatic and potiontally deadliest option FIRST. The only thing I got out of the idiots was "we are only doing out job" ...not even an apology.I HAVE BEEN SCARRED FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only thing that worries me is that, once the sentence of life without the possibility of parole gains general acceptance, it will be handed out more liberally for crimes that currently allow for the chance of parole.
"Justice" plays no part in criminal investigations and prosecutions. The Police and District Attorneys only measure their success or failure by number of arrests and convictions, not on the validity of the outcome. The fact that the person arrested, tried and convicted of any particular crime was actually innocent and the actual perpetrator of the offense is now off the hook for it has no bearing on their thought processes.
Justice is not served if the criminal responsible is not prosecuted. The "victim" and their families might be consoled by a conviction but their cause is not served by wrongful conviction. The injustice of a wrongful conviction re-victimizes the original victim, victimizes an innocent defendant and injures society as a whole, not just by wrongfully accusing one of its citizens/guests but by lulling the public into a false sense of security about how protected they are. One could even make a case for wrongful prosecution being a racially or classist motivated civil rights abuse as more people of color and the poor seem to be victims of the practice than whites (I hate that term) and the rich.
Criminals love wrongful prosecutions. Someone else pays for their crimes.
Here is a novel idea. Any person currently incarcerated has the right to appeal his sentence if there is any DNA evidence that was NOT used at the trial that convicted him. If a person is incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, he is entitled to $500/day for the time he was incarcerated.
It has amazed me that we have a justice system that fights tooth and nail against having all of these men and women from having a simple DNA test taken after a trial where this kind of evidence can maybe free a person. On apeal when this kind of action has been fought and fought by these people in the justice system, the person that has faught so hard to keep an innocent man and women in prison, should themselves have their Law License revolked. Then maybe we would get more true justice.
I am not for the criminal, but frankly I do not believe on counting on all people who testify in trials. To much lying and manipulation goes on in a trial. I have seen what goes on when you have people who have other motives for their testimony.
In the Zip Files are the copies of the Police report...they were Reg Sex offenders there.....One was warren Fag Jeff Son of a bitch..........I need to be heard...They can't even keep up with all the problem now...and they hurt people not even involved with that type of life......Celina will Never Be the same.......Beth would want me to go out there to be Heard ...I can see the door, but I don't how to open it......
If I could Find my way into the court, So they could here the cover up...and they want too it make legal...There are Crazy....they Can't even take care of what is going on Now
They never Gave me this report..it was always blacked out,...There were Reg sex Offenders...I plead No Contest, This is still a valid Case.......I just want my Rights to Bear Arm's Back....I want to go out with my Boot's on...I know that I am in the Barlows play ground of Mines....One Attorney here, My Attorney for the Case back then, Mr.Bishop ( 435 586 9483) told me that they will not Admit that they were wrong, The F.B.I. said that Reg Sex Offenders need to live somewhere.. "She Was Only 13yrs Old" , They should of Arrested Them, Rape checked Celina, and brought me in for Counseling, instead, I was set up...As You can see I have sent this everywhere.....What, am I just a Wet Back?
Thank You Sir .... For The Hope MR. JULIÁN CASTRO
Dear Sir...
After I sent My complaint everywhere, they gave it to
The Utah St. George FBI Office, and they said, they were not going to do anything about the cover up, Please Read my Letter, so you can understand, I pray that Mr. Obama Wins, and stops the Raping Of Children...this is Mormon Mecca, Its Like the Fox watching the Hen House..... This would of Brought The Shame to the State, and Mormons...I had the Asst Attorney General at the my Hearings...I always wondered Why? That's how Deep this Runs..
Hey McCracken888, it's the ACLU, Obama, and the like that fight tooth and nail against a DNA database, get it right, DB. Also, these "witnesses" lied then and are probably lying now.